By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE Holy Week that passed must have been a stressful and dreadful week for the seven irresponsible councilors of Dagupan City, namely, Redford Erfe-Mejia, Celia Lim, Librada Reyna-Macalanda, Alfie Fernandez, Alvin Coquia and Marilou Fernandez.

Judging from their antics, falling all over themselves “to correct and rectify” their serious mistakes in the handling of the 2023 Annual Investment Plan and Annual Budget, they were clearly panicking over what the likely the consequences are for all their despicable conduct as elected public servants in the last six months.

As expected, they remain completely naïve and uninstructed (completely clueless?) believing that subsequent  “new” ordinances can rectify past official records. (Didn’t they believe it was legal to delete minutes of regular session on their say so as the majority in the hall)? They actually believe that by passing a set of “new”  ordinances will clear them of accountabilities. Duh? Some people can be so dumb but in this case, they outperformed themselves  as dumber than dumb over and over! Unbelievable! Not even the Guinness Book  of World Records has such a record to break for their “skills”.

What do they think are official records for? Merely for their glorification? They can huff and puff every day but their official votes for the worthless  AIP and insulting annual budget are enough to make them accountable. Not even a declaration by Mr. Erfe-Mejia that he alone is responsible for the “mistakes” will absolve the mother and sister of ex-Mayor Brian Lim of criminal liabilities. Their votes were on record!

But there’s more stupidity that surfaced. After admitting to their mistakes in their proposed ordinances, Mr. Erfe-Mejia, speaking for the 7 epaLiFes, refused to apologize to the thousands of workers at the city hall that were adversely affected by their scheming and plotting!! Why was I not surprised? It’s still the same arrogance that brought them to where they are today –  shunned as pariahs!

If that wasn’t the height of anyone’s hypocrisy, I don’t know what is!

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WHERE IS BRIAN? Instead of concocting more plots to reverse their plight, the 7 epaLiFes would do well to already start looking for lawyers that can lie for them before the Ombudsman.

Meanwhile, former Mayor Brian Lim, the man for whom the 7 epaLiFes did their worst since they got elected (thanks to the INC), is nowhere near the 7 epaLiFes who are about to be charged for their criminal acts and omissions as evidenced by their approved 2023 AIP and annual budget.

He will likely only be made accountable for his official acts as the mayor under whose stewardship alleged massive corruption was committed blatantly. Start with the scholarship fund mess! Mayor Belen has spoken about these, with documents to show and the city auditor’s books can affirm these. But he will not be held accountable as the leader of the epaLifes that plotted against the city government.

He has his loyal Mr. Erfe-Mejia as his alter ego at the sanggunian to do his bidding to subvert the administration of Mayor Belen.

But if there is one thing that Mr. Lim surely regrets today, it is to see his mother and sister implicated in the expected criminal cases for being active players in sabotaging the city government. They, too, acted arrogantly and voted for everything that Mr. Erfe-Mejia did as most everyone believe was taking orders directly from Mr. Lim.  Tsk-tsk.

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EDCA FOR TAIWAN? The decision of the Marcos Jr. administration to give the US government the carte blanche to operate initially in 9 provinces is surely making  a lot of Filipinos nervous.

The anxiety that’s felt today doesn’t not close to the moves to remove the US naval and air bases in the country before these were eventually thrown out by our constitution. Then, there were no fears of threats from foreign military forces but the US forces were still made to vacate.

The recent holding of the biggest balikatan exercises only served to aggravate fears of Pinoys being caught in the middle of a war that PH has nothing to do with, but US.

But whatever is the state and the purpose of the current EDCA, Pangasinan can still count its blessings that it has not been designated as one of EDCA sites that many earlier feared could be included.  After all, aren’t our fishermen in Infanta often harassed by the China Coast Guard? But why wasn’t Pangasinan included for our defense?

It’s not that we should want Pangasinan to be included but the exclusion of Pangasinan tells us, the EDCA sites are evidently not for our defense but for Taiwan.  The designation of the EDCA sites was based on proximity to Taiwan, the target for reunification by China and the primary mission for US’s defense strategy in the South China Sea.

So pray that PH will not be drawn in a “defensive war” that we have nothing to do with.

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POZORRUBIO P2.3-B DRUG OPERATIONS.  It’s heartening to note that Guv Mon-mon Guico has shown concern over the tragic fire in Pozorrubio that killed a family of five.  

For a while, I thought acting on local concerns for peace and order and public safety was not one of his advocacies. I say this because when his voice was needed to be heard to show serious concern of over the discovery of P2.3 billion worth of shabu operations  in Pozorrubio, nothing was heard from him.

Mr. Guico was completely muted.

It’s not too late for him to show concern for Pangasinan families by seeing through the investigation of the P6 billion shabu operations in the Cordilleras. The discovered packaging operations were similar to the operations in Pozorrubio.

To date, the governor has not made anyone accountable. Not one from the PNP or anyone in the Pozorrubio’s local officialdom. What made the situation more worrisome was the damning silence of the provincial board. Tsk-tsk.

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