DISCIPLINING FOUNTAIN-MAKERS –Sometimes you have to do the extreme to show you’re determined to make change.

That’s exactly what this elected official in western part of Pangasinan did to end the era of “siga” and “balasubas” in a town where he once ruled as mayor.

A little blast from the past, this official did what president-elect Davao City Mayor Digong Duterte did and never regretted doing it for the sake of instilling discipline among his citymates.

He was called Mayor Bulalo when he took over the town administration from a chaotic era that marked their place as wild, wild, west.

Why bulalo?, I asked.

He said, in front of two other mayors during our conversation after the May 9 polls, that he would hit either the knee or arm bones of “pasaway” in his town.

If Mayor Digong would drive around Davao using a taxi at night, this once-upon-a-time mayor drove around at night on a tricycle to see who are unruly or urinate in public with their penises raised at 2 o’clock to be able to release and spurt like a fountain.

“I would bring them to the police station and stretch and hit hard their organs with rubber band,” he said laughing.

“Did I enjoy doing it? No, of course but I did just the same to show to all I want discipline in my town,” the official said.

But why were these not heard of among local newsmen? I wondered.

No need to announce these to the public and because there is the Commission on Human Rights, we were told.

But the top leader said it was a choice between respecting the rights of the offenders and the rights of thousands of people who they offend. – Tita Roces

 

BLOCKING DAGUPAN’S PROGRESS — Unless a miracle happens, I sense that the proposed Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) for Dagupan City will still not pass before the end of June, the end of the first term of Mayor Belen Fernandez.

Nor does it have a chance to pass before Belen’s second term of office.

I say this because there are known legislators who continue to think only of themselves and their interests, not the interests of the people of Dagupan who stand to reap the benefits in the expanded commercial districts as proposed in the new CLUP.

The city’s existing CLUP was promulgated sometime in 1978 during the term of the late Mayor Cipriano Manaois, when Dagupan was not as densely populated as we have it today.

Based on the report of ABS-CBN North-Central Luzon, these legislators still refuse to submit a committee report despite four public hearings last year –the latest of which was November–which would have been enough to put the CLUP in the agenda of the city council before some councilors end their term.

Note that proposed CLUP has a time frame of 2015 to 2025, so effectively the city is already one year behind schedule. And yet the opposing legislators seem not to care if Dagupan will lose economic opportunities for another 10 years.

In her latest post on her Facebook account, Mayor Belen lamented as she noted that proposed CLUP continues to be rabidly opposed by only one councilor whom she did not name, despite the fact that the measure has been presented to the SP since 2014.

The mayor continues to pray that the opposing councilor will be enlightened and help the city catch-up with other cities in the Philippines. (The Regional Housing Land Use Committee headed by the National Economic and Development Authority and the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board already approved Dagupan’s CLUP. The submission by the SP is all it takes to be forwarded to the National Housing and Land Use Council).

What I find curious is the talk that a sector is blaming the Fernandez administration for allegedly not allowing SM to come to Dagupan but on the contrary, the new CLUP will open the door to investors like SM, and create additional jobs – Leonardo Micua

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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