By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE recent statement of Dagupan City legal Officer Aurora Valle inviting anyone to file a cases or cases against the 7epaLiFes must have sent the 7 rowdy councilors rolling down the hall laughing boisterously, while exchanging fist bumps and high-fives.

Who wouldn’t? She just confirmed that whatever and however the 7 epaLiFes rudely insult, humiliate, malign Mayor Belen and her office, she and Mayor Belen will not dare file any case against them.

After Atty. Valle detailed what anyone can file against the 7, she says her office is still not filing a case because “we are still establishing a pattern of their unlawful conduct, misdemeanor and their continuous failure to exercise their sworn duties.” What gobbledygook legal speak!

Translation: “We are not filing, others na lang!”

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STILL NO PATTERN AFTER 14 MONTHS? After the Belen administration was pushed and tossed around by the 7epaLiFes for the past 14 consecutive months, she still needs “to establish a pattern”??  

Here’s a lesson Mayor Belen can learn from the way the Ombudsman works, if she hasn’t learned it.

The Ombudsman, acting motu propio, issued the order suspending Bamban Mayor Alice Guo for 6 months within days after the DILG filed an administrative complaint against Guo, and two others “for grave misconduct, serious dishonesty, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.”

The 7 epaLiFes certainly committed far worse and are still planning to do their worst.  So what pattern is Atty. Valle talking about?

Until the 7 epaLiFes are ordered suspended, Mayor Belen should already know by now that she cannot proceed with her long overdue implementation of her administrative, social and health programs in the city, plus establishment of the Mother and Child Hospital.

So what’s keeping her from taking them out of the equation? Is it Atty. Valle?

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TO FILE OR NOT TO FILE. Taking the cue from Atty. Valle, I’m finally convinced Mayor Belen will really never initiate the filing of cases. I’m also convinced she actually fears an immediate retaliation from the 7epaLiFes only she obviously knows about.

That will be her serious misfortune… her own undoing.

If only to help disabuse the political challenges in her mind, she must know that the 7epaLiFes have since become ruthless, unmerciful and unremorseful. They have shown they couldn’t care less what can happen to anyone once they pull the plug on her in 2025 – whether she files a case for their suspension or not.

If she files a case today, she can be seen as being true to her advocacy for good governance. In fact, it will be to her benefit if an expose aimed at discrediting her person will be dished today. She will not be denied the respect and admiration of her constituents for it.

But if the 7 epaLiFes are not suspended today, they will just maintain their agenda until 2025. Then they will  go to town with their expose during the 2025 campaign. When that happens, politics already rears its ugly head and all bets are off on how voters will react to an expose about her.  What I know will happen to her is she will be put on the defensive and she will be painted as a weak leader against the 7epaLiFes.

The fact that people nowadays have short memory, she must know that her accomplishments will mean little in the face of a barrage of black propaganda.

So if she continues to play the victim card today, while doing nothing to fight for what’s right, losing in another reelection may just be on the horizon for her. Heaven forbid!

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PRIVACY ACT FOR CRIMINALS, NOT COMMUNITIES? The PNP regional office’s policy not to identify arrested crime suspects in media reports is like turning against the communities trying to live in peace.

But the privacy act does not cover police incident reports, only contents of police blotters where anyone can enter a complaint.  

Arrested crime suspects are even aware that being exposed in media for committing crimes is part of the risks they take for victimizing communities. In fact, no crime suspect ever complained about their being named in a news report. Why the change? Why is the PNP regional office insisting on hiding their identities?

Those who sell shabu to a family member are working against the community which is why the police are mandated to arrest them to protect the community.  Let’s underline that – To protect the community.

But hiding the identities of these scumbags virtually protects their criminal and illegal activities against the community whom they have harmed or intend to harm.

It doesn’t serve the media’s role to keep communities fully informed if the most important information and fact about protecting the community is kept away and hidden from them.

Is the protection of the privacy of people who violated others’ privacy and peaceful existence now the new role of the PNP? 

This is one PNP policy that does not deserve the peaceful communities’ and media’s support.

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