By Leonardo Micua

 

WHILE it has been raining sporadically in some parts of the country, it is still hot and humid in Dagupan City and Pangasinan after every little rainfall. It means summer is still here and its hot air has not completely exited.

Could this be the reason why our provincial board members are raring to leave for the United States, with their respective spouses in tow? For a chance to savor cool air.

My source told me that close on the heels of the return of department heads from their week-long ‘excursion’ to Batanes, the provincial board members are set to make a vanishing act to the U.S. for a still unknown purpose, attendant with utmost secrecy without any concern whether one will be left behind to man the rampart.

I was told they will make that two-week or more junket in June. And if an opportunity to hold a session via the Zoom platform appears, they’d do it, to make it appear they have not abandoned their legislative duties while thousands of miles away enjoying the temperate climate in the land of milk and honey.

In case they do just that, who are they fooling again? They already did a disappearing act last year and easily got away with it. Of course, we were not born yesterday to believe their story that they spent their personal funds in that overseas trip with their spouses.

My gut feel is they will again do the same, burn public money wherever and whenever for a purpose that is totally alien to any thought of good governance for the province.

Pangasinan may be awash with taxes paid by its enduring people but its elected officials are not free to splurge our people’s money, especially in a foreign land.

DILG and COA can do the people of Pangasinan a good turn if they begin looking into this frequent junkets of the ‘honorable’ officials to the U.S.

Due diligence by the two agencies on the travels of the junket-loving officials will ensure that public funds are not misused for the latter’s personal leisure travel. Assuming that the trip is bankrolled by a generous sponsor (which is not farfetched), they are violating the simple rule of conflict of interests?  Everybody knows that accepting favors (and ‘sponsorships’) from anyone by public officials is tantamount to taking bribes.

Is it possible they are not aware of this rule? Well, our people know.

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The bright side in having a daily dangerous heat level daily in Dagupan and Pangasinan, is to have an abundant harvest of mangoes. Unlike other agricultural products, mangoes were the least affected by drought spawned by El Niño phenomenon.

This resulted in an oversupply of mangoes not only in Pangasinan but in the whole county. On every corner, ripe mangoes are being sold from P40 to P50 per kilo. This is a big disappointment for mango producers who thought they still could sell their mangoes from P120 to P150 per kilo like they did last year.

Why was there an oversupply? Newsmen posed this question to Provincial Agriculturist Daiisay Moya. Her explanation: the tiny pest called cecid fly that used to infest mango fruits and their leaves is gone.

This could be true but it was not the OPAG that licked the cecid fly this year, but the dangerous hot weather condition that ranged from 46 to 49 degrees centigrade in Dagupan and Pangasinan.  With the high level heat index, no cecid fly that causes black and brown spots on the skin of mango fruits, called “kurikong”, can survive it. 

Recall that agriculturists recommended bagging as the only way to save the mango fruits from cecid fly infestation in lieu of chemicals that will exterminate it totally. But because bagging requires a lot of labor and more expenses, mango growers were reluctant to adopt the method. 

The only downside of having a hot weather is having smaller mango fruits. This explains in part why mangoes can be bought at such low prices. 

Since mangoes are one of the chief products of Pangasinan, the provincial government should have worked with the Department of Agriculture for the establishment of a mango puree plant, at least in San Carlos City.

We had one mango ice purée plant in San Carlos in 1985 but that was abandoned. The province needs one today.

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