By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

THE news that former Health Secretary Pincoy Duque will face graft charges for “illegally” transferring funds during the Covid-19 pandemic is another desperate move to discredit the Duterte administration without filing a case against PRRD.

Same strategy is being pursued against Harry Roque, Sen. Bato dela Rosa and now, VP Sara.

Why Dr. Pincoy? To the credit of the Duterte administration, our country was among the first in Asia to recover from a Covid-19, the disease that WHO had no warning nor data on. Fortunately, PRRD took a gamble amid challenges that the Philippines faced, being always beaten to orders for vaccines and face masks by rich countries.
He gambled with the help of Dr. Pincoy and we won. We had one of the highest rate of recovery form the Covid-19 pandemic among Asian countries.
So why is the Marcos Jr. administration prosecuting the health secretary who had no powers to transfer funds unless with the authority of the President?

Recall that he was the punching bag of the opposition at the height of the pandemic. He was  heavily criticized for every initiative of the IATF Council that he presided.  His resignation was demanded to cripple PRRD efforts. He was willing to resign but PRRD won’t let him. Like the professional that he is, he stayed on because he was told he still had an unfinished mission for the country. He had the full trust and confidence of PRRD.

Their partnership worked! We beat the pandemic ahead of far-advanced countries, including the USA!

We won the war but the Marcos Jr. administration wants his head! Only in the Philippines.

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GRAND GUICO-ESPINO REAMATCH. The news about ex-Guv Pogi Espino throwing his hat into gubernatorial race is not really a news breaker.

It has long been predicted because there’s no one else who can stand  toe-to-toe, face-to-face with Guv Mon-Mon, but Guv Pogi.

It will be an interesting fight to the finish. People will have to choose between a visionary for modern infrastructure development and educational welfare and a pro-people advocate with experience in handling a health crisis and promoting sports and livelihood development.

Both have political dynasties to boot and to back their platforms. The question is, how many of Guv Pogi’s former key allies will decide to leave the AGuiLa team?

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DAGUPAN AND ILLEGAL FISH PENS. The towns and cities that traditionally suffer flooding due to incessant and high volume or rainfall should seriously heed the warning of PAGASA that La Niña will have its impact felt in the next 3 months.

Dagupan City stands to suffer the most because floodwaters from the mountains drain into the city’s tributaries.  The regular high tide alone still easily floods low-lying barangays.  Much still needs to be done to alleviate these barangays’ situations.

Unfortunately,  the elevation of roads and drainage system only helps the commercial district but impacts negatively on low-lying barangays. Flood waters are higher and take longer to recede since.

The worst is yet to happen if the PAGASA’s prediction happens.

And the worst is yet to happen. Thousands of illegal fish pens are already blocking the flow of Pantal River to the sea. What is not visible to the Dagupeños the fact that Pantal’s riverbed is far shallower than ever, what with the hundreds of bags of commercial feeds thrown daily to the fish pens to feed the trapped fish.

It is no longer possible for dredging this late can forestall the inevitable – heavy flooding in the low-lying barangays. What the city government can do to protect the residents for the long term is to finally launch a no-nonsense campaign to rid the Pantal River of illegal fish pens mostly owned by affluent non-Dagupeños!

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STAND UP VS GAMBLING .There is only one in the country’s legislature who’s been consistently against gambling in any form and all forms – that’s Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.

He was with Ping Lacson and the late Archbishop Oscar Cruz  in the campaign vs. jueteng as a congressman. He vigorously objected to the licensing of e-sabong by Pagcor during PRRD’s time but he was alone.  He raised his voice against POGO but was  easily drowned out.

Now that the PBBM decided to ban POGO, Cayetano expressed concern about the plan of Pagcor to introduce another licensing for internet gambling as an alternative.

Internet gambling will have a more serious impact on families than drug addiction. Internet gambling addiction only needs access to Internet inside homes while drug addiction needs a supplier from outside source. It must be stopped.

This is where Catholic and Christian dioceses must commit to a strong advocacy to stop internet gambling to effectively save families from certain financial crisis, and follow the lead of Sen. Cayetano.

Let’s join hands not only to stop the greed and corruption that gambling breeds but to help keep stability and harmony in thousands of homes.

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IMEE SPEAKING FOR CONSUMERS? Last week, we received an interesting press release from the office of Sen. Imee Marcos.

She wondered why the price of rice continues to be beyond the reach of millions of families despite the reduction of the import tariffs by 15%!

The only sector that benefits from the reduction of tariffs naturally are the select importers of the Marcos administration.

The usual culprits after the reduction of import tariffs are the hoarders.  The more they hoard, the higher their promised profits. Meanwhile, because of the impression given that the volume of rice stock in the country has increased, trades are having a heyday buying rice harvests from farmers much cheaper than when rice stock was low.

Sen. Imee can do better for families and household if she asks her brother: Nasaan na yong “your days are numbered”? 

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CLASSIC IRONY. The 7 epaLiFes are bent on obstructing Mayor Belen Fernandez’s programs, but the latter is not keen on filing cases against them for refusing to approve her submitted supplemental budgets and refusing to pass annual budgets on time.

Here’s the messy irony: The 7epaLiFes will continue with their obstruction agenda but cannot fault Mayor Belen for failing to stop them while Mayor Belen cannot fault the 7 councilors for continuously obstructing because she refuses to file the cases against them.

Bottomline: Both will have to share the blame for the deprivation of funds for the city’s needs. Hopefully, this stalemate will be resolved decisively in 2025.  

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