By Leonardo Micua

 

AFTER Mayor Belen Fernandez’ fiery speech in her Pakabat na Baley at CSI Stadia, many thought that any more ray of hope for the passage of the resubmitted 2023 annual city budget of Dagupan was lost.

Breathing with fire coming from her chest during her speech, Mayor Belen minced no word in exposing the alleged corruption of the past city administration, which some of the seven majority councilors, cannot deny having been once a part of.

Believing that enough is enough, Fernandez practically burned her bridges behind, and if you can read her mind, she is bringing her case to the people, so that the conscience-less majority seven will be gone in 2025 elections.

Pretending not to know, the majority seven in the Sanggunian asked who’s the enemy being pointed to in the slogan “Ilaban su Baley”, when they can clearly see there are seven thumbed down hands in other tarps.

Of course, it is the majority seven, the common enemy, that made the lives of 180,000  people miserable.

In her rounds of the barangays where she constantly hob-knobs with the “hoi poloi”, something the past city mayor never did during his term, Belen is seen telling barangay folks that the majority seven councilors are anti-poor… and why.

And her many Facebook posts, seen by netizens not only from Dagupan but also oversees, Belen often reminds the city of the sins of the majority seven against the people of Dagupan for refusing to pass the annual budget.

But these are not enough to make them accountable for the misery they caused the people of Dagupan, especially the poor.

She must still keep her promise to hail all members of the majority to court for dereliction of duty and for abuse of authority and for the many ‘sins’ committed by the past city administration before the Ombudsman and the DILG.

If not, the 2024 annual budget as well as that of 2025 will suffer the same fate.

Wherever I go in Dagupan today, folks ask upon reading the PUNCH – when is Belen finally filing the complaints before the court and really fight for the interests of the poor.

My neighbor Ernesto Go said Mayor Belen must file the cases as she threatened in order to teach the majority a lesson or two who wronged her administration and deprived the people of the services due them.

Lawyers tell me that what she spelled out in her Pakabat na Baley is not only simply cases of dereliction of duty and abuse of authority, but also of massive malversation of funds and plunder by officials of the past city administration.

Many say that if she will not file after declaring because the legal document are still not ready, she should change her City Legal Officer and all her legal advisers because they’re doing a serious disservice to the whole city and people.

Changing gears in midstream may do good for her administration.

But it’s good to hear from Mayor Belen in a late dinner at Cabalen last Wednesday night that “these are now actually being silently worked out”.

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I am bothered no end by the poster “No trespassing, Private Property”, that read “Violators will be shot, and survivors will be shot again”. 

Taken by our photo journalist Butch Uka, this poster was placed side by side with the poster “This area is not for sale” put up earlier by DENR. 

This means blood will be spilled if DENR will attempt to reclaim the foreshore lands, which under the law, belong to the state.

This means, too, that DENR should take bolder actions, other than putting up signboards to driving away the untenured occupants of the foreshore lands in Bonuan.

Admitting it has no police power to drive away the untenured occupants of the foreshore land, DENR conveniently passed the task of tearing down fence enclosures in the Bonuan beach to LGU Dagupan.

In our conversation, initially at Tim Hortons, then to Cabalen, Mayor Belen said steps are already being taken against the untenured occupants of the foreshore lands by verifying names of the claimants.

Again, her City Legal Officer must have the balls to hail land grabbers of public properties to court. 

Belen also said the Chinese consul based in Laoag visited Dagupan last week and reiterated their long time offer to build the Philippine-China Friendship Garden in Bonuan Binloc, near the proposed site of the One-Bonuan Pavillon, both of which will be situated in the foreshore land owned by the state with the permission of DENR. 

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