By Gonzalo Duque

 

THE Supreme Court is proving to be the last bulwark of our democracy as it continues to probe into the legalities of the transfer of billions of pesos of PhilHealth funds to the national treasury to support the unprogrammed appropriations of Congress, particularly, its public works projects.

With the way the issues are being deliberated there, we can say that the present administration committed a mistake in transferring over P89 billion of funds from PhilHealth to the national coffers.

There are other cases to be discussed in the Supreme Court, among these is the General Appropriations Act of 2025, the zero budget given to PhilHealth, and others.

If you ask the people in the streets now, they would readily say that they felt betrayed with what Congress has done to the national budget.

Keep updated on the developments in the Supreme Court. We all have a stake on all the issues that the country’s highest court is going to resolve.

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The garbage problem as far as the Bonuan dumpsite is concerned is about to be resolved.

Thanks to the political will of the present city administration led by Mayor Belen Fernandez and Vice Mayor Bryan Kua.

It will be nice if the next city council will be composed of members of the ticket of Mayor Belen and Vice Mayor BK so that together, they would be able to complete the closure of the dumpsite and facilitate its immediate conversion into a tree park.

In the meantime, Mayor Belen should mobilize her Task Force Disiplina to address the perennial problem of our people not segregating their waste materials between biodegradable and non-biodegradable.

She will have to use the media and our barangay officials to educate the public about their obligations in segregating wastes.

She can mobilize her City Information Office too to prepare a holistic communications plan to educate our people to be more responsible in managing their garbage.

I am stating this in general terms, but the particulars can be undertaken after the elections when she wins.

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The Region 1 Athletic Association (R1AA) Meet will be held on March 10 to 15 with Bacnotan, La Union as host.

However, Dagupan has been designated to accommodate the swimming competition because it has a functional Olympic-size swimming pool, which the host province La Union does not have.

Lyceum Northwestern University will do the honor in hosting the gymnastics competition at the LNU gym.

It will be a great honor for Dagupan City to host these two events as it has proven to be very excellent in the swimming and gymnastics events in the past R1AA meets.

I understand that more than 1,000 athletes and their coaches coming from 13 school divisions throughout Region 1 will compete in these two events.

Let’s give these athletes and coaches our genuine hospitality. And let’s make Dagupan a little bit cleaner.

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