By Gonzalo Duque

 

I am surprised by the unusual delay in the passage by the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of the proposed 2022 budget of Dagupan’s  which the administration of outgoing Mayor Brian Lim wanted to fast track before the elections.

Our earlier suspicion that the urgency to approve the budget before the campaign period was really meant for Brian’s political gamesmanship was correct.  Now that the table has been turned, he and his department heads would rather not see the budget passed and approved. See!

After being rejected overwhelmingly by the people in the last election, (the.  first sitting mayor to have lost by a monumental and historical margin of more than14,000), Brian’s efforts lost steam and no longer wants the budget passed.

Because he didn’t get what he wanted, he’s now doing every trick in the book to delay the passage of the budget this time. In fact, his mother, Councilor Celia Lim filed a motion that the incoming councilors be allowed to participate in the deliberation of the budget. But to her dismay, no one seconded her motion.

The continued absence of the different department heads in the SP sessions is obviously from Lim’s instruction – to delay the passage of the Frankenstein budget.

The present majority in the Sanggunian should now move to pass the budget notwithstanding the department heads absence and refusal to participate. To the present members of the SP, particularly the nine-man majority, the ball is now in your hands!

It is clear as the blue sky that the outgoing mayor is using all kinds of tricks so that the burden of passing or thumbing it down will go to the next sanggunian, where Brian forces think they have the majority.

Well, tricks are tricks no matter how one describes it.

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In the national scene, I wish Bongbong, Sara and the rest who won in the last elections good luck and I hope they will continue the legacy of the Duterte administration.

Let’s just hope for the best for our new leadership and also  throw our all-out support to them so that they provide us a better government and nation.   And  maybe, we should also pray for our new leaders to succeed. It’s God’s will that we deserve the government we had elected. 

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I believe that the demolition of different structures at the city hall of Dagupan to give way to a new one, was not well-thought out. The Lim administration obviously did not exercise due diligence in demolishing the right and left wings of city hall for the construction of a “new” city hall.

Incoming Mayor Belen Fernandez will have to closely review the plan of the project knowing that the area gets flooded each time heavy rains and high tide occur.

How are they going to abate the flood in that flood-prone section of the downtown area?  It can only be done by raising the  area beyond the usual flood level and that will make the three-storey Sangguniang  Panlungsod building a two-storey and the two-storey old city hall into a bungalow, since it cannot be touched and will have to be preserved.

The situation at the city hall has become so bad that when floods occur, the old city hall is isolated. Consequently, only a few dare to wade in murky waters to reach their offices in the city  hall’s second floor.

Meanwhile, there are talks that Mayor Belen won’t hold her office in the old city hall for fear that the structure might collapse as she is usually crowded with visitors daily seeking help from her.

Sana ipakita ni Brian ang plano.  I can’t recall any plan made public by him or his PIO in newspapers or social media.

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