By Gonzalo Duque

 

IN my enthusiasm to bring a civil case against the majority councilors in our city, I started getting in touch with our friends at the Dagupan City Hall. But I suffered an initial snag because Mayor Belen Fernandez has not been taking my calls. Ditto with Vice Mayor Bryan Kua who has yet to also return my call.

So, I asked my friend Ding Micua to tell her if and when he sees the Mayor that I had been wanting to speak to her about the P150-million Mother and Child Hospital, whose construction has become doubtful because of the monkey wrench thrown its path by the seven majority bloc.

Ano ba yan? A simple resolution authorizing the mayor to sign a MOA with the DOH for the construction of the project ay hindi pa ninyo maibigay?d  nmvhjnk,;/ Kakailanganin pa bang papupuntahin ninyo si DOH Secretary Ted Herboza to attend your committee hearings before you give your imprimatur to the project?

Gasgas na yan. Tinatawanan na nga kayo sa labas dahil sa ganyang arte ninyo!

Probably, Mayor Belen is pre-occupied with her UnliSerbisyo, that’s why she got no time to return my call. In the case of Vice Mayor Kua, I saw in his numerous posts on Facebook that he’s been doing a lot of barangay visitations, trying to be very visible in Dagupan, to the extent of becoming invisible to me.

Nakakahiya ang Dagupan if we fail to use the P150 million set aside by the national government for the Mother and Child Hospital. If that happens, Dagupan would be the first LGU in the Philippines to return P150 million to the national treasury.

Naloko na! Dahil sa matinding pulitika na pinaiiral ng majority seven sa SP, our Mother and Child Hospital will not materialize.

Malapit na naman ang election. In fact, those who will seek for public office must file their certificates of candidacy in October. Alam ng pitong konsehal ng majority the sentiment of the people against them. It will be difficult for them to come out among the winners again because they hurt the people. Not even vote-buying will help them this time.

It seems that the majority councilors have wrong notions about public service..  They have sorely mistaken obstructionism as fiscalization.

Their fat monthly salary is about P100,000 a month, that’s excluding their allowances and bonuses. In the first  three months of 2024, all they did was holding public hearings on weekly basis.  Is this worth their pay as public servants.  MALAKING HINDI!

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I’m glad that the recent brouhaha about Councilors Celia Lim and her daughter Irene Lim-Acosta walking out on Mayor Belen when she was about to make a defense on the annual budget, was cleared with the help of their most ardent ally, Councilor Red Erfe-Mejia.

Well, if Mayor Belen Fernandez felt that the mother and daughter councilor snubbed her when they walked past her and her companion after making an exit at the conference room of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, it was because it’s normal for people to say hi or hello to any one, kahit plastikan man lang, Besides Belen is the mayor and the two are also public officials.

As Councilor Red took issue with Mayor Belen’s Facebook post that said the Lim mother and daughter (did somebody whisper child) snubbed her, could perhaps be easily translated as tantamount to walking out on her.

I cannot blame the Lims for still entertaining grudge on Belen. It was Belen who beat Celia’s niño bonito, Brian black and blue in the 2022 election by a difference of more than 14,000 votes in their return bout. 

Is Brian planning a second return bout with Belen? Or will it be Celia, in tandem with Irene, who will face Belen and VM Kua this time? 

Meanwhile, what’s this I heard that the majority councilors will again dip their fingers over the partnership of Dagupan City with Holcim Philippines, a cement manufacturer based in Bulacan?

From what I heard, the majority councilors want the partnership between Dagupan City and Holcim go through the scrutiny of the Sanggunian.  If this happens, expect endless weekly committee hearings again that will lead to nothing,  

Alam ninyo na ang gusto kong sabihin.

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