By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE epaLiFes, the 7-majority in the Dagupan sanggunian, are already frantically grasping at straws on how to evade responsibility over their plot to reject the proposed 2023 annual budget of Dagupan City and compel the reenactment of the 2022 budget in the next 12 months.

Last week, Councilor Red Erfe-Mejia came up with another ludicrous ploy that he actually believes would pin the blame on Mayor Belen Fernandez once the 2022 budget is reenacted. How? By sending the mayor an “invitation” for her to appear before his committee to respond to a litany of absurd concerns that are completely irrelevant to discussions on the operating budgets of the city government in 2023.

Of course, he and his similar-minded colleagues know fully well that the mayor will never accept any invitation from the committee. By her refusal, they think they are justified to call out her absence as the cause of the delay and eventual failure to meet the new deadline set for the passage of the 2023 budget! Ingenious? More like another attempt of child play absent any common sense and respect for well-established decorum for courtesy.

If they think they are in the right in demanding the presence of a mayor in committee hearings on annual budgets, then Councilor Celia Lim, wife of the late Mayor Brian Lim and mother of ex-Mayor Brian Lim; Councilor Irene Acosta, sister of the ex-Mayor Brian; Councilor Alfie Fernandez, son of the late Mayor Al Fernandez; and yes, Mr. Erfe-Mejia himself, the constant companion and shadow of ex-Mayor Brian, would be the best arguments themselves to point out that they are being totally dishonest to themselves on the matter. They, more than any member in both the majority and the minority groups, know that the mayors they lived with were never asked to personally defend their proposed budgets because basic courtesy was observed.

This unwritten code of respect and courtesy is demanded from and among honorable men and women in government to observe. By violating this, they exposed themselves to be less than honorable when even among thieves, there is honor.

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EPALIFES’ THREAT. Besides, do the epaLiFes (Councilors Red, Celia, Irene, Dada, Alvin, Alfie and Marilou) actually believe that the DILG provincial and city directors are so naïve and stupid to believe that citing the refusal of the mayor to attend the committee hearings is a legitimate reason not to pass the budget?

I thought I have seen the worst of their kind when they decided, as the majority, that no one in the minority can participate in committee hearings. They even have the gall to strip the SK president of the right to chair a committee as directed by the Local Government Code… and to the miseries of the minority, they got away with it all without a shot fired. Boy, was I wrong!

In brief, the epaLiFes have been telling Dagupeños to their faces: “We will not hesitate to serve you the 2022 budget that’s completely without any allocation for viable social and economic services that would deprive you of the basic services if we don’t get the money we want!”

Since they have not been given their candies so far, we are seeing a bunch that has lost all sense of propriety, respect for civility out of greed and sense of entitlement to public funds for themselves. It’s no longer about sheer loyalty to their patron, ex-Mayor Brian Lim!

For sure, I’ve never seen such display of arrogance, hubris and conceit laced with lies in our politicians since the first day I started my work as a community journalist in Pangasinan in 1968.  The epaLiFes surely top them all! The litany of preposterous concerns that Mr. Erfe-Mejia listed to justify the “invitation” can only come from politicians who don’t how to spell and understand the words ‘governance’ and ‘courtesy’.

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MAKING HISTORY. If they still don’t get it, at the rate the epaLiFes are playing their cards, they will surely make history in Dagupan’s politics as the first batch of councilors suspended by the Ombudsman for failing and refusing to pass an annual budget of the city government!

After admitting that they saw no reason to pass the Supplemental Budget No. 1 for 2022, it established the ill-motive and the aggravating circumstance, giving the Ombudsman the reason to suspend the epaLiFes for more than 60 days! (I hope the Belen administration and the members of the minority in the city council now fully realize that they have what it takes to end all the shenanigans of the worst enemies of the Dagupeños).

And if the Ombudsman is told of epaLiFes’ ulterior motive behind their hostaging of the annual budget – to compel Mayor Belen Fernandez to agree to pay them an additional monthly allowance of P70,000 monthly (equivalent to P10,000 pay under the cover of 7 job order employees each ) in addition to the P30,000 that the mayor already agreed to for a total of P100k monthly allowance for each councilor – that should spell at least a 6-month  jail sentence after a more than 60-days suspension!

So, they can do themselves, their families and their elders a big favor by dropping all their plots aimed at bullying the Belen Fernandez administration to fork over P100k of city funds monthly to each of them. Then they can start thinking of ways to redeem their integrity as scions of well-respected families in the past known for their patriotism and dedication to public service and good governance.

From where I sit today, the epaLiFes don’t look any different from the corrupt market marshals of their boss Brian who‘ve been charged in court – for demanding monthly ‘protection’ from market vendors!

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WANTED: MEANINGFUL LEGACIES. I hope City Legal Officer Aurora Valle will finally do the city a good turn by filing those criminal and administrative cases against those city officials under Mayor Brian, this month – they who were behind the anomalous implementation of the scholarship program, the corruption-ridden transactions over the two motorboats, the CCTV cameras, all of which are backed by documents. Not next month or after 6 months! 

Filing the cases will be Atty Valle’s legacy in the city.

In the same vein, I hope Mayor Belen Fernandez will not risk losing face and her stature as a credible, incorruptible political leader by recalling her order to file the cases.  The city deserves a fearless government that fights corruption on every turn, on any day with firm commitment and political will that matches brave words with courageous actions. 

Let the filing of the criminal and administrative cases against corrupt city officials and employees be her legacy. No city mayor in the past has gone this far.

Will they have the courage to want to leave such a legacy in the Dagupan City? We’ll find out soon enough.

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