Media men slander, sue each other

GOOD OL DAYS: Navarro (7th from Left) and Duque (9th from Left) during the good old media time.

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA


 As far as my more than ten years experienced as political columnist in the rambunctious politics of Pangasinan is concerned, the Belen Fernandez versus Benjie S. Lim for mayor in Dagupan City was the most divisive and acrimonious tiff I encountered.

Incoming Mayor Fernandez

 Why? Susmariosep, it did not only build animosity between the warring members of the Fourth Estate but dragged some of them at the prosecutor’s office and National Labor Relation Commission in filling complaint-affidavits and counter affidavits for criminal libel and labor cases at each other as their lawyers silently relished at the sidelines from the tens of thousands of pesos acceptance fees these belligerent media men coughed out.
“Look what happened to the series of libel cased filed by Aksiyon Radyo’s commentator and franchisee Attorney Gonzalo Duque against fellow media men Orly Navarro, Leu Paragas, and Lina Cervantes, all of that commenced from their media quarrels in promoting the best out between Belen and Benjie” I told some media men.
 “Their dirty quarrels have seen pages even on black propaganda newspapers allegedly distributed by the camp of Lim where some of them have been pictured not only as scheming orangutans but as an orangutan with a dick, er, private part as small as that of a toddler.
 Look what happened to the election of the new Pangasinan Press Club, Inc. under the watch of Navarro. Orly et. al brace for, I heard from columnist Ruel Camba, for an injunction case filed by Duque who was affronted that the group of Navarro hijacked his PPC.

Outgoing Mayor Lim

Look too at the generosity of tycoon Antonio Cabangon Chua through his Man-Friday Johnny Dayang, who treated the members of the press and broadcast to a bacchanalian feasts before and after the PPC election in May 7 notwithstanding the transportation and food expenses somebody shelled out to each of the almost 200 grateful members of the press club who voted in the recent PPC’s poll.
 Look too at the slighted publisher Lelia Sy who mulls to file a libel case after a local newspaper accused her of printing the orangutan black props on the eve of the poll.
All those events were the consequences of the electoral rumble of the two Filipino-Chinese who spent countless millions of pesos just to undermine each other for turf control but did not expect that an internecine battle among their media supporters continue,” I told them.

***
“Missing Dawel River Cruise Barges Found”, a recent news headline in one local newsweekly screamed. Outgoing Mayor Lim’s media lap dogs rebutted the accusation of acting Mayor Fernandez’s media men that it was just proper for the personnel of Magic Mall (owned by Lim) to pull out the two river cruise’s barges and moor them near the property of outgoing mayor because they were owned by Lim.
“It was not true cried by two Lim’s department head where one of them was City Engineer Virginia Alcantara,” I overheard on a radio report. “Paano maging sa kanila iyon (Lim) the city appropriated P10.1 million for the river cruise project despite not passing through a bidding?, a department (was it the budget officer or the accountant?) cried at a meeting called by acting mayor Fernandez.
My poser: Has the department heads dropped the outgoing mayor like hot potato since he is already a lame duck and has no political value to them anymore?

 ***
 During the Independence Day celebration at the plaza, retired RTC Judge George Mejia, who is a consultant of Fernandez, told me that Fernandez, by operation of the Local Government Code, would not appoint, suspend, or dismiss any employee despite the lapsed of 30 days after Fernandez took as acting mayor last May 15 after Lim was ran to a hospital because of stroke that made him “comatose” until now. “Papaabutin na lang daw ni Mayor (Belen) ang July 1 bago mag reorganize siya,”
Mejia told me when I asked him about Lim’s 30 days absence.
Here’s my other poser: Son of a gun, it seems Mayor Fernandez was too confident that the city department heads would not rat her by shredding incriminating documents that she can use against Lim in the future? How magnanimous of her in not sacking those perceived sycophants when Benjie reined the city.
(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com).