Corruption at BFAR; A Smart-Aleck Councilor

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Who is this official of the Bureau of Fisheries & Aquatic Resources (BFAR) who will be booted out anytime from now according to a source?

Another source told me that this high official was even sued by his subordinates at the Ombudsman of Anti-Graft & Corrupt Practices Act.

He said one of the reasons why he was charged criminally was he deposited the check from a contractor of the bureau to his own personal bank account.

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 The members of this law making body (Sanggunian) in Pangasinan are mostly hypocrites.

A source at the executive department of that Local Government Unit (LGU) told me that almost everybody there were on the take of a sum illegally on the basis of quid pro quo (a favor for a favor ) every time their mayor asks for  a new legislation.

But what got the goat of this officer and many members of the Sanggunian is a woman councilor who has the audacity to criticize in public the policies of the mayor at the same time insist to receive pro-rata (equal sharing) the bribe the executive gives to each of them.

“Makapal din ang mukha, kunwari oposisyon and stalwart. Pero pag bigayan na ng suhol ang gusto niya kung ano ang binigay sa mga kasama niya ganoon din sa kanya,”he hissed.

My source told me that this woman solon would not heed the invitation of the executive officers to come to their office to discuss her role in the request of the former. She wants that every negotiation with her would be through phone.

She is grudgingly a smart-aleck. She receives bribes but portrays to her duped constituents her being a fiscalizer and Mrs. Clean.

Pwee!

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Thanks to the intercession of GMA-7 TV reporter Shiela Finuliar. Last Monday, and under Typhoon Pedring’s signal no. 1, she brought me to the training camp of World’s pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao. I have some tete-tete with the congressman and his team like Columbian conditioning coach Alex Areza, trainer and dietitian Noy Nerez , trainer Buboy Fernandez ,police body guard Sgt. Lachica (the last three were true-blooded Ilonggo like me), Bernanabe Concepcion ( who told me that the hardest punching pug that hits him is Puerto Rican knock-out artist Juan Manuel Lopez), Pacman’s sparring partner  Venezuelan Jorge Linares. I and Linares instead of talking about boxing discussed with me that indeed Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez is very popular there.

“Yes, he was a military paratrooper,” he told me.

You can read somewhere in this paper my take-no-prisoner no-holds barred interview with Areza on Pacquiao not heeding  the Olympic drug test dares of IBO Junior Welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather, Jr. , Pacquaio not on the level of Mayweather, and my prognosis a bigger Pacquaio knockin’ out cold challenger Juan Manuel Marquez.

(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).