Bishop and Jueteng Funds Used by Police vs. Criminals

 By Mortz C. ORTIGOZA

A former chief of police (COP) of a city in Northern Luzon said that when he told an anti-jueteng Catholic archbishop that he could not stop the sprouting of illegal number game in the city and the indispensability of jueteng’s payolas to the police he used to apprehend criminals; the bishop told him he understood his plight.

“Huwag mo lang papasukin ang mga big time na jueteng financers outside the province,” the prelate said.

Before he left he gave the COP almost a hundred thousand of pesos.

“Gamitin mo iyang pera pang gas at pang gastos sa police ninyo laban sa mga masasama”.

Ha, ha, ha, with the tax- free funds from the Catholic Church and another tax free hundreds of thousands of pesos from jueteng, the bad guys would be a wimp against the cops in the hide and seek game!

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TINULUYAN DIN. I just heard from radio reports that beleaguered Brgy. Poblacion, Mangaldan  Chairman Jojo Quinto and First Council Member Tonette Morillo have been preventively suspended for 60 days by the town Mayor Bona Fe de Vera-Parayno. The suspension order should have been issued by the mayor earlier but because of the ticklish issue on the Temporary Restraining Order filed by the lawyer of the respondents at the Regional Trial Court in Dagupan City the suspension had been held in abeyance for more than 20 days. Without Jojo and Tonette at the helm, the acting chairman now in that village would be Kagawad Naomi Fabia. Hi Mrs. Rose Ramirez-Hulipas, Executive Assistant of Mayor Parayno, if you had already arrived from your R&R in Japan, please sends me the photo copy of the order of suspension served by Chief of Police Supt. Jackie Candelario to the respondents.

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I dropped by recently at the office of the dashing Binalonan Mayor Ramon “Mon Mon” Guico III. Aside from his aggressive infrastructure streaks to make his Northern Luzon’ town an educational, sports, and convention hub (I’ll be writing soon about the opening next year in the town of Henry Sy’s owned SM Hypermarket), we talked about my favorite topic – airplanes.

Binalonan Mayor Ramon V. Guico III (2nd from left) listens to media man
 Harold Barcelona as the former tours the latter on his infrastructure
 streaks to make the town as a convention, housing, education, and
 sports hub in Pangasinan. At the background of the duo is Vice Mayor
 Melicio F. Patague and a town councilor. 

Mon Mon, a University of the Philippines- Diliman’s Philosophy graduate and a pilot told me he just purchased five brand new Italian made twin engine Technnam P206. Each has a price tagged of X million pesos.

“They can fly even with Blaze Petrol Fuel,” he exclaimed.

He said that he used to have 35 planes and helicopters parked in the tarmacs of Binalonan, Pasay, and Tuguegarao.

I told him that the Philippine Air Force bought a P622 million squadron (18 training aircrafts) of SF-260 FH Marchetti to beef up the training of its pilots.

When I asked him why government and individuals buy planes from Italy instead of the United States, he told me the latter is cheaper but with the same quality with those of the U.S.

“When former President Gloria Arroyo (cousin of his father, former Mayor Ramon Jr.) visited your aviation school and airstrip, I saw huge Russian planes there. What planes were they?”

He said they are LET 410 that can carry 19 passengers and two pilots. He said he got three of them he used to ferry passengers from Tuguegarao to Batanes.

The 39 years old Mon-Mon, who founded the multi-million pesos aviation school when he was in his early 20s, said his school is one of the best in the Philippines.

“Nakita niyo naman and facilities doon”.

When I told him that China would be ordering 5000 commercial aircraft worth U.S$600 billion over the next 20 years to service her burgeoning and progressive population, he told me the pilot course is the “it course”.

A PAL (Philippine Airline) pilots flying overseas receives half-a-million pesos monthly, while those who pilot Emirates, Saudia, and others gets a million pesos salary per month.

He said many of the alumni of his school have been flying planes here and abroad.

***

When I told him that PAL would be buying three more fuel efficient two-engine U.S made Boeing 777-300ER in addition to its three to replace its gas-guzzling Boeing 747-400, he said it takes five years for Boeing to build a plane.
This happened after  after the U.S Federal Aviation Administration returned its safety rating early this year of the country to Category 1 thus clearing the way for the expansion in the U.S of the Filipino air carriers.

Mon-Mon, who is also a helicopter instructor, said that the fuel efficient version of Boeing’s rival Airbus is A330.

“If Boeing 777 can carry between 314 to 451 passengers, its super efficient aircraft called B 787-8 Dreamliner  can carry 242 passengers”

Boeing B787-9 carries 280 passengers.

 I just read at Reuter’s that the four engines European made Airbus 340s, which are less fuel-efficient than twin-engine jets A330, are expensive to convert and  may be broken up and sold for parts if Airbus cannot find a buyer, market experts said.

 (You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com).