By Mortz C. Ortigoza
The majority of the opposition councilors
in the Sangguniang Panlungsod (lawmaking body) identified with Dagupan City's former mayor Brian Lim had shown lately to Mayor Belen T. Fernandez and her
allied solons who’s the boss in the august chamber by not confirming the
appointment of her Administrator.
Before the seven opposition Dads assumed office in June 30, I wrote that it would only take two of them to desert in a quid pro quo (like being paid by hefty sums – damn, could be millions of dough - or given a share of some projects where the duo could get a cut) to succumb and eventually joined the party of Fernandez to make the equation in the SP 7-5 in favor to the party of former Mayor Belen.
Photo credit: Quotesgram.com |
The present political equation of the minority in the august
chamber is three regular Councilors
plus the ex-officio members of the Presidents of the Liga ng mga Barangays
and the Samahang Kabataan Federation of five legislatures allied with Mayor
Belen while those loyal to former Mayor Lim are seven dads.
In the sideline of the inauguration of
Mayor Fernandez in June 30, 2022 one of the three minority councilors came to
my table for a tête-à-tête.
I told him that they need to persuade two of the dads in the Lim’s party to turncoat so the executive department could
implement its programs and avoid any legislative conundrums.
The Councilor – one of
the few intelligent Dads – told me he is looking too for that “vulnerable”
Councilor in Lim’s Party to go on leave every time there is a votation of a
resolution or ordinance needed by the Fernandez Administration.
But I differed to him.
“Pangit naman iyong
kada botohan mag li-leave of absence iyong isa o iyong dalawang councilors na
sinasabi ninyo”.
I advised him to
instigate that Dad to defect to their party instead of taking leave of absence
every time there is a division of the house.
“Oo nga, ano?!” he
quipped.
He said the lawmaker I’d referred used to
be their party mate.
But until now the that particular Dad did not budge. It only shows that money is not everything in this city whose gullible voters have been perennially known to vote for the highest bidder.
Geez, was it John Lennon or Paul McCartney
who shouted the first stanza of that rock song’s
Can’t Buy Me Love?
That love is his uncompromising loyalty to
former Mayor Brian and the mother and daughter Councilors Celia and Irene
Lim-Acosta - the bastoneros of the Sanggunian.
With the non-confirmation of the city
administrator who is a lawyer and some muscle flexing of the majority like
torpedoing a proposed ordinance to lower the boatmen’s fee sponsored by the
minority lawmaker who heeded the call of the mayor as urgent bill. After
killing it, they (the majority) sponsored it in a committee hearing so they
could take credit, salamabit, when it becomes a law. This only showed their
gross abuse of power. We call it the Tyranny of the Majority, their sheer
hubris to perpetuate their whims and caprices. They wanted to show too to Mayor
Belen that dark days’ loom for her administration just like what her then majority
councilors put schism on legislation and barred Mayor Brian Lim to function
effectively.
One of the darkest hours of Lim was when
the dominant dads under the perceive influence of Fernandez – a former six years’
mayor – procrastinate to approve the P1.38 billion 2022 budget of Lim. They
approved it only when Fernandez defeated Lim in the May 22 election.
Fernandez and her Dads defanged Lim to
implement his 20 percent development fund allocated yearly for infrastructure
construction and those other appropriations intended for the social services of
the people of Dagupan City.
With the table now turned against Mayor
Belen, the opposition SB members relish how the former will suffer just like
what she and her dads had done to their patron. Expect to see the Fernandez
Administration reels with no new budget for fiscal year 2023 and probably up to
year 2025 – the year she and Lim will have their rubber match.
“You reap what you sow” says of a trite
adage.
But their constituents salamabit – the 174,
302 million populations (2020 census) – become a collateral damage for the absences of any new
infras and services as their bickering and power play worsen.
Woe to the Dagupenos, they have to bear
with the schism of their ugly politicians who have score to settle.
(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)
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