Belen’s performance vs. Brian’s

By Gonzalo Duque

WE heard that Vice Mayor Brian Lim has challenged Mayor Belen Fernandez to a one-on-one debate over a local radio station. Me, says a debate sponsored by a radio station will not bring out the real issues that the people need to know.

If there should be one, we suggest it should be a debate that is well planned with specific rules to follow and sanctioned by the Comelec, and (2) it should be issue-oriented and sponsored by the civic organizations to ensure utmost neutrality.

Since it is barely two weeks before the election, the debate that we would like to see may not be happening anymore.    

Debates would never happen if any one of the protagonists only wanted to boost his or her stock if not his or her speaking bravado over the other, unmindful of the real issues on hand. 

Mind you, some debates turned out to be disgusting. It is here where candidates wanted to always outsmart each other by packing the venue with their own rooters or supporters. Sometimes that kind of debate is more often stage-managed and should not be tolerated at any time in our back yard.

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Let me remind you that ang mga isyu ni Brian ay dalawa. Yong baha at ang transfer of the city hall. Yon ay mga critical issues.

Hindi ba si Brian is the vice mayor? It was a public knowledge that karamihan ng tiyempo niya, were focused on his international organization that often brought him overseas. 

Were these efforts meant to improve the life of his constituents in Dagupan who pay his salary as a public official? You be the judge!

Let us now discuss the city hall issue. Ano ba ang nangyari sa istorya ng city hall? Hindi ba, noong panahon ng tatay niya na si Benjamin Lim (May God bless his soul), he bought MC Adore Hotel from the Assets Privatization Corporation for a cheap P50 million and amortized it at P10 million per year. His purpose in buying the property is to convert this into a new Dagupan City Hall.

What happened? Brian was a councilor when MC Adore was sold by his father for P119 million. Why did he not oppose the sale of MC Adore? That controversial sale deprived Dagupan a chance to have a new city hall.

In the case of Belen, who was the vice mayor then, she opposed it. But nasunod pa rin ang tatay ni Brian na ipagbili ang MC Adore sa ibang tao.

I think up to this time, that matter is still being questioned.  

Noting that the present city hall is now too old and already creaking every time people are stepping in the second floor of the edifice, Belen planned to give Dagupan its new city hall. What’s wrong with that?

Let’s face it, almost all towns and cities near us have their new town halls and city halls. Dagupan is still using a city hall that was built before the war.  It is about time it must have a city hall that reflects the soul of the whole city. 

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On the issue of flood, didn’t we already discussed this in our previous column, that the Dagupan flood last year was not an isolated case.  It also happened simultaneously in other places in the Philippines, like Marikina, Quezon City, Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga and even in the mountain resort city of Baguio.

Look, eastern Canada was also flooded lately for the first time in history due to unprecedented downpour and partly due to the fast melting ice glaciers caused by global warming that spawned the rise of sea level not only in Canada but all over the world.

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On the issue of performance, we will no longer want to discuss this because Belen was able to passionately explain her performance during her State of the City Address. 

I am already 67 years old. I am old enough to measure the different performances of our former mayors ranged against the performance of the present occupant of the city hall–Belen Fernandez I say, Belen beats them all!

What about Brian’s performance as vice mayor? Ang sinasabi niya ay ipinapaubaya  daw niya  sa mayor ang pagpapagawa ng mga infrastructura. Subalit, ang sabi naman ni mayor, wala naman siyang sinabing ganyan sa akin.

Ha. ha, ha! Can a public official surrender his duty to another public official? 

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