Roxas, Cojuangco argued during P-Noy's visit

DILG Secretary Mar Roxas

Nationalist Peopl'e's Coaliton top honcho Mark
Cojuangco

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 According to my source who asked for anonymity, the Lim administration cut the P4000 a day gas allocation of the police patrol cars in Dagupan City a week before the May.  13 poll. He said that police chief Superintendent (Lieutenant Colonel) Cris Abrahano was anxious about the consequences to the anti-crime operation that could undermine the peace and order situation of the city because of the cut.
 The source said the non-allocation of the 10 liters a day per patrol car has been Lim’s way to punish the police he believed to help aid his mayoral rival, incumbent vice mayor Belen Fernandez, in the concluded May 13 poll.
 As of press time, according to the unofficial election results electronically sourced from the Commission on Election’s transparency server via the Rappler Mirror Server, Fernandez, who ran under the Liberal Party, got 41,044 while Lim, who was under the Nationalista Party, settled for 37, 765. Lim’s son Brian won the vice mayoral seat over rival former City Councilor Michael Fernandez. Brian got 46,121 votes while Fernandez contented himself with 32,098.
 ***

 Another source told me that when President Aquino landed aboard his presidential helicopter at the airport in Lingayen in the morning of May 2, two scions of an illustrious family argued inside the reception area for the fate of Vice Governor Ferdie Calimlim, the almost 40 mayors of the gargantuan province and their supporters who were outside the airport and were under the mercy of the blistering sun as they waited to be allowed to enter the airport premises to welcome with their huge tarps and streamers the president. Here are the excerpts of the argumentation according to my source:
Former Representative Mark Cojuangco: Pare papasukin ninyo naman iyong mga mayors.
 Department of Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas: Pare hindi puede. Wala sa protocol ng PMS (Presidential Management Staff) and PSG (Presidential Security Group) iyong pagpunta nila dito. Cojuangco: Maawa ka naman sa kanila nakabilad na sila sa init ng araw.
 Roxas: (Who went out from the covered reception area with folded arms):Tingnan mo ako pare, nakabilad na rin ako sa araw.
Those exchanges did not stop the drama on the presidential visit because the police provincial director Marlou Chan was ordered by the harried PSG’s top brass to cover by the phalanx of policemen the local executives and their streamers and tarps so that Aquino would not see the presence of the allies of Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino.
 ***

 The day after the visit, the offended Cojuangco lashed out at Roxas in his meeting with the village chiefs of a city at the house of Urdaneta City Vice Mayor Bong Gorospe.
 Roxas, according to news report, has intimidated the 28 mayors of Pangasinan when he threatened them that they can expect the backlash of a lifestyle check after their election if they would not support the gubernatorial bid of Hernani Braganza – a fellow member of the Liberal Party. Most of those 28 mayors who were at the house of Urdaneta City Mayor Bobom Perez are members of the Nationalist People’s Coalition under the leadership of Cojuangco and Governor Amado T. Espino.
With Cojuangco affronted by the actuation of Roxas, we can now expect that he operates for the defeat of the latter in his run for the presidency in 2016 in the mammoth vote rich province.
 ***

 My source said that two days after the throwing of a dud grenade at the house of Urdaneta City mayor Bobom Perez, President Aquino called Colonel Chan.
The president was offended by the grenade lobbing which he felt was intended to mock him when he met the 28 hizzoners.
When Chan was cruising in his service car the national highway in Barangay Tebeng, Sta. Barbara he saw ahead of him a convoy of big cars belonging to Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino.
When it passed a police checkpoint in that village the cops manning it turned their back as if nobody’s passed by for a routine inspection. A furious Chan stepped down from his service vehicle and dressed down the team leader and his men with all the thunderclaps they did not hear in their lifetime.
 “Kahit si (gubernatorial bet) Nani Braganza pina pa-checkpoint ko, bakit iyong dumaan hindi niyo ni check point?”he hissed.
The source said Chan relieved the team leader and ordered him to leave the place because of his incompetence.
When Sta. Barbara police chief Major Giovanni Mangonon arrived, the stringent George Patton liked provincial director chided him and threatened him to be sacked from his top cop post in the town .
 “Gusto mo ako na ako na ang mag chief of police dito para mabantayan ko ng mabuti ang mga check points?” my source quoted the scathing words of Chan.
 “Dalawang beses ng napagalitan iyang si Mangonon. Noong una ng mapadaan si Colonel Chan sa Barangay Minien kung saan iyong mga naka-kotse na itim may binaril sa restaurant doon.“ The source, a police non-officer, said that Chan threatened Mangonon to be fired too after the former learned that the chief of police did not know, when Chan asked him, that there was a murder that ensued under his nose. “Dapat I assign na sa traffic itong si Mangonon,” another police sergeant butted in.
 But another sergeant cautioned him (fellow sergeant) to stop disclosing some police operation to me:
“Iyong PD just come and go, pero si Mangonon baka maging amo natin iyon.”
 But another Police Officer 3 disagreed: “Anong magiging amo natin? Most of the chiefs of police dito sa Pangasinan itatapon daw sa Ilocos as planned by General Marquez and Chan”.
You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).