By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

BOTH Guv Mon-mon Guico and Dagupan Mayor Belen thank their stars that the province only suffered minimally compared to other provinces in the region. Why?

Both were noticeably absent in places where they were expected at the height of the onslaught of Typhoon Egay.

Fortunately for Mayor Belen, who went on personal leave, she can never be accused nor criticized for wanting in “people-quotient”. Her Unliserbisyo program speaks for itself and she was quick to redeem herself by cutting her vacation short, then being at the frontline’ as soon as she arrived from her overseas leave when Egay hit home.

If there’s one thing Mayor Belen can be faulted with, it was her lack of foresight this time. She still took off, taking her personal leave with City Legal Officer Aurora Valle in tow while PH was already bracing itself for a super typhoon.

But it’s definitely not the same for Guv Mon-mon who also went on personal leave. Curiously, his administration was quiet about his departure and leave of absence when nothing could be wrong if permission was granted. It even appeared that the assignment for VG Mark Lambino to be “acting governor” was made privately. Was there something about his leave that Pangasinan should not know about?

Nothing was even heard from the PIO about the whereabouts and actions taken by Guv Mon-mon. Naturally, no pictures nor media reports about him being on the frontline but actually this did not really come as something new about him. He was never reported to have spoken his mind about plight of farmers, COVID-frontliners, concerns over shortages in commodities since he assumed his office 12 months ago.

Sure, he spoke a lot about the ‘sweetheart deal’ he obtained from the San Miguel Holdings for the PLEX contract. He was his unusual self when he declared war on the affluent squatters and those behind the large-scale land grabbing of public lands along baywalk areas in Lingayen, Binmaley and San Fabian. He scored big!

But that was it.

He’s the chairman of PDRRMO but he’d rather be an armchair general. Could VG Lambino be also the de facto PDRRMO chairman? That’s where Guv Mon-mon differed with ex-Guv Pogi who was always visible in the frontlines during calamities, big or small.

Simply, no “P-Q?”?

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LOW PRIORITY FOR FARMERS. I still can’t understand why our provincial government (both Urduja and Capitol) can’t do more for our farmers on whose productivity the Pangasinenses rely on for their food on their table at the least costs.

PDRRMO came out with a post-typhoon assessment that the province’s agriculture sector suffered the most, though minimally – P34-M in damages to the agriculture. It was, obviously referring to damaged and lost crops. And as expected, it had no initial report on the number of farmers whose farms were inundated, where and how big tracts of farm lands were affected.

PDRRMO can change a lot of mindset about plight of farmers in Pangasinan if post-calamity reports headline the number of farmers dislocated, what type of their crops were destroyed. In such reports, we can expect the public to be more sensitive and caring for our largely ignored hometown heroes 24/7, producing food for Pangasinenses.

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NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS. It’s been two weeks, and nothing is heard from Mayor Belen Fernandez and City Legal Officer since they boldly threatened the 7 epaLiFes with cases before the Ombusdsman after accusing them of deliberately sabotaging the city government’s delivery of basic services.

Strangely, they were mum again last week, just like how they moved on without filing a single case against ex-officials of the Brian Lim administration after weeks of badgering and threatening to sue the latter for documented corruption.

To date, CLO Aurora Valle has not indicated any timeline for her office’s filing of the administrative and criminal charges against those who perpetrated corruption, stealing millions with impunity. Why?? I wonder if she really knows what her government position requires of her. Or is it her nature to suffer from dementia when convenient?

Her failure to follow up not only on her boss’s but her own fighting words, is slowly making their slick slogan “IYALAGEY SU BALEY, ILABAN SU BALEY” ironically being directed at their own faces. After all, Mayor Belen and Atty Valle have not made any move to stop the saboteurs among the councilors from continuing their obstructionist moves that prevent the delivery of more essential services to Dagupeños.

By refusing to file cases for the past 10 months, the mayor and her sidekick legal officer are in fact already tolerating the enemies of the city to continue wreaking havoc in the city to serve their political agenda at expense of their constituents. A situation that doesn’t seem to bother the two and their close advisers.

Consequently, this situation is already making many even in the mayor’s camp begin to wonder – what are they afraid of? What can they be possibly be afraid of when Dagupeños are backing them all the way?

To cut a long story short, the epaLiFes are being given more opportunities to plot against Mayor Belen and her seeming helpless allies at the city council.  It seems they know why she is afraid to file the cases. Tsk tsk!

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GOODY-GOODY PBBM. On PBBM’s SONA last week, I sense that not many gave him a loud chorus of approval and thumbs up for his performance.  What could be the reason?

Perhaps, it was because all that PBBM did was to recite “accomplishments” and more “initiatives”.  People noted that he didn‘t confront the controversial issues and problems that burdened the country. The most that he could do was to repeat his “Your days are numbered” directed at smugglers and price manipulators.

He didn’t give specifics nor explain why no smuggler was collared since he assumed the presidency and as secretary of agriculture.  His meek declaration that prices of commodities have lowered was as lame as a lie.  Neither did he explain why he chose to remain as agriculture secretary in spite of the department’s failure to solve the back-to-back shortages and accompanying soaring of prices that hounded the agency. 

Obviously, the key objective of the BBM administration is mainly to keep his popularity and approval rating up by not being confrontational like his predecessor PDU30.  Well, that seems to be working for the surveys today but that will soon blow up in his face.

Our people will always be looking for leaders who can dare fight the enemies of the state for their sake. It’s what PDU3O provided, hence, his perceived close relevance to the people’s causes.

Videos and photos of PBBM will always be seen waving, smiling to an audience.  That appears to be the strategy. I hope he and his advisers will soon realize that even entertainment celebrities fall in their popularity when they become dull and predictable playing goody-goody characters.

Will a goody-goody PBBM last?

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