By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE rampant, unchecked and tolerated protection racket at the Magsaysay Market by personnel appointed by the city hall can no longer be covered up by the Lim administration.

In fact, the NBI and the Dagupan City Prosecutor’s Office will be shocked to discover that the corruption activity of the market personnel victimizing the lowly fish vendors is just the tip of the iceberg.

The prosecution of the bribery charge brought against Michael Hernando and his cohorts will inevitably lead to the office of the market supervisor, a post held by Aguedo Sta. Maria and the office of the city mayor.

Sta Maria’s unit has been collecting P100, or P80 more than the P20 official rate set by the city ordinance for the cash tickets to be collected from vendors to be able to sell inside the public markets.

Surely the Treasurer’s Office can account for the P20 daily collections but not for the P80.

So, who’s been pocketing the P80 paid by the hundreds of vendors daily, the city councilors asked?

Well, since it’s a question that will surely implicate some VIPs in the barkada at the city hall, Sta Maria has refused to answer the question, backed by Mayor Brian Lim ‘s order to him not to attend the Sanggunian probe on the issue.  That’s another protection racket right there, directly involving the city mayor.

To stop the wholesale corruption in the city’s markets, the vendors that filed the complaint vs. Hernando et al. should do their sector a big favor by filing a complaint vs. Sta Maria too! He should be charged not only for illegally collecting P80 more than the official rate for the cash tickets, but for not remitting the full amount to the city government.

*          *          *          *

TRACKING CORRUPTION IN THE CITY. I do hope there are still those in Dagupan who have direct knowledge about the many corruption activities in the city to come forward and file the corresponding cases to make city officials fully accountable.

Take the proliferation of illegal fish pens in all river tributaries in the city despite the city ordinance that criminalizes the installation and operation of fish pens and the city agriculturist is tasked to enforce it. Even the daily unloading of commercial fish feeds along the De Venecia Highway is left unchecked.  The city agriculturist surely has a lot of explaining to do. 

Then there is the daily wanton dumping of thousands of kilos of alien bangus from Bulacan and other sources in blatant violation of a city ordinance regulating the sale of bangus in the city’s public markets.  Again, the city agriculturist has completely turned a blind eye to these abuses.

The richest source of corruption is found in the contract for the collection of garbage and delivery to the dumpsite and to landfill sites in the province and in neighboring province.

Then there were the series of purchases as ayuda at the height of the pandemic, grocery items (and cash) distributed mostly to political allies.

It’d be interesting to read the city auditor’s reports about these illegal activities, and how much the city has earned from these. What will never be known is how much the barkada earned from all these since 2019 if no one will file cases before the Ombudsman or a criminal trial court!

*          *          *          *

MOCKING THE OMNIBUS ELECTION CODE. The Comelec office in Metro Manila, in collaboration with the MMDA, has started clearing operations of illegally posted campaign materials of candidates for national positions two days after the official period of campaign started on February 8.

But still for unknown reasons, the provincial election supervisor in Pangasinan remains mum about implementing Comelec’s national clearing operations campaign in the province. Thousands of tarpaulins with photoshopped candidates’ faces remain nailed to trees and hanging on electric posts in posted in public areas.

It is this continued failure of Comelec supervisors and local election officers to implement this that erodes the public’s trust and confidence in their ability to enforce its rules. In fact, the indifference of local Comelec officials to this rule is making a mockery of the Omnibus Election Code. They cannot hide their failure in this regard because the illegal posters are right outside their offices, or as soon as they step out of their residences.

A visible move to enforce the law on posters and billboards alone will restore the confidence of the public on the agency’s intent to go after vote-buyers.

*          *          *          *

CLARIFICATION ON VOTE-BUYING. One of the reasons why vote-buying appears to be supported by the public, or have no qualms about receiving “pakurong” from candidates is because of impression that recipients of cash from vote-buying candidates are not liable.  

They say vote-buying is not like bribery when both the briber and the bribed are equally accountable to the law. The impression that vote-buying is a public activity, recipients of cash from candidates, therefore, are not and cannot be made accountable.  It’d be useful for the Comelec to clarify the intent of the law under the Omnibus Election Cod 

It’s time for voters to be more cautious about receiving notices to collect their cash instead of expecting to be given cash as taught by pakurong tradition.

It’d help if the local media seeks local Comelec officials’ clarification about the law and how they intend to enforce it.  Otherwise, the Comelec officials should stop warning and scaring the voting public if they cannot enforce the law on vote-buying.

*          *          *          *

BLOGGERS ARE NOT JOURNALISTS. The Pangasinan Police Provincial Office is ill-advised to think that bloggers are on the same footing as the regular print-radio-TV media practitioners. They are not.

Bloggers are not part of the mainstream media establishment. They are on their own, completely unregulated and only accountable to the cyber-libel law. Unlike journalists who are fully identified as regulated practitioners accountable to their media establishments and journalism ethics, bloggers are not even required to fully identify themselves with no accountability to any group.

A regular media practitioner, being a journalist can opt to be a blogger as an extension of his practice but a blogger cannot expect to be passed on as a journalist.

The PPPO, like any agency, is free to to work with or harness bloggers for their public relations objectives but what it cannot do is to lump bloggers with journalists. To do that will be akin to lumping police officers with private detectives, or the barangay tanods.

And, the worse that the PPPO can do itself is to cite a blogger as its source for acclaiming its record of accomplishments.

*          *          *          *

COVID MARSHALS FOR CAMPAIGN. To contain the expected continued contagion of COVID-19, I hope the provincial government’s IATF, the Comelec supervisor’s office   and the Pangasinan PNP will agree to collaborate in seeing to the strict enforcement of the health and distancing protocols during the campaign and on election day.    

Towards this end, requiring candidates to name someone as their Covid marshals who will be confronted and made accountable for violations of the IATF protocols will go a long way in protecting the communities and the voters.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments