By Gonzalo Duque

 

AS the mid-term election draws nearer, the COMELEC is again placed in a hot spot because of its inability to remove all illegally-placed and oversized campaign paraphernalia of the senatorial and local candidates, among other issues.

Its failure to monitor the expenses of the national and local candidates is also making our election a mockery.

Vote-buying is again so prevalent that the rules established by the poll body are just broken with impunity.

It seems the COMELEC is not serious in implementing its own rules and regulations relative to our elections,  but such violations, to my mind, are just the tip of the iceberg.

What the poll body should watch out for is when our people question the results of the senatorial election due to ‘machine cheating’. If that happens, the people might resort to other means to protest the outcome of the election.

I recall the time during the 1986 snap presidential election between then President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.

Although Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was proclaimed by the Congress of the Philippines, our people did not accept the result, thus paving the way for People Power Revolution.

If this administration will not be forward-looking, it may suffer the same fate suffered by the Marcos Sr. administration in 1986.

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We salute the Fourth District of Pangasinan under the leadership of Rep. Toff de Venecia and all its mayors for achieving first class status as municipalities, the latest being San Jacinto.

San Jacinto got its first class status because of its impressive agricultural development, producing an average P200 million income for the last three years.

All the other towns – Mangaldan, San Fabian and Manaoag – earlier attained their first class status because of their respective pursuits in commercial, agricultural and tourist developments.

Mayors Jeremy Agerico Rosario of Manaoag, Leo de Vera of San Jacinto, Bonafe Parayno of Mangaldan, and Marilyn Agbayani of San Fabian, kudos to you! 

Of course, Dagupan City under Mayor Belen Fernandez is also doing well as one of the fastest growing cities in Region 1, if not in the entire country. Kudos to  Mayor Belen too. 

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The plan of Mayor Belen Fernandez to construct and improve existing school buildings in Dagupan is a novel project.

She is planning to install air-conditioning units in 22 weather-resilient school buildings  that she intends to  build after the election. That is if she, her running mate Vice Mayor Bryan Kua and her entire council bets under Team UnliSerbisyo will get elected on May 12.

Mayor Belen’s plan is in response to the impact of climate change, with Dagupan becoming the hottest place in the Philippines, registering temperatures of 43 to 52 degrees Celsius every summer, severely affecting the health of students and teachers in public schools.

She is also planning to replace all old school buildings with new ones that will be resilient against any kind of weather.

Added to this novel undertaking is her vision to increase the number of city scholars from 5,000 to 6,000.

By the way, Mayor Belen spelled out all these when she  again graced our podcast, The Punching Duo, hosted by me and our editor, Ermin Garcia Jr. last April 5.

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