Pangasinan on a roll

By Leonardo Micua

 

CONGRATULATIONS to the province of Pangasinan for being one of the seven of the 81 provinces in the entire country to qualify for the 2019 Local Government Unit (LGU) Performance-Based Bonus.

Ditto to the other 17 LGUs also qualified for the 2019 PBB, namely San Carlos and Alaminos cities and the towns of Aguilar, Asingan, Balungao, Basista, Bugallon, Calasiao, Infanta, Malasiqui, Mangaldan, Mangatarem, Natividad, Rosales, San Manuel, San Quintin, Sta. Maria, Tayug and Urbiztondo.

Sadly, I didn’t see Dagupan City in the list.  Dagupan, you know is supposed to be the richest city in Region 1, an accolade it earned when Belen Fernandez was yet at the helm. We don’t know if it still retains its standing as the richest city in the region to date.

Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur are the only Region 1 provinces included in that exclusive list of 2019 PBB qualifiers. La Union, the regional capital of the Ilocos, as well as Ilocos Norte, did not make it.

Among the reasons why Pangasinan managed to make it in the “Magic Seven” circle was because it complied with the four mandatory eligibility requirements, like being a recipient of the Seal of Good Local Governance; and, it won a certificate of compliance for the Anti-Red Tape Act or Republic Act 11032.

Pangasinan also implemented a fully functional strategic management system as required by the Civil Service Commission and lastly, it also satisfied all the requirements of the Commission on Audit.

Now, you know why some LGUs, like Dagupan and Urdaneta, were not on that list of PBB qualifiers – both did not get SLGG last year, a basic requirement for eligibility, granting that they met all the other mandatory requirements.

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One more drug den in Dagupan was raided by some agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the police last June 9.

Located in Bonuan Boquig, it was the second drug den raided by lawmen in the city within two weeks.

First to be raided by PDEA and the police last May 26 was a drug den in Sitio Calamiong, Bonuan Gueset where the drug clients, including the maintainer and his assistant, were caught on the spot conducting pot session on a rooftop.

A photo shared with the media by PDEA when they raided the Bonuan Boquig drug den showed the drug clients doing the sniffing session around a table with illegal drugs strewn in front of them.

Because of the two successful anti-drug operations by lawmen, which both happened during the current general community quarantine, many are asking if there are some more drug dens in the city to be closed.

We were informed that these drug dens were placed under surveillance by lawmen for months. When they gathered enough evidence to pin down the suspects, test buys were conducted and viola, the bad guys fell into the trap.    

The question that must be answered: Where are these drug dens getting their supplies? Don’t tell me, the tentacles of big drug lords in Manila or their followers in Dagupan can still manage to slip past many road checkpoints to bring their stuffs here these days?

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As we were writing this piece, somebody sent me a PM through my messenger to convey his personal dismay on learning  that one of the 14 front liners at the City Health Office who tested positive for COVID-19 during a risk-based RT-PCR mass testing at City Astrodome is actually a former candidate in the last election who failed to land within the winning column.

We and many others have known that earlier and we wondered how the person accepted the appointment when there is a law banning the appointment to government positions of losing candidates one year after the election.

This issue, according to the PM sender, would not have surfaced at all had not the person became positive for COVID-19.  In other words, COVID-19 exposed the violation committed by the ex-candidate and the appointing authority.

Will someone be bold enough to file a case in court against the violators?

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