A monthly payola for the Onor-onors

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

The stoppage of jueteng in Pangasinan is obviously hurting a lot of the local government officials here.

There have been attempts to railroad the revival of the Small Town Lottery in many parts of the province but there is this “never-say-die” Archbishop Oscar Cruz who’s standing in the way. This frustrating situation has left many hungering for other creative means to keep a cash cow in any form going.

In Dagupan City, the city officials must already be scraping the bottom of the barrel when it decided to go-for-broke in reviving the controversial pay-parking ordinance in the city.

With the planned onerous 20-80% sharing in favor of an accomplice-contractor, it’s meant to be double-header win for them.

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As far as I’m concerned, the city government can do its worst imposing all types of fees and taxes on its constituents for they will be confronted sooner or later by a dying local economy. 

What the citizens cannot and should not countenance is to see these hard-earned monies of the citizenry paid to this government ending up in pockets of so-called “honorable” men and women in public service for their personal disposition.

Take the proposed 20-80% sharing for the pay-parking ordinance. It is obviously an attempt at institutionalizing shameless monthly payola for our city officials. What is ominous about it is that not a single soul in this council is even decent enough to object in the name of good governance.  

I pray that Councilor Chito Samson and his ilk in the city council will finally consider leaving a legacy for others to emulate by abandoning their 20-80% sharing proposal and push for a patriotic 80-20% sharing in favor of the city government, meaning the people. 

 
Para Dagupan met la!

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Jueteng and Parliament-shift

Don’t look now but expect jueteng to resurrect in Pangasinan. And, there’s one indicator to know if and when it’s coming – the administration’s moves on the charter change. 

If the push for the shift to parliament will succeed, then it’s likely that jueteng will not make that comeback any time soon. The prayer of the incumbent officials today is that once a “consensus” for a parliament shift is achieved, the call for a No-election will follow.

No-El means, no need to campaign for reelection. No campaign means no expenses, and therefore, no need for jueteng.

If, however, the emerging consensus will be for retention of the presidential system, then expect all hell to break lose. There would be panic among the incumbents particularly those who lent their resources for the parliament-shift campaign. Not only will they need to recover their expenses but need a lot more to fund their reelection bids!

What a price to pay either way for this cha-cha affair.

Go for the Constituent Assembly and we will see jueteng being placed in the backburner. Stop the Constituent Assembly and jueteng will be back with a vengeance!

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A confused Mayor Benjie?

If there’s one politician in the province who has confused all and sundry about his political leanings, that’s City Mayor Benjie Lim.

He is a Lakas original but became one of the first city mayors in the country to demand Mrs. Gloria Arroyo’s resignation last year. This after he silently supported FPJ in the 2004 elections.

For a moment, he thought his next viable political venture would be the governorship. That’s because he realized Speaker JDV would not likely yield his seat expecially that the latter is gunning for the prime minister’s post under a parliament system. 

But when he decided to break ranks from Mrs. Arroyo ostensibly for her failure to make good her pledge to provide the millions to support his pet project – the Bangus Processing Plant- he found out that Speaker JDV was partly to blame for it.

So, he has declared he will give JDV a run for his money in the next congressional election.  No more “Mr. Nice Guy” for him, or so he says.

Then surprise of all surprises, Mayor Benjie was recently heard supporting the parliament-shift. Of course, he was doing it for his patron, former President Ramos, another advocate for the parliament-shift.

But in doing so, he has again confused his believers. Is mayor Benjie going back to square one as a mayor since going with the cha-cha will be helping JDV’s and GMA’s cause?

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The mysterious Ameneng campaign

When someone commits a crime using a weapon, the police would be expected to collar the perpetrator and search for the weapon as evidence.

But in the case of the campaign against illegal gambling, particularly the machine called “hataw” or “ameneng”, we have a police that’s searching for the machines (kuno) but does not bother to arrest any of the operators.  

Is it possible that a crime can be committed in this country with no perpetrator?

If this is the way our police enforce the law, then this country will be in big trouble sooner than we think.

Again curiously, both Chief PNP Arturo Lomibao and Regional Director Freddie de Vera don’t seem a bit concerned that no arrests have been made. Even Gov. Victor Agbayani who started the whole affair has not said a pipsqueak why, in heavens name, hasn’t a single soul been collared and charged in court in spite of the confiscation of 247 machines.  

Is there anything they know that we are not supposed to know? To put it mildly, who are they protecting?

Just asking, trabaho lang po.

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This brings us to the recent sacking of Pangasinan director Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima.

He was unceremoniously relieved ostensibly because of the “strike-three-policy” meaning, three successful operations of a task force in anyone’s backyard will lead to one’s immediate relief. In Purisima’s case, he was knocked off in three raids by the task force.  But still no arrests were made!

This “special arrangement” makes one suspect that the police are actually not out to stamp out the illegal video gambling machines in the province but to provide protection for one “special” gambling operator. The fact is, there are machines still being operated with impunity around the province, yes, particularly in the cities.

Was Purisima relieved because he never found a single operator of any of the confiscated machines?” If so, I say Hooray!  Or, was Purisima sacked because he mistakenly confiscated the machines of the “friend” of the bosses?     

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