By Leonardo Micua

 

CITY Legal Officer Aurora Valle now agrees fully well that the seven majority councilors of Dagupan have already abused their power! They had no justifiable reason for not approving all the supplemental budgets requested by Mayor Belen Fernandez since 2022, not to mention the inexplicable delays in the  passage of the city’s 2023 and 2024 annual budgets.

She said the majority seven have crossed their boundaries, violating the Local Government Code and the Administrative Code of the Philippines in many instances. Valle admitted she’s already collating evidence to support the charges against the majority seven, who turned their back on their sworn duties to serve the people of Dagupan whenever issues don’t serve their political interests.

Valle pointed out that they violated ethical standard of public servants and are, therefore, liable administratively and could be ousted from office.

Methinks she could have done that earlier when the seven councilors already made it clear from the beginning that they will not support any program and project of the present administration and will continuously block her plans.

Look at their latest caper. The P599-million supplemental budget requested by the city executive was reduced by the heartless seven to a measly P43 million or just seven per cent of the total amount, withholding the 93 percent which they claim are still subject to further study.

Oh, come on! Have they not studied the projects identified in the supplemental budget since 2022, when it was first submitted to them?

It didn’t matter to them if they lost the support of all the barangay captains by cutting off funds for their projects, as long as they hit Belen in the jugular by dumping her proposals.

But Belen told them off: “It was not me that they hurt, it is the 178,000 people of Dagupan.”

There’s no other legislator anywhere as heartless and as mindless as the seven majority councilors of Dagupan in the history of legislation. So, if Atty. Valle would like to hail them to court now, she better do it fast, since Mayor Belen already gave her the marching orders.

With the recent happening, the P150-million Mother and Child Hospital is already a goner.

They should not be given another a chance for the tormentors in our midst to continue to ruin our lives again!

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Is it true that it was Councilor Alvin Coquia who did a project with a certain Acosta in Calasiao that built a pumping station in Barangay II and III of the past Lim administration?

Mayor Belen mentioned Mr. Coquia’s name when she spoke before the Sanggunian when she enumerated unfinished projects of the past Lim administration or are defective and the contractor already abandoned them.

Councilor Coquia has a pending resolution in the SP asking Mayor Belen Fernandez to pay past and present contractors who have already completed their projects but remain unpaid.

His resolution was the subject of a committee hearing by his public works committee and needed a second hearing because the city auditor was on official travel to the US.

Mr. Coquia may have committed a case of conflict of interests because his project with a certain ‘Acosta’ is one of the projects he sought to be paid by Mayor Fernandez. (I don’t know if he has any relations with Councilor Irene Lim-Acosta.)

Belen said that project was never used to mitigate the flood on Rizal Street and the downtown area even during the administration.

Mayor Fernandez assured that all the contractors with completed projects will be paid as long as the city auditor endorses their payment. Without the go-signal of the auditor, Belen may be violating the law if she pays the contractors on demand.

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