By Mortz C. Ortigoza
Many mayors and vice mayors in this province have been denounced by a newspaper publisher by fleecing her and fellow newspaper owners of a significant parts of amount for the law passes by either the Sangguniangs Panlungsod or Bayan (city or municipal legislature) that need publication.
“Dati rati kalahati ang kukunin ng office ni Vice Mayor, ngayon hinde na nila sasabihin kung magkano ang per page, sila na ang magbibigay sa iyo,” the source, who asked for anonymity, told this writer about the deteriorating rackets committed by many vice mayors in Pangasinan.
The mayors' avarice have not been spared by the criticisms of the publishers.
 |
| Bundles of Philippine Peso Bills. |
One
of them told this newspaper in the past that when he won a bid at the
Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) to
publish an ordinance passed and signed by the town legislature and
the mayor he was told by the latter:
“50% ang cut ko dito”.
The newspaper owner was shocked since he won the right to publish in a proper bidding as dictated by the Procurement Law of the Philippines.
“Sobrang suwapang naman ng mayor na iyan”.
Publication of a local government unit (LGU) in a newspaper could be lucrative. One page could be billed up to P7,000 where a printing cost only a publisher P500 only. The town or city published up to 200 pages in three consecutive weeks of its ordinance in a paper that won the bid.
That would be a staggering P420 thousand that a corrupt public official pockets personally half of its sum, while some publishers in the province who conspired with these corruptions have been able to build a house and bought a car.
The present source said the office of the mayor can short change the newspaper owner if it has the allocation of the budget for publication that is usually appropriated to the vice mayor’s office.
The conspiracy to rob the government's coffer with an expensive advertising fee ensued because another two publishers connived with the first publisher who bid in the lower price.
“Bibigyan na lang ng share ng publisher iyong dalawang kasama niya,” she cited.
Newspaper owners have been competing with each other to ingratiate with the vice mayors or his secretary in the August body by giving them expensive liquors and even tens of thousands of pesos upon the signature in the contract of the number two elected official of the LGU.
“Pag na pirmahan na ni Vice Mayor nagbibigay na kaagad ako ng paunang bayad pang good will”.
Many officials in the Sanggunian have been nearly sued by some publishers because they bypassed the bidding process – as requisite by the law- of the publication to get their favorite publisher to publish their documents.
“One of these case happened in a town in Eastern Pangasinan where the Secretary would not allow a publisher to submit her bid she believed to be the lowest,” a source cited.
Upon a legal advice from an official of the Civil Service Office, the newspaper owner asked a policeman to accompany her as witness that her bid would not be accepted by the secretary,” she told this writer.
A secretary or a vice mayor could be recalcitrant if he already accepted a part of the office’s total share of the racket.
Because of the threat of criminal prosecution and litigation, the vice mayor begged off the publisher not to sue them and instead give to her the publication of the ordinance.
The source lauded the towns of Bautista and Basista in Pangasinan to have honest officials who did not fleece a publisher who wins the bid there.
There are more or less twenty community newspapers that circulate and compete for publication bidding in the forty four towns four cities’ province.
READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:
No comments:
Post a Comment