Fake Gov't Engineers in Pangasinan

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA A district engineer (DE) of the Department of Public Works & Highway is to be expulsed from his post anytime from now by the DPWH’s central office. His fault: He is inefficient and incompetent in many tasks. My source said the district congressman, who is a relative of the DE, has chided him because his (solon) district continued to be deprived of national projects that are coursed through the DPWH’s central office. One example of the DE’s incompetence is the loss of a bailey panel (long iron used as steel bridges) that cost to tens of thousands of pesos. A part of the text message that reached me said: “Naubos na po ang karga bodega, aspalto, pintura, at mga sari-saring bakal.” Those thieves suspected to be the DE’s personnel are still on the loose because he did not lift a finger on them, say, by even filing a police blotter. O DE, baka pati iyong bailey panel pinagkikita-an niyo pa iyan? Baka hindi lang demotion abutin niyo kay DPWH Secretary Roger Singson! *** At the height of the expose’ of fake municipal doctor, nurse, and a midwife in Anda town in Pangasinan, a top honcho, an engineer of a government regional office, told me that many regional, provincial, and municipal engineers in Pangasinan hold fake engineering licenses. “They used to buy their license for P25 thousand to P30 thousand from someone who has connection at the Philippine Regulatory Commission,” the engineer said. He said he sacked many of them under his watch in the early 1990s because of their bogus licenses. “When I asked them to submit their license number because I was going to promote them, they uneasily declined. I found out at PRC later that these sons of guns possessed spurious licenses.” *** I told the honcho that I thought fake engineers are more prevalent in my former home place Mindanao but his expose’ shames those shenanigans at the office of the National Power Corporation in Marawi City. He asked me why? I told him that there were three Muslims who finished bachelor degrees in engineering from a lousy university there (just like our colleges in Dagupan City) who flunk the board examination. Muslim Applicants: “Seer, may bakante ba kahyu engineer dito Napocor?” Napocor Recruitment Official: “ Pasensiya na kayo iho, walang bakante.” The three Muslim guys could not accept they could not work as engineer at the power corporation which accepts only licensed engineers. They patiently waited that afternoon for three legitimate engineers to exit at the gate of Napocor for home. These Muslim guys shot them all dead. The following morning the three Muslim ‘idiots” re-submitted their application to the power corporation’s office recruitment official. Muslim Applicants: “Seer, tangapin niyo nha kahmee, mi bakante na!” *** A regional director newly assigned in Pangasinan is notorious for absenteeism, according to my mole. “He is an ABS, “he whispered to me. “ABS-CBN?” I surprisingly asked. “No, ABS means Alak-Babae-Sugal,” he told me. “Aw I thought, you’re accusing a certain male regional manager of a pension fund who is L-A-H,” I told him. “What is L-A-H?” he curiously posed. I told him that L-A-H means Lalaki –Ang-Hanap! *** Pardon for I digressed. Let’s go back to the ABS regional director. My source told me that the office of this director is known to snare millions of pesos in kickbacks from government projects. But the director is known as Solomon. He makes “Solo” all the kickbacks that should be divided between him and his honchos and that he even pockets the P200 thousand PR money intended for the media for the year. Hoy, director wag masyadong masiba! Baka pag kinotohan ka ng media diyan sa puesto mo ma-i-iskandalo ka. *** This writer who thought he was considered “persona non-grata” has the nerve to go with some media guys at the Sanggunian Panlalawigan (provincial council) on July 2. The tension inside the august chamber rode with the gloomy weather outside when Urbiztondo Mayor Jun Balolong and representatives from the Philippine National Bank were grilled by aldermen Ming Rosario, Alfonso Bince, Raul Sison, Ranjit Shahani, Nino Arboleda, Von Mark Mendoza, and Angel Baniqued. The crux of the hearing was why Balolong was able to chalk–up P52 million loan contracted by the town from the bank without the latter getting a certificate that the provincial board has already reviewed the ordinance passed by the town council of Urbiztondo. When I met Balolong, a roommate at the swanky Waterfront Hotel in Cebu a year ago during the Hog Summit, who waited for his SUV outside the Capitol, he told me that he does not need to ask for imprimatur of the SP for the loan because it was already in estoppel when the SP did not review it within 30 days after it was submitted. This 30-day prescription is embodied at Section 56 (d) of the Local Government Code of 1991. But he still appeared at the provincial august chamber with all courtesy. *** But Board Member Rosario disagreed with Balolong’s rationale that the provincial board should be on estoppel because of the 30 days thing when I bumped with him in Manaoag town. He told me that the SP’s review period has not yet been prescribed. “As long as the provincial legal counsel (who is the beauteous Atty. Geraldine “Dindin” Baniqued)took notice of it, the SP has still jurisdiction with the controversial ordinance of Urbiztondo,” Ming explained. Ming told me that he and Bince opposed the latest loan practice of Urbiztondo. Sison , Mendoza, and Baniqued upheld it for the board’s plenary review. (Note: Former vice mayor Amado Operana of Urbiztondo, a staff of Governor Amado T. Espino, told me that BM Mendoza withdrew his vote upholding the resolution of Balolong. Does it means, the resolution was already dead at the committee level? What will happen to the honchos of PNB that lent the P52 million to Urbiztondo?) (You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).