By Leonardo Micua

 

GOOD news from the Dagupan City Information Office under Mayor Belen Fernandez!

An Interim Report regarding the Project Preparation Study for a Tri-City Ferry System Project that will link Dagupan, Alaminos City and San Fernando cities with each other was presented last November 15 to stakeholders, government agencies, consultants and concerned sectors.

The consultants of the Regional Development Council (RDC) tasked to conduct the study on the project made the presentation although not new because this was already tackled more than a decade ago by past mayors of the three Region 1 cities.

We learned that the Tri-City project is supported by the Cities Development Initiative for Asia seeking to implement a sea transport system across the Lingayen Gulf that will connect Dagupan, Alaminos and San Fernando, providing their people an alternative and sustainable mode of transportation, skirting the long and winding highways often clogged with heavy vehicular traffic.

It’s likely that this project will be done through public and private initiative following the formation of a technical working group (TWG) by the Public-Private Partnership Center, along with the National Economic and Development Authority, Maritime Industry Authority, Department of Transportation, Department of Tourism, Department of Public Works and Highways, and the three Region 1 cities.

Discussed were project components, report structure, preferable vessel system, project location, demand projection, estimated growth rates, passenger forecast, economic appraisal, tentative implementation plan and financial case.

The TWG and stakeholders, according to the Dagupan CIO report, are continuously conducting studies on the project.

For her part, Mayor Fernandez said she endorsed the project because it will help stimulate the economy, boost tourism, trade and commerce, and bring the people of Dagupan, Alaminos and San Fernando closer to each other more than before. A Tri-Ferry System would be a cheaper alternative than building additional highways and bridges that need regular maintenance that cost millions of pesos.

So, time has come for this novel project to roll out and see the light of day.

Mayor Belen was still vice mayor more than a decade ago when the late Mayor Al Fernandez began his discussions with his counterparts, Mayor Hernani Braganza of Alaminos City and Mayor Maryjane Ortega of San Fernando City for the setting up of a Tri-Ferry System linking their cities out of necessity because the land routes were already beginning to get clogged at that time and to boost tourism, trade and commerce in their respective cities.

Their initial spadework, however, went to naught for lack of sustained support from the national government and by the private sector and virtually leaving the three cities themselves doing the planning.

But today, several government agencies as well as the private sector are lending a helping hand to make it happen because they know a ferry project system across the Lingayen Gulf has already come of age and is the need of the times.

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For the Pangasinan provincial government, the communication to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan seeking the passage of an ordinance “for and by authority of the Governor” and signed by Ex-Board Member Von Mark Mendoza with no designation under his name could just be a trivial matter but actually is a big issue that could explode in the face of Gov. Ramon Guico III.

I hope there were no other past ordinances enacted by the SP on the basis of a cover letter from the Office of the Governor with Mr. Mendoza as signatory, otherwise Mr. Mendoza will be in legal trouble for usurpation of authority. After losing in the election in May 2022, Mendoza and other losing candidates are not eligible yet for appointment to any public office, given the one-year ban imposed by the election law. 

The issue could not have been brought to the fore had not Board Member Haydee Pacheco questioned the ruling of the chair on proposed ordinance introduced in the floor on the basis of a cover letter from the Governor’s Office with Mendoza as signatory but without indicating his position if any.

This led to the reversal of the ruling of Vice Governor Lambino and approval of BM Pacheco’s motion to remand the communication and the attached proposed provincial ordinance back to their source. 

As to Gov. Guico, his explanation is in order why he allowed an outsider in the person of Mr. Mendoza to sign “for and by authority of the Governor” when he knows that the former is not his alter ego. 

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