By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Despite having no opponent for the mayoralty race
of the burgeoning Urdaneta City, Mayor
Amadeo "Bobom" G.E. Perez IV city has been a hot staple among
political kibitzers about how close the tussles among its bets for vice mayors
and the race for the city council.
Three candidates vie for the vice mayoralty while
18 aspirants eyed the council of the bagsakan (entrepot) city.
2 Philippine cops tagged in ‘hulidap’ arrested, 7 others hunted PHOTO CREDIT DZRHNEWS.COM |
The shoo-in that being eyed to land for the Top 3
in the council, according to a political insider, are the wife of Cristino
Naguit Jr, Chairman of the Philippine Gaming Corporation (PagCor) (Mrs. Naguit
is the sister of Mayor Perez and the daughter of Taiwan de facto Ambassador
Amadito Perez, Jr.), a certain Parayno, the Sibuyas (Onion) Queen of the
bagsakan who supplys the crop to different provinces and cities in and outside
Pangasinan, and a daughter of a businessman.
The daughter was heard to boast, according to the
insider, three hundred pesos per indigent in every village come election time.
“If there are 1000 poor in a village that is
already P30,000. Urdaneta has 34 barangays thus that is a staggering P10.2 million,” he cited.
But one of the kibitzers disagreed. He said the
daughter could not make in the Magic 10.
“She kept promising people in the past but did not
honour her promise. In a speaking engagement in a village where she crowed her
“vaunted” scholarship program to the Unwashed of the Society, a parent stood up and
confront her that his son and the children of other parents who availed of the
scholarship could not finished their college there because of the prohibitive
miscellaneous and other the school bills”.
“Libre nga tuition, sobrang mahal naman ang
miscellaneous doon sa college,” quoted by the kibitzer to me.
****
I caught the middle of the consultation of the
Committee on Public Order and Safety of the House of Representatives on the
“PNP Modernization Bill” with hundreds of members of the Philippine National
Police held last Thursday in Lingayen, Pangasinan.
Major concerns asked by Congressmen Romy Acop, Sam
Pagdilao, and Pol Bataoil, who are not only retired police officials but alumni
of the Philippine Military Academy, were the following: "
1) If
active members of the Philippine National Police wanted that their ranking
titles be reverted to the then Philippines Constabulary (PC).
It means a Senior Inspector would be called as
Captain, etc.
I asked the non officers who were mostly SP04
(Senior Police Officer-4) who were near my seat if they were amenable that a
Police Officer 1 would be called “Constable” while an SP04 with red six stripes
and a star in the middle will be called MSGT or Master Sergeant just like in
the military. Most of them did not like
the idea. “It could not happen because the PNP was created as civilian in
nature while those military ranks were created, well, for military purpose,” an
SPO4 answered me.
“I thought you don’t want to trade off the SPO-4 or
P01 rank because of the word “Officer” attached to it when in the real sense
you are not officer like the Inspector or Superintendent (Lieutenant or Lt.
Colonel in the military),’ I jocularly told him.
2) Congressman Pagdilao, who is running for senator
under presidential front runner Grace Poe, told the police men that in their
study in the proposed law a police man who committed a crime can only be
relieved from his duty and restricted to the station by his chief of police or
commander. “During the time of the PC a commander could even throw to jail his
unscrupulous subordinate,” Pagdilao recalled.
He told the police that it is a disgrace before the
eyes of the public that a police offender who was restricted “escaped” from his
station. “Who among you here are in favour to return the disciplinary power of
the police commander to jail his underling?” the former general asked the
mostly non-officer attendees.
Son of a gun, nobody raised their hands. They want the status quo. Is this a sign
that even members of the police do not want a tough measure to make them toe
the line?"
3) Dagupan
City’s Chief of Police Cris Abrahano, a PNPA graduate, told the congressmen
that since the number of police retirees have been growing and could eclipsed
the active personnel, the proposed amendment should emulate what the American
labour force have been doing to its pension system: Get a portion of their
monthly salary and put them in blue chips (Like Ayala Corporation, Emperador Inc, others - MCO) so they earned
and could help pay the pension of the retirees whose funding has been
incessantly included by Congress in the yearly appropriation of the PNP budget.
Cris said this could help the government because
the bulk of the appropriation in the PNP usually goes to the personnel
services.
4) Binmaley
Chief of Police Supt. Mona Asis bared her apprehension that every time a police
man was sued in line of duty, the poor cop shouldered all his lawyer’s
expenses. Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil shared
the sentiments of Mona and even told everybody that when he was the spokesman
of the PNP in the national capital he was sued even he just spoke in behalf of
the members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) who were
accused by an interest group. “I helped them looked for funds so we can pay our
counsels”. Until the time the case was dismissed, Bataoil said he was
prejudiced “Kasi generals na ang mga classmates (PMA) ko, ako colonel pa rin.
Two- star general na sila, ako colonel pa rin”. Bataoil eventually became a
three star general and then ran for a congressional post in Pangasinan. Bataoil
(PMA ’76) and Acop (PMA ’70) and a lawyer, are on their second term in
Congress. Bataoil is running unopposed in the 2nd District of Pangasinan.
5) Former
Pangasinan Provincial Director and Retired Senior Supt. Sonny Verzosa asked the
committee to include in the budget the Tanod (night guards) and their
administrative control put under the PNP “just like the control of the PNP to
the chief executives of the local government units (LGUs) but the supervision
is still with the mayor or governor”.
Congressman Acop said that it is ideal but he
feared that in case they (tanod) are included in national budget, other
auxiliary workers in other departments of the government would insist to be
included, too. “The government could not afford to fund them if they want to be
included”.
After the consultation, In a huddle I told Sonny Verzosa (PMA
’83), who run for the mayoralty of Lingayen, Pangasinan, that his
proposal was sound because the Tanod are multiplier force in the fight against
criminals.
“The government is just indifferent for them to be
included in the budget, but when the peace and order nose dives, the government
would give credence to your proposal by even not including those other
auxiliaries,” I told him.
(You can read my selected columns at
http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at P’nan Biggest News. You can
send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)
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