Residents Hit LGU for Lousy Xmas Preparation

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Serving his constituents does not mean he concentrates on the social services his administration renders but the joy he brings as seen on their faces like the ambitious Christmas faire he brings, Bayambang Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao told us reporters in the conference hall of the family owned Royal Mall before the opening and launching of the country’s biggest Animated Christmas Display.
The spectacular Display, which was declared last year as the biggest in the entire country, attracts thousands of people every night right at the municipal plaza.

Fancy and extravagant yuletide decorations initiated by local government units (LGUs) can be seen at the cities of Dagupan, Alaminos and San Carlos, and Mangatarem .

Because of the then lavish Christmas embellishment done by Mangaldan former mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno in her six years stint as chief executive, the administration of Mayor Marilyn Lambino  who poorly prepared for yuletide drew flak from residents who vented their ire to the mainstream and social media.

CHRISTMAS DISPLAYS. Extravagant Christmas lightning decorations at the plaza of San Carlos City, Pangasinan.

 As aired at GMA-7 regional television’s Balitang Amianan, people of this central Pangasinan town reminisced a week before the first day of December how Lambino’s predecessor Parayno buoyed the spirits of the people of her various sprees like the flashy Halloween whoop-de-do and the razzle-dazzle Christmas lighting exposure she initiated.

“Ganito ang Mangaldan nakasanayan  ang maganda at makulay pero ngayon isang linggo na lang ang natitira bago ang buwan ng December wala pa mga nakaayos na Christmas decoration sa gilid ng plaza. Marami raw residente ang nagtataka,” the anchor said.

The TV even cited the lousy Christmas preparation with a meme about the exchanges of mother and child in Pangasinan dialect:

MOTHER: Akin kapigan so magano lay pasko san ka alis alis (Why you’re always leaving when Christmas is already approaching)?

CHILD: Magpapapicture kami labat ed Christmas decoration ya Dagupan ta boring ed diya Mangaldan ( We are going to Dagupan City for picture taking because it’s boring here in Mangaldan).

An alias Krissy said she brought her foreign husband and a brother from abroad to other town and city because of the cold Christmas display at the plaza of the town dubbed as the Tapa Capital of Pangasinan,

“Siyempre pag dadayo ka sa ibang bayan nakakailang rides ka pa ma traffic pa po”.

Officials of the LGU downplayed the dig of the residents there. One of them said the gazebo at the plaza was being decorated aesthetically for the yuletide for the Ugnayan sa Pasko and Singing Contest Competition.

But many kibitzers opined that the Lambino Administration was already late on its Christmas extravaganza.

Meanwhile, supporters of Dagupan City former mayor Belen T. Fernandez assailed the ostentatious P5 million arc ornamented with colorful Christmas illuminations at the Quintos Bridge, light tunnel at the plaza, and the mammoth wishing yuletide tree created by the administration of Mayor Brian Lim.

But Lim supporters reasoned out in the social media that serving his constituents do not only provide the social services but to make their heart joyful this Christmas.

One of them said that those displays and the electric bills that they will consume up to April for the Bangus Festival as seen with those bangus lighting designs at the bridge will run up to P15 million (P5 million for the displays and P10 million, by susmariosep, for the power bills).

Other supporters of Fernandez were comparing the prohibitive prices of that grandiose displays and expenses for the creations of the numbers of public school buildings and public gymnasiums.

But Lim supporters reasoned out in social and broadcast media that serving his constituents do not only provide social services but seeing them flashed a smile because they are bedazzled by those Christmas display’s chutzpah of their Mr. Public Servant Mayor Lim.

(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)