By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

PANGASINENSES can already look forward to the promised New Normal life – doing everything with everyone like they used to except for one thing – to keep observing health protocols!

Well, actually not everything.

While all provincial governments in the region are able to allow their residents to be conducted to-and-fro Pangasinan-Metro Manila on board commercial bus companies on a point-to-point basis, with authorization from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), ONLY PANGASINAN STILL CANNOT!

The fact is, there are still NO Five Star, Victory Liner, Solid North, Dagupan Bus, etc. that have regular trips from their Pangasinan terminals to their Metro Manila terminals. But why?? Read on.

The buses cannot comply with LTFRB’s directive requiring the buses to unload passengers headed to Metro Manila at the North Luzon Express Terminal in Bocaue town, not at the buses’ terminals in Metro Manila. The policy will inconvenience their passengers because they are being asked to transfer their passengers to other buses in Bocaue that will bring them to Metro Manila!

The Bocaue terminal is requiring bus companies to pay parking fees for every bus that loads and unloads in the terminal every hour!

Here’s the rub. The DOTr/LTFRB is washing its hands off the discriminatory policy against Pangasinan and instead continues to invoke the already outdated IATF Resolution 101 that was adopted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the resolution that prevents commercial bus companies to make trips to other regions to help control the contagion.

Effectively, DOTr/LTFRB is making Health Sec. Francisco Duque III, a Pangasinense, the scapegoat because he chairs the IATF whose outdated resolution has not been withdrawn, and Gov. Amado Espino III, who’s not keen on fighting for it for reasons only known to him.

The fact is, some bus companies operating out of terminals in the region (and Baguio City) today are able to conduct passengers directly to-and-fro Metro Manila.

At this point in time, a hesitant Guv Pogi is being called upon to reiterate the provincial government’s request to DOTr/LTFRB to lift the restrictive requirement and restore to all Pangasinenses the convenience to travel to-and-fro Metro Manila like they all used to.

It’s the least Guv Espino can do to make Pangasinan’s shift to the New Normal complete. But will he do it? More on this next week.

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OPTION: SUE MARKET SUPERVISOR. The clarification and options available to the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod to compel Market Supervisor Aguedo Sta. Maria (to appear before it after snubbing the 10 invitations extended to him) were made clear by Councilor Joey Tamayo. 

Mr. Sta. Maria’s continued refusal to appear and to explain his involvement in the illegal activities exposed by the fish vendors are tacit admission of his guilt. 

While the city council has no subpoena powers like the Senate and Congress and neither the power to cite Mr. Sta. Maria for contempt, Mr. Tamayo said the city council can file a criminal case vs. him before a regional trial court and the city police can implement the warrant of arrest. After all, the illegal activities of his office are criminal in nature.  

Once arrested, the city council should be able to request the police to bring him before it to respond to the charges levied against him and his staff. City Mayor Brian Lim should be welcome to defend him. 

Let his explanation be submitted for the court’s preliminary hearing.  

But when the city council didn’t even think of taking that option makes people wonder whether they have the welfare of their constituents or not.  

The city councilors must be aware that failing to bring an erring city official or personnel before it today will be a serious precedent in its ability and power to make the executive branch accountable for illegal activities reported by the people. They can no longer be depended upon to act for the city’s populace’s concerns.  

City Councilor Teresa Coquia is right not to let Mr. Sta. Maria get away with insulting the city council’s authority with arrogance. The city residents commiserate with the fish vendors who are being fully exploited and the city councilors must know that if they can’t or won’t even lift a finger to put Mr. Sta. Maria in his proper place, the people’s trust in them will be eroded in no time, whether they are in the majority or minority.  

Who among the councilors besides Councilor Coquia who really can and will stand up and tell their constituents that he or she stood up to fight corruption in the city hall? 

In fact, each reelectionist councilor should be asked: “What did you do to protect the vendors from the exploitation of corrupt city officials?”

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MESSENGERS OF POLITICIANS. In this issue, we reported Archbishop Socrates Villegas’s pastoral letter about the relevance of Christianity to politics.

With all due respect to his thoughts, while there is no doubt that Christian values are lost in the minds of corrupt politicians, but merely calling out the politicians in media like politicians only causes Christians to wonder – where did the clergy go wrong?

Bishops are rarely heard to decry the blatant illegal activities of politicians that make them corrupt. There was only one bishop who dared to call out President Erap, mayors, congressmen and the police for not doing enough to stop illegal gambling that impacts on the Christian values of communities. That was the late Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz who rallied Catholics and Christian sects to the cause of fighting illegal gambling, the root of corruption and break up of poor families whom Christ had endorsed to the clergy.

Today, more poor Christian families are being drawn to the daily e-sabong that our congressmen passed like they were reaming a street. But no bishop in Pangasinan to date has called out the passage of the addictive and easily accessible gambling.  No bishop has even called for the repeal of the law to protect millions of Christian families.

To justify political partisanship of some members of the clergy, Archbishop Villegas was less than truthful when he lamented that they, as messengers, who call out corrupt politicians are being shot down instead.  Truth is, it is when bishops choose to be partisan in their political views, their communities shoot them for being messengers of the politicians.

Nobody shot down Archbishop Cruz’s rallying call for his advocacy against illegal gambling in Christ’s name. He was a messenger for Christ, and for the cause of Christian families’ preservation of Christ’s teachings.

I pray Archbishop Villegas will have Christ’s mission at heart to condemn the e-sabong tomorrow.  He can be sure he will be hailed as the Christian families ‘champion for rallying to the cause of Christ’s teachings. But if he chooses only to promote his favorite presidential candidate’s interests, then he can be sure his integrity and honor as Christ’s shepherd will be shot down for being the politician’s messenger, not as Christ’s messenger.

As addicts of e-sabong in Pangasinan will tell our clergy, there are a million bettors betting their hard-earned money on one featured cockfight alone.

Consider the number of cockfights featured daily not only by one franchise holder but three franchise holders accessible to addicted bettors through their smart phones or venues where e-sabong cash bets can be accepted without need for credit cards or G-Cash.

Will our Christian communities ever hear a pastoral letter read during Mass condemning not only the sinful governance of corrupt politicians but their protection of jueteng and other illegal gambling?  I pray we will, we should.

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