Punchline
Beware of the CCTV cameras
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE news about the installation of 15 CCTV Cameras in strategic places in Dagupan City is a step in the right direction. It will help keep city safe and away from the clutches of criminal syndicates specializing in murder, robbery and illegal drugs.
That is definitely the upside for Dagupan but it unfortunately results in shifting the burden to other towns and cities. The downside for the others is, with CCTVs everywhere in Dagupan’s business district, crime operators would now rather turn to more vulnerable targets in other towns and cities that refuse to invest in a CCTV system, than risk it in Dagupan.
If the cities of San Carlos, Urdaneta and Alaminos don’t follow suit soon, their communities will soon feel the brunt of the presence of more syndicates targeting the business establishments in their localities.
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TAG IT! The news about the tagging of Dagupan bangus certainly augurs well not only for the city’s reputation as the producer of quality milkfish in the world but in the effort to help regulate illegal practices in our markets.
Suddenly, our market vendors are faced with a professional approach to marketing that they thought was only applicable to businessmen, bankers, teachers, etc. If they see the positive impact of the tagging on their customers, expect them to follow suit and do their own tagging.
Wouldn’t it be nice to see your favorite vendor selling you Villasis eggplants, Urdaneta slaughtered meat, Binmaley Malaga, Bayambang onions, etc.? Just you wait and see!
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CHECK THE ABUSES. I have not read the draft ordinance banning fish pens and further amending the Dagupan City Coastal Fisheries code of 2003 and I hope the good councilors will see it timely to introduce the rule that all pens, cages and fish traps in the city’s rivers and tributaries be required to identify their owners and numbers of official receipts that indicate that owner has paid the prescribed fee to the city.
This way, there is more transparency and the public can be enjoined to police the city’s waters and the activities of the office of the city agriculture.
Let us learn from the series of abuses committed by the city hall that started with the Lim administration. Without this rule, we might as well do away with other measures intended to regulate the use of the use of the city’s rivers.
Remember that old local adage – Ilista mo sa tubig? That’s exactly how the unscrupulous businessmen aided by corrupt city hall officials managed to laugh all the way to the bank at the city’s expense.
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SWALLOWING SHABU. The campaign against illegal drugs would appear to be gaining grounds, with more suspected drug pushers arrested in buy-bust operations.
But that’s only the visible part. What would be interesting to know is how the provincial and city prosecutors have handled the cases filed, and ultimately how the judges tried the cases.
I recall Guv Spines lament about the campaign vs illegal drugs. At one point, he expressed deep frustration over the way cases and complaints were being dropped like “nobody’s business” by the prosecutors and the judges.
Surely PDEA maintains a scorecard on how these cases that end up with prosecutors and judges fared in the end. The scalawags that hide in the company of our honorable prosecutors and judges should be exposed at will.
Here’s a fair warning to the hoodlums – reform now or suffer the worst fate you can imagine if and when Mr. Rody Duterte becomes president, vice president, DILG or DOJ secretary. I imagine he would consider making them swallow two spoonful of shabu without any water to help it flush down their bellies. (Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of Gonz Duque’s preferred candidate but I certainly won’t mind seeing Gonz dishing it out as Duterte’s DOJ or DILD Secretary…. Ok ba Gonz?).
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PTK, MAKING THE DIFFERENCE. If you had the chance to watch that TV commercial of Aling Carmelita Razo, a vendor in Dagupan City, who benefitted from Senator Alan Peter Cayetano’s PTK (Pera-Trabaho-Kita/Kaayusan) program, it is not true that it was a contrived production. It was for real.
Mr. Cayetano’s successful program with the market vendors is already replicated in partnership with other groups in Pangasinan, i.e., transport, fishermen, farmers, etc.
What is also true about it is that the PTK programs he launched all over the country are in fact merely the delivery of his campaign promise in 2013!
When he engaged the groups in his listening tour during the campaign period, he was told of their problems accessing credit, that they had no choice but to deal with 5/6 loan sharks. It was the same wherever he went, whether in Pangasinan, Iloilo or General Santos or anywhere.
It was then that he knew that there is a better way to lick poverty, better than the present government’s 4Ps or cash transfer program, literally a dole-out policy. It is to provide hardworking but marginalized sectors easy access to credit.
So with his remaining campaign funds after he landed 3rd spot in 2013, he launched his first PTK activity that same year – lending program in partnership with associations and cooperatives of tricycle drivers, market vendors, jeepney drivers, farmers and fishermen. He traced back his steps during the campaign and explained his project. The result was the story of Carmelita Razo, replicated in other provinces.
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PTK IN 2016. Most everyone thought that his PTK program would end after the PDAF funds of the senators and congressmen were stopped, it didn’t. Why? He didn’t rely on PDAF to make the project work.
He approached business groups and told them about the problems in the countryside and the lack of access to credit. He told them about how it helped imbibe responsibility among marginalized sectors, paying back what they borrowed after benefitting from loans extended to them at very low interest rates. The businessmen were impressed, and it didn’t take long for the senator to build on a fund for his PTK program.
Without a doubt, PTK throughout the country will make a lot of difference for our marginalized sectors. Mr. Cayetano believes a P50 million allocation per region in 2016 will go a long way!
Let’s pray he can swing that in 2016!
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