By Gonzalo Duque

 

THE circus or spectacle thrown into the PBBM administration is now becoming an irritation.

It is very clear that the organization of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) was meant to render the investigation by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee useless.

As of press time, ICI has not made its proceedings open to the public and even to the media to ferret out the truth.

Ex-Congressman Zaldy Co, the fall guy, is now enjoying himself in Paris, France, with the cash he has stolen from the Filipino taxpayers.

However, the other lawmakers, who are equally involved in the flood control scam, are still scot-free.

The appointment of Mr. Erwin Tulfo as acting chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee is making that committee useless.

The moment he got his appointment, he declared that he would close the investigation of the flood control issue for the committee to instead focus its attention on the farm-to-market road issue.

There seems to be a possible cover-up, because his own nephew, Ralph Tulfo, and ACT-CIS Pary-list Congressman Eric Yap, are allegedly involved in the flood control scam.

Of course, we are interested in finding out how the farm-to-market road funds were spent. It is big, if not bigger than the current flood control scam.

Every day that we witness this kind of circus, the administration of PBBM has been completely eroded and might even result in its demise, even before any election is called.

*          *         *          *

The First 100 Days Address of Mayor Belen Fernandez set to be delivered by her last Thursday (October 16) at CSI Stadia has just been postponed for another week because of her commitments in Metro Manila,  where she was invited by the Department of the Interior and Local Government to give a lecture to newly elected officials of the government from various parts of the country.

 In this lecture, Fernandez will share her experience in running the city of Dagupan. She was mayor of Dagupan from 2013 to 2019, and came back strong in a return bout with her former conqueror in 2022 with a 14,000-votes margin. She won her reelection in 2025, posting a bigger margin of some 40,000 – in fact, the biggest margin ever scored by a reelectionist against a challenger. 

 It was truly a great opportunity for her to tell her audience that disunity brings about the failure of leadership.

 With all the brickbats she had received during her tenure as mayor of the city, she was still able to make Dagupan into the first Bilyonaryo City in Ilocos Region. She was also instrumental in making the Dagupan City Police  Station a Type C City Police Office with the possible complement of 700 personnel, as against the 153 it has today.

 A snappy salute to Mayor Belen

*          *          *          *

On a personal note, I want to commend the Rotary Club of Uptown Dagupan for the service it has consistently extended to our city through its numerous programs and projects.

Rotarian M. Tanedo will be leading the officers of the club for the year 2025-2026.

Among the charter members we have today, my favorite, Rotarian Rhazzle Coquia, stands out as the greatest among us.

She has been our president and our treasurer for many, many years.

Our club has undergone a series of ups and downs during its existence, but it will always be the Rotary Club of “Uptown” Dagupan! Congratulations folks.