Toff de Venecia: Magmula Teatro Patungong Kongreso

 Isang malaking karangalan na maituturing ni Pangasinan 4th District Congressman Christopher “ Toff” de Venecia na maging cover ng The Sunday Times, ang magazine ng Manila Times, bilang pagkilala sa kanyang galing sa magka ibang mundo ng sining at pulitika.

Sa isang napakagandang artikulo na nailathala noong Linggo, Agosto 23 na sinulat ni Cristina Alpad na may pamagat na “FROM THEATER STAGE TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Millennial Congressman Christopher ‘Toff’ de Venecia finds his place in the sun”, binanggit doon ang husay ng kongresista upang makamit ang tagumpay sa teatro at bilang isang mambabatas.

Si Congressman Toff de Venecia na isang millenial ay naging marketing professional, columnist, magazine and newspaper editor, theater director and producer bago sya unang nahalal sa Kongreso noong 2016.

PASSION.  From passion for the arts to passion for public service, Pangasinan Fourth District Congressman Christopher ‘Toff’ de Venecia takes a 180-degree turn to serve his constituents as Pangasinan 4th District Representative. (Photo Credit: Manila Times) 

Ibinahagi din ni Cong Toff sa artikulong ito kung papaano sya nagsimula sa teatro na dati nang kinahiligan ng kanyang kapatid na si KC bago ito nasawi sa isang sunog na tumupok sa kanilang bahay ilang taon na ang nakararaan.

Yun ang nagsilbing koneksyon nila sa isa’t-isa na hanggang maging “passion “ na ng millennial solon at hanggang ngayon ay kinagigiliwan niya itong gawin.

Hindi naman nakapagtataka kung bakit parehong matagumpay sa teatro at sa larangan ng pulitika si Cong Toff dahil nasa lahi na nya ito bilang anak ng dating five-time Speaker of the House of Representatives na si Speaker JDV at ang ina naman nya ay si dating Congresswoman Manay Gina de Venecia na pagmama may-ari naman ng kanilang pamilya ang sikat na sikat na production company, ang Sampaguita Pictures, noong Golden Age of Philippine Cinema.

Binanggit ni De Venecia ang kanyang mga pangunahing isinusulong na legislative agenda bilang kongresista kagaya ng turismo at agrikultura at ang pinakabago ay ang creative industries.

At upang mas maihanda nya ang kanyang sarili sa mga hamon na kanyang haharapin sa kanyang napiling larangan ay minabuti nitong kumuha ng Harvard Kennedy School Executive Course.

Sa turismo, nariyan ang mga magagandang proyektong kanyang ipinatayo gaya ng baywalk sa Tondaligan Beach sa Dagupan hanggang sa San Fabian, ang Bikers’ Den sa San Fabian, at kung hindi sana nagka COVID pandemic ay ang Promenade sa may Pantal River sa Dagupan na kahalintulad ng pamosong Esplanade sa Iloilo.

Sa agrikultura ay isinulong nya ang Magna Carta of Young Farmers.

Masaya rin niyang ibinalita sa kanyang interview para sa artikulo ng Sunday Times na may grupo ang mga kongresista na kasama sya na nagsusulong ng arts and culture at creative industries.

Mula 12 hanggang 15 miyembro na may koneksyon sa showbusiness, ang kanilang grupo na tinatawag na Arts and Culture and Creative Industries Bloc o ACCIB, ay dumami na sa 30 na may iba’t-ibang kakayahan at pananaw sa larangang ito.

Bilang unang hakbang ay naghain na rin si Cong Toff ng House Bill No. 3951 o ang Freelance Protection Act sa kasalukuyang 18th Congress bago pa nag-umpisa itong pandemya. Layunin ng panukalang batas na iyo na bigyan ng hazard pay at night-shift differential ang mga freelance artists.

Aniya, lahat ng nagawa niyang trabaho mula sa teatro hanggang sa kanyang kurso sa kolehiyo na Political Science, sa kanyang trabaho sa publishing hanggang marketing, lahat ng kakayahang kanyang nakamtan ay nagagamit niya ngayon sa kanyang tungkulin bilang isang millennial congressman.

Bagama’t hindi nya ito inaasahan ay tunay namang proud sya sa mga nagawa na niyang trabaho sa mga nakalipas na panahon.

Aniya, “You don’t always have to follow your passion, but you can always channel your passion in everything that you do.”

High – Official Hates the Mayor, VM of this Poor Town

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A high official (H.E) in the country wants this one-horse town mayor and vice mayor ousted in the 2022 Election.

The reason:

Hizzoner (His Honor) the Mayor through his connection with the provincial power-that-be frustrated H.E to penetrate the villages of this poor municipality and buy votes there when he ran in the last election.

Fortunately he won in an upset victory against the patron of the mayor and H.E’s political rival.

The political landscape in the area changed dramatically when H.E became a high roller official.

“Gusto kung matalo iyong dalawa na iyan,” upon seeing the weekly newspaper of a publisher doing P.R job with the duo.

ONE-HORSE TOWN is a  small and unimportant place. This expression, first recorded in 1857, presumably alluded to a town so small that a single horse would suffice for its transportation needs (Photo Credit: Deviantart.com)

“Iyang si Vice Mayor bata rin ni mayor iyan, papalabanan ko na rin iyan,” High Official quipped.

He asked another media man if P15 million will be enough if he will pour it to vote buy and crush the elective future of the top two public officials of the economically lethargic town.

“Small time lang ang pulitika diyan puwede na ba tig da-dalawang libong (P2,000) kada ta-o?”

He added how incompetent the duo in running the public corporation (Yes Virginia, a local government unit or LGU is called like that on Administrative Law) because they don’t know how to run the LGU.

The town becomes a butt of a joke in terms of penury whenever it becomes the topic by commentators.

***

Oh by the way there is no horse, either it be Arabian or Thoroughbred in that pathetic town.

There are motorized trikes that ply vice versa the poblacion and the villages and the two first class neighboring towns.

One - Horse Town means a  small and unimportant place. This expression, first recorded in 1857, presumably alluded to a town so small that a single horse would suffice for its transportation needs (Dictionary.com)

The description reflects how lousy are the political leaders there where they could not catapult economically the nascent municipality.

Let’s see on the 2022 Election how the anointed candidates of H.E, a deep pocketed individual, fares to the limited wherewithal of the Mayor and the Veem there.

***

Noong nalason ako ng tulingan (mackerel tuna) kamakailan, my eldest son told me while I was lying on the bed dizzy and with a vigorous palpitation of the heart:

"Pa, sinabi ninyo pa sa akin kahapon pag namatay kayo huwag ko kalimutan iyong cellphone number ng supplier ng Davao Fruits kasi doon nakasalalay ang buhay naming mag ina sa fruit stand natin sa harap ng McDonald”.

Noong tinakbo na ako sa E.R bed ng hospital na hindi na ako makakita dahil umakyat na ang dugo sa mata ko, I asked the doctor dahil akala ko mamamatay na ako:

“Andito ba asawa ko, doc?” My wife said: “Andito ako”. "Iyong pangananay na anak ko?” "Andito ako pa," he said. "Iyong ikalawa?" Andito rin ako pa". "Iyong bunso?" "Andito rin ako, pa." "Iyong boy ko si Galman?" "Andito rin ako sa tabi ninyo sir".

Doon ako biglang bumangon, nakakita at nagmura sa loob ng hospital.

"ANO? ANDITO KAYONG LAHAT! PAANO IYONG FRUIT STAND NATIN INIWANAN NINYO WALANG NAGBABANTAY NANAKAWAN KAYO!

Now magaling na ako. Salamat sa pag init ng ulo ko at pagiging business minded. Kung hindi uminit at business minded, baka andoon na ako now sa Impiyerno nagbebenta na ng Ice Water kasama sila Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, at Saddam Hussein.

READ MY OTHER ARTICLE:

How Suicide Bombers, Muslim Radicals Operate

(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)

DepEd Supt. Primicias Confident to Survive Raps

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The besieged School Division Office (SDO) Superintendent of the Department of Education in Central and Western Pangasinan is confident that she will be exonerated by the persecutions, resolution, and investigation about the corruption issues lodge against her.

“With the support of everybody ilan ang sagot natin ten sabi nila,” Pangasinan -1 SDO Superintendent Sheila Marie Primicias echoed the cheers of the division officials who simultaneously shouted “ten”.

She cited that in a scale of one – to – ten of her confidence level she can survive the troubles and turbulence she confront from various sectors, as her answer to a reporter’s query in the recently press conference she called at the Division Office here.

Pangasinan -1 Department of Education School Division Superintendent Sheila Marie Primicias.

Primicias faces a fact finding from the national office of the DepEd and a looming resolution from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) that wants her to be transferred outside the Province of Pangasinan.

She downplayed the investigation conducted by the central office saying it ensued because of those adverse anonymous letters that circulated in the social media especially at her expense.

“Because of the anonymous (complainants) nagkakaroon sila ng fact finding. But this is not a complaint”.

She said there is a process about her transfer to other division outside Pangasinan after Board Members Von Mark Mendoza and Jeremy Agerico Rosario wanted that she be relieved from her post here through a resolution.

Mendoza was the proponent of the resolution while Rosario supported it so the beleaguered superintendent could not influence the investigation by authorities against her alleged illegal use of public funds.

“Sana po kaya lang iyong confidence natin sa siguro nagsasalita na iyang mga presidents ng mga different organizations. Kung sila mismo ang nagsasabi na sila mismo ang nakakakita ng maling ginagawa (ko) sila mismo ang magsasabi,” she crowed about the all - out support of the presidents of different organizations in DepEd Pangasinan-1.

These supports were manifested by these individuals in the press conference she called. She cited that it buttressed her confidence that the majority of the 15 - men Provincial Board will prevail to the stance of Board Members Mendoza and Rosario against her.

BIR Reduces Collection Goal After COVID-19 Ruined Original Target

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – Even the tax goal of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Region 1 had been reduced after the pandemic Corona Virus Disease-19 wrought havoc to its original collection target based on the first semester this year and the same period last year.

Regional Head of the Taxpayer Assistance Unit Chief Lee Caday cited that the collection from January to June this year was P6,050, 024, 399.38.

“Nangyari binabaan ang goal namin after the pandemic. During pandemic may consultation for adjustment. Binabaan ang goal,” Caday told this writer.

The regional tax office here that supervises six revenue district offices (RDOs) in the four provinces’ region had P6,775,282,493.62 collection in the same period in 2019.

The decrease was P725,258, 094.24 or 10.70%.

The goal last year of the BIR -Region 1 was P19.8 billion and it reduced goal this year will be P14.4 billion.

BIR BIG WIGS of Region – 1. From left (upper clockwise) Bureau of Internal Revenue Director Thelma S. Milabao, La Union Province Revenue District Office No. 3 Chief Charmaine Caday dela Torre; Regional Head of the Taxpayer Assistance Unit Chief Lee Caday, and; Eastern Pangasinan RDO No. 6 Chief Helen Leano.

Prior to the rampage of the COVID-19 it had a tax target for this year of more than P20 billion.

“More collection entered the coffer because the taxpayer who could not pay their taxes in April had been given to pay up to June this year,” Caday said.

Top collectors of the P6, 050, 024, 399.38 in the First Semester this year, from highest to the lowest, are:

 1) RDO-3 that covers La Union province with a collection of P1, 278, 446, 584.66. It is under the tutelage of RDO-3 Chief Charmaine D. dela Torre; 

2) RDO-2 that supervises Ilocos Sur with a collection of P893, 596, 662. 01;

 3) RDO-1 that covers Ilocos Norte province with a collection of P814, 568, 963.63; 

4) RDO-6 that supervises Eastern Pangasinan with a collection of P785, 817, 582.15. It is under the guardianship of RDO No. 6 Chief Helen Leano; 

5) RDO-4 that covers Central Pangasinan with a collection of P1,760, 046, 849.08 and; 

6) RDO-5 that supervises Western Pangasinan with a collection of P515, 547, 757.85.

PhilHealth Officials, Doctors Earned Illegal Sums Thru False Ailment

 

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

One of our Davao Fruits customers, an executive of  Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), told me in a huddle one dusk at our house about a shocker:

The sudden spiked of the number of people inflicted with  urinary tract infection (UTI).

He said they immediately scrambled from their chairs and investigated a hospital in Batangas when the numbers of U.T.I incredibly increase there.

“March iyon paano biglang tumaas ang may mga UTI,” he wondered.

When they investigated, PhilHealth officials found that a hospital there changed the circumcision records of the children of an Azucarera there to U.T.I because the latter case has an insurance from the government of Three Thousand Pesos for each patient while the government will not reimburse the hospital with a sum on the former.

                  Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) Photo Credit: Google.com

“Grabe, pag hundreds iyong pasyente laki ng kita ng scheming hospital owner and their conspirator surgeons there sa rebates!” I exclaimed.

He agreed with me that machination like this one that includes those ailment with a higher insurance from the government ensued with connivance of the officials of the PhilHealth’s regional office.

***

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier accused PhilHealth officials of corruption after he got information that they were in cahoots with the management of an 18-bed infirmary in the Davao Region that got P10 million a year in benefit claims and clinics sharing “rebates”.

These are among the “money-making schemes” in Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) that the Senate would delve into, he said.

***

Resigned PhilHealth Anti-Fraud Officer Thorrsson Montes Keith has tagged Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as the "Godfather" of the alleged mafia in the health insurance corporation.

"Maituturing ko na siya ang Godfather ng mafia ," he told Senators during the 3rd Senate inquiry into the corruption allegations in the embattled agency on Tuesday.

  When Senator Risa Hontiveros asked Duque for his reaction on Keith's allegation. "Sabi po ni Attorney Keith, kayo raw 'yung Godfather ng [PhilHealth] mafia? Do you have a reaction to that?"

Duque replied: "I deny this. Absolutely malicious and without basis. I do not wish to dignify that allegation."

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

Access Road sa Angalacan River Eco-tourism Park Tapos na sa Enero - Toff

Nitong nakalipas na mga araw, ay ininspeksyon ni Congressman TOFF DE VENECIA ang mga infrastructure at flood control projects, na puspusan na ang pagpapatuloy sa Quatro Distrito.

Pansamantalang nahinto ang paggawa sa mga ito dahil sa dumating na CoVid19 na pandemya. Katulad na lang ng access road na ginagawa sa baybayin ng ide-develop niyang Angalacan River Eco -tourism Park sa Mangaldan, Pangasinan. Dapat sana ay tapos na ito ngayong Oktubre, pero dahil nahinto ang paggawa dahil sa pandemya, sa Enero na ng susunod na taon ang nakatakdang pagtatapos nito, ayon kay Engineer Editha Manuel ng 2nd District ng DPWH, na isa sa kasama ng kongresista sa isinagawang inspeksyon. Kasama rin nila sa naturang pagbisita si Engineer Amelia Zamudio mula sa regional office ng DPWH.

Ang ginagawang access road sa Mangaldan ay may habang 1,671 meters, at babaybay sa Angalacan River, mula sa barangay Embarcadero patungo sa barangay Nibaliw, Tebag, Salaan, Pogo at Palua.

Ang proyektong ito ay inisyatibo ng kongresista, kaugnay ng kanyang programa na maiangat ang turismo sa Quatro Distrito.

Kaugnay nito, buong puso ang pasasalamat ng kongresista sa Department of Tourism na hiningan niya ng pondo para magawa ito; sa DPWH Second Engineering Office, na gumagawa nito; kay dating Mangaldan Mayor Bonafe De Vera Parayno na unang sumuporta sa nasabing proyekto; at sa incumbent Mayor ng Mangaldan, Marlyn Lambino, na sumuporta sa pagpapatuloy ng nasabing proyekto.

Ang pagtapos sa proyektong ito ay hudyat sa pag-develop sa Mangaldan bilang isang tourism spot sa lalawigan. Ilan pa sa plano ng kongresista ang pag-develop sa industriya ng pindang, health and wellness at bolo-making industries, para isulong ang turismo sa naturang bayan.

How SEZ Creates More Works and Enriches Host LGUs

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I dropped by recently and had some tête-à-tête with Dagupan City’s local government unit (LGU) Administrator Vlad Mata. The athletic looking executive and an alumnus of the National Defense College of the Philippines on National Security Administration (with a ranked of Marine Lt. Colonel (Reserve) ) is a fellow Mindanaon whose father is a son of Agusan del Norte Province.

“When you were the city administrator of Tarlac City in 2016 how much was the annual appropriation budget (AAB) of the LGU there?” I asked him since I was curious if that local government in Central Luzon and three hours ride to the Bangus City hit the P3 billion mark already from her collection of the business and real properties’ taxes primordially from the floor areas of the edifices of the locators of the special economic zones (SEZs) there. Notwithstanding her share of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) from the national government.

“It was P2.3 billion then but I mulled to spike it to P2.7 billion when I was the administrator there in 2016,” he retorted.

VISIONARY SOLON. Author having breakfast with Congressman Ramon “Monmon” Guico, III (extreme left) who is a pilot. The family owned WCC Aeronautical & Technological College - one of the biggest aviation schools in the country.

But he did not attain the yeoman’s job of hitting the P2.7B because he left the post of a “Little Mayor” there and found another work in Imperial Manila.

I crowed about the  billions of pesos AAB of neighboring Tarlac (she became a city in April 18, 1998) and kept comparing on the one billion of pesos AAB of Dagupan City in 2019 because of the investment juggernauts that put shops there like Sumitomo International Wiring Systems that became a driver of the economic growth of the once forlorn city I called in my blog/column as Pee City.

“Because it has an industrial park there,” Mata, a graduate of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Harvard Kennedy School of Government, butted in why the economy of the nascent city catapulted her and became the top two richest city in Central and Northern Luzon and the Cordillera Region playing second fiddle to tourists drawing Baguio City.

***

Here what I wrote on 2017: Daley Dan Pasion, executive of a multi-billion pesos Japanese firm Sumitomo told the attendees of the Luzon Ecozone Summit held at the Stadia in Dagupan City how the presence of industries like Sumitomo International Wiring Systems transformed the once slumbering town Tarlac into a burgeoning city in the early 1990s after Sumitomo put shop at the Luisita Industrial Parks’ Special Export Processing Zone in Barangay San Miguel.

 The privately owned park hosted corporations like URC, Centro Techno Park, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, and others.

Before it became a city on April 18, 1998, Tarlac, because of its backwardness, was mocked as a pee center of commuters and motorists that ply the long Manila –Baguio City – Ilocos Highway.

Pasion said Sumitomo started amid the Asian Currency Crisis in 1991 with 6,000 workers mostly assembling cars’ wiring harness around the world for Toyota, Honda, Mazda and vehicles like Kawasaki.

“Without us the vehicles would not switch and run,” he quipped.

He said 90% of its employees based on its plant in Barangay San Miguel are high school graduates.

He cited that 6,000 workers multiplied by five in a nuclear family means 30,000 probable consumers in the market.

“Because of us, Tarlac first saw its first McDonald,” he told the crowd here led by Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, whose family is also the franchisee of the same American food chain.

Tarlac is a first class component city in Region 3 with a land area of 275 square kilometer.

Other business firms that sprouted like mushrooms in and out of the Industrial Zone were Pancake House, Jollibee, Starbucks, Max Restaurant, Pizza Hut, Robinsons, SM, and others.

When I interviewed Mata in 2017 he told me the following:

“Actually under performing iyan. They have 76 barangays and a lot bigger in terms of population.

I was working to increase it (revenues) by at least one- third when I was administrator there”.

He cited Dagupan City is a lot better on registering businesses than in Tarlac.

 “Dagupan has around 5000 plus businesses. Tarlac City has almost the same number. When I went around, I sense I can double the number of establishments. Maraming hindi registrado kasi”.

***

Can Dagupan City under the stewardship of the young first term mayor Brian Lim (and of course the experience guidance of Mata who was the administrator of Lim’s father a former mayor) steers the coastal city into the level of the annual appropriation budget’s bragging right of Tarlac City?

SEASONED LGU ADMINISTRATOR. Author (L) in a tête-à-tête with Dagupan City’s local government unit (LGU) Administrator Vlad Mata. Mata had stint as City Administrator of Tarlac City in 2016.

I could not say if he can unless he intercedes for the creation of a special economic zone just like what then Mayor Ramon “Mon-Mon” Guico, III started in 2018.

Guico, now a congressman, would gloat every time we meet at his house for breakfast or lunch or at his airport terminal in Binalonan, Pangasinan how the 12,000 workers of Sumitomo will transform the town, the one city (Urdaneta), and the other seven towns into a burgeoning district because of the multi-plier effects of the economic zone he chalked up after the family sold to the Japanese and Filipino consortium 24 hectares of their lands to make his vision come to fruition.

Here what I posted at Facebook when I had lunch with the solon in July 16, 2020:

“Lunch yesterday with Congressman Monmon Guico. We discussed the multi-plier effects of the 12,000 new workers in his brainchild economic zone that hosted the Japanese clutch wiring firm Sumitomo. His family sold to the firm 24 hectares of land that would benefit not only 12,000 of his constituents as workers but help their families and other new businesses that will sprout in the periphery this coming February. "With that mammoth employment marvel, Metro Urdaneta that includes Binalonan will eclipse Metro Dagupan , Calasiao, and Mangaldan economic areas. I know what I'm talkin congressman. I interviewed before the head of Sumitomo Tarlac City and how it transformed Tarlac as an LGU's behemoth in terms of annual appropriation budget versus those cities in Region 1".

To my readers, do you agree with my prognosis that Metro Urdaneta and Binalonan will overtake economically Metro Dagupan, Calasiao, and Mangaldan in the near future?

READ: 

Mayors pocket loan from Land Bank, etc

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