By Gonzalo Duque

 

THE Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan approved all the items in Supplemental Budget No. 3-2024 covering the incremental increase of salaries of regular employees, their Representation and Travel Allowance (RATA), and other costs with a total amount of P38.1 million.

As usual, the majority bloc owned and attributed the passage of the ordinance to their group.

No problem with that. They can get all the credits for it.

The problem lies in the non-passage of Supplemental Budget No. 2-2024, where a lot of the projects of Mayor Belen Fernandez are contained, such as the proposal to buy equipment to haul the garbage of the city to the Metro Clark Sanitary Landfill in Capas, Tarlac, and Holcim plant in Norzagaray, Bulacan to be converted into cement.

The other items like the construction of school buildings, purchase of furniture and air-conditioning units, construction of a fence for the newly-built Super Family Health Clinic in Bolosan, purchase of ambulance and fire truck for emergency use, purchase of a lot for the city’s second Super Family Health Center in Malued and some other equally important projects have not yet been approved — nor has even seen the light of day in the council.

As I’ve pointed out in my previous columns, the approval of all these other projects will just have to wait until after the next election.

Unless, Mayor Belen finally decides to kowtow to the wishes of the majority.

This, my friends, is a 25-million peso question!

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The escape of dismissed Bamban Mayor Alice Guo has humiliated the government no end. 

No less than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed his frustration when he issued an order to make sure those accountable are kicked out of office. His words: “Heads will roll.”

The connections of the group of Alice Guo are far and wide.

I will not be surprised if the Chinese government had a hand in her escape.

But mine is just an opinion or what you can call a “guestimate”.

I am afraid Atty. Elmer Galicia of San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, the lawyer who notarized Guo’s counter-affidavits on the cases against her, will have to answer because he publicly claimed that Guo personally appeared before him last August 14 — weeks after Guo left the country on July 18 as Malaysian immigration records show.

This is a high-profile case with multi-faceted implications, and it has reached international interest.

Lawyers must know the consequences of handling such big-time clients.

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I was told by a very reliable source that Raul Lambino is hell-bent on running because Gina de Venecia promised him that after her son Toff finishes his term, she will no longer be running in the fourth district of Pangasinan.

There are even loose talks that my brother Pingcoy is going to run in the fourth district. But this is beside the point. As far as I know, my brother is not going to run.

That leaves Raul and Gina to settle the score among themselves.

Raul, Raul, Raul. Hindi ka pa ba natuto?

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