By Leonardo Micua

 

THE video coverage of Mayor Julio “Rammy” Parayno III’s press conference last week shared to me, revealed that in  his only five years in office, Urdaneta has overtaken Dagupan in points of economy and income. Translation: Dagupan is no longer the sunshine city of the north but Urdaneta City.

That was expected and Urdaneta’s success can be attributed to the solid support he gets from all city officials, including its city council led by the mayor’s cousin Vice Mayor Jimmy “Jing” Parayno . That enabled the mayor to see his vision for their beloved city become a reality.

Unfortunately, it’s not the same for Dagupan. Its city council is controlled by seven opposition members comprising the majority bloc that does not want Mayor Belen Fernandez to succeed and uplift the city and its people.

During the April 15 meeting of the Local Development Council, Mayor Belen pointed to LDC members the negative impact of the late passage of two annual budgets – it “undermined efforts to build a good public ,management system.”

Recall that the 2024 annual budget of P1.38 billion was passed only last March 19, (more than three months late) and the 2023 annual budget of the city in the amount of P1.3 billion was passed only on September 26, 2023  (more than nine months late) .

Worse, the seven majority councilors even questioned the 2023 budget passage in court. Did they think they can undo all programs, project and services that were already done.? Puede ba yon?

Recall too, that not a single supplemental budget in 2022 and 2023 was passed because the seven councilors, threw a monkey wrench to both, using their tyrannical number to block the measures.

She said the Local Government Code stipulates that the annual budget must be approved before the end of each year for a reason. All provinces, cities and municipalities in the Philippines follow this rule but not in Dagupan.

During the LDC meeting, she proposed an unprecedented supplemental budget of more than P600 million, the amount of which represented accumulated savings from previous years’ proposed supplemental budgets for the year 2022 and 2023. These were not only shelved but were not even discussed, Fernandez said.

Because of these inordinate delays, she said many families suffered, many people became frustrated. Worse, five retired employees of the city government died without enjoying the fruits of their many years of faithful service in government.

“It is a great misfortune that our city has a sorry case of  “7 versus 178,000 people”, she intoned.

She said the delays resulted in failure of the city government to give comfort to the families of regular and job order employees, who relied on their small SRI and gratuity pay to celebrate a decent meal last Christmas and New Year.

Note: The regular employees have not received their SRI of P20,000 each to date. Ditto with the job order employees who have not received their P5,000 gratuity pay.

Will the majority seven continue to ignore the needs of the city government employees’ needs? It looks like they will.

Belen no longer wonders why Urdaneta (and soon other cities in Pangasinan) has overtaken Dagupan’s local economy. She said the long delay in the passing of the budget “drives away investment, gives a sense of instability in public finance management… projecting little confidence in the city’s capacity to build and grow business with foreign and local investors.”

In sharp contrast, big investments pour into Urdaneta City today, not only because of its strategic location, but on account of political stability provided by the two Paraynos. This leaves Dagupan City with crumbs because of the undoing the seven councilors.

Take the P150-million Mother and Child Hospital. They continue to block, the project cannot take off because the seven councilors refuse to grant Mayor Fernandez the authority to sign a MOA with the DOH-Center for Development Regional Office 1 for the implementation of the project.

They think the MCH will project a positive image on Belen, hence, their objection. What kind of thinking is that?

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Condolence to the family of Dr. Jess Canto, who joined his Creator on April 18, three days after he was feted in a birthday bash. Many will miss Dr. Jess, because he’s easily the doctor of the masa who continued to  go around the city doing medical missions even in his retirement.

Jess in his lifetime never hesitated to help the sick, especially those who have less in life. Rest In Peace, Dr. Jess, my friend. 

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