“Mrs. Governor” at the helm?
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
FINALLY, I got some tidbits about goings-on at the governor’s office from Facebook, not from an official website of Pangasinan provincial government. (Provincial government not important?).
First the good news! A deep search in Guv Mon-Mon Guico’s #pangasinanangaling Facebook account revealed he is busy with photo ops, showing him in meetings with Pangasinan Historical Commission, SMC, DENR officials and signing a work program for a bridge in Urdaneta City last month.
He has a recorded video warning Pangasinan of the impending entry of Typhoon Karding, photos of him attending the Bayambang Polytechnic College, with the staff of the Provincial Legal Office.
The governor was also seen at the launching of the See Pangasinan Listening Tours with members of the Pangasinan Tourism Officers Association at the Hundred Islands, and celebration of the 77th anniversary of the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital.
Then, the talks that Pangasinan is lucky to have a very active political First Lady in Maan Guico is validated by her social media posts! She is seen in weekly feeding Bantay Kalusugan Feeding programs in Barangays Caaringayan and Lebueg in Laoaoc town for the elderly, meeting with officials of the Pangasinan State University in a discussion on Abot Kamay ng Koleihyo and Isang Bayanihan Program with former tv newscaster Mr. Cris Zuñiga (in what capacity, the caption didn’t say.)
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JUST PHOTO OPS. But here’s the disappointing part.
There was nothing in those posts that gave a glimpse of the thoughts and decisions of the governor that will uplift lives of his kabaleyans. Nothing mentioned about what was decided in those posted meetings. The #pangasinananggaling on FB appears more to be like #anggalingngmagphotoops of both the governor and the first lady.
There was no statement from the guvnor about the PDEA P2.5-B drug bust in his neighboring town Pozorrubio. Nothing, too, about an appreciation of the campaign vs COVID-19 pandemic in the province.
But here’s the worst news being kept away from the public. The Guico administration reneged on its political promise – not to move against the employees and rank and file at the capitol that fully supported the Espino administrations over the past 12 years. I do recall Guv Mon-Mon stating emphatically that he’s not your usual politician who would go on a rampage terminating employees only because they supported the previous administration. Wow! I honestly thought he was the new politician he promised to be.
But it was not to be. Hundreds of nurses and job order employees at the provincial hospitals lost their jobs. They were among the first to be axed during Guv Mon-Mon’s first 100 days! Their fault? They supported the “Ama and Anak Espino” admin over a decade and through the COVID-19 pandemic. It didn’t matter that as employees they were supporting the provincial government when asked to continuously report to their units to care for COVID-19 patients even during the campaign period!
This one got my goat. My sources identified the First Lady Maan and adviser 2nd District Cong. Mark Cojuangco as the team that went on a rampage, breaking down the ranks by clusters regardless of their performance as employees but only because they are “known” to have supported the Espinos in the last elections.
I couldn’t believe my ears when I was told of this. That they did it to the employees who manned the COVID-19 frontlines at the height of the pandemic was plain heartless. They did it to employees who were hailed as heroes, they who risked and survived infection from patients they helped because the provincial government told them to do so.
Obviously, the politically vindictive Maan-Mark tandem just couldn’t bear seeing faces who didn’t support them in 2022. I wonder how they will react if the same treatment is done on the rank and file that will support programs of the Guico administration should their boss be shown the exit at the 2025 polls! Tsk-tsk.
It was bad enough that Guv Mon-Mon was hardly felt and seen doing a yeoman’s job for Pangasinenses, but to allow his first lady and close adviser to make a big liar out of him after making big political promises and assurances about being a new politician, makes him a weak leader with no political will.
Going by these events, it’s becoming obvious that the provincial government is not run by the elected “Mon-Mon” but by “Mrs. Governor” and her retinue. #bahalanakayoPangasinan?
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MOCKING MAYOR BELEN. I still don’t understand how and why Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez continues to allow those who made, and continue to make corruption a way of life in the city, to make herself a laughing stock to her own detractors.
I was driving through De Venecia Highway Friday midmorning and I felt truly sorry for Mayor Belen on seeing the hundreds of sacks of commercial feeds stacked by the highway at the bottom of the Pantal Bridge, waiting for illegal fish pen owners to claim these for their continued illegal operations.
I can imagine how the illegal fish pen owners keep boasting to others every day how they can give the once “tough-talking” mayor a runaround under her very nose! She did say to them “No room for corrupt, thieves, plunderers under my watch” upon assumption of her office last July 1. But the illegal fish pens continued to operate through her first 100 days.
They made her believe their “promise” that they will voluntarily dismantle their illegal fish pens with a compromise that they will not be charged for violating the city ordinance and will still be given the opportunity to harvest their millions worth of production.
Well, guess who’s cheering Mayor Belen for her first 100 days from the sidelines: the illegal fish pen owners, of course!
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TEACHING LESSONS. But looking beyond the special arrangements that the illegal fish pen operators boast of, and the outright belligerence of sidewalk vendors, the returning Belen Fernandez administration is making good time in recovering benefits for the education, senior citizens and youth sectors in Dagupan.
Her advocacies gained support even from the majority in the city council. How can anyone find a trapo political motivation in these? No way!
I only hope that she will soon teach and show the youth sector a significant lesson in governance by demonstrating how responsibility and accountability should be applied in private and public ventures. Specifically, I refer to her making those behind the scandalous manner with which the city’s scholarship committee under the Lim administration managed the program.
Mayor Belen must show that development of the city’s youth being future leaders of the city is non-negotiable, that those who dare abscond or misuse funds intended for the youth must be made to account for their misdeeds. The young must know that their welfare and future cannot ever be exploited by anyone.
The scholarship committee under Mayor Belen apparently has not completed its investigation because the former committee has refused to account for the discovered irregularities. I sincerely hope, Mayor Belen can see in her the political will to right the wrong soon.
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