Congress Inaction on P’sinan's Redistricting

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan – A provincial lawmaker deplored the inaction of Congress to add more congressional districts in the highly populated province of Pangasinan.

Board Member Vici Ventanilla said if the redistricting has been the work of the provincial board (lawmaking body), the congressional apportionment to the more than three million demographic Northern Luzon’s province has long been  concluded.

Photo is internet grabbed.

“Kung ang measure na iyan ay sa probinsiya ang sumulong na iyan, gaya ng sinabi ko matagal na panahon na nagkakaroon tayo ng redistricting matagal na. Sa ibang probinsiya nadagdagan na. Ang luwag ng Pangasinan,” he told Northern Watch Newspaper.

The 1987 Constitution says that each city with a population of at least 250,000, or each province, shall have at least one representative.

“Iyan ay congressional act although it is about time na sa probinsiya ng Pangasinan unang una masyadong malaki na po ang ating probinsiya mahigit tatlong milyon ang ating population 3.3 million at alam natin na in every 250,000 can be considered as one district”

If based on the constitutional requirement of 250,000 inhabitants as minimum requirement for a new congressional apportionment, the province could have 12 congressional districts.

The Philippine Constitution added: “Within three years following the return of every census, the Congress shall make a reapportionment of legislative districts based on the standard’s provided in this section".

According to Pangasinan Fourth Engineering Office's District Engineer (DE) Simplicio Gonzales and Pangasinan Second Engineering Office DE Edita Leano Manuel of the Department of Public Works & Highway on this writer’s interview a few years ago with them, the average allocation of infrastructure projects from the national government to each of the Second, Third, and Fourth Congressional Districts was about one billion pesos on that year.
Then Pangasinan Congressmen Arthur Celeste (1st District) Victor Agbayani (2nd District) and Rachel Arenas (3rd District) filed a bill in 2008 to apportion one more congressional district in the province.

But elective provincial officials allied under then governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. opposed the measure arguing that no public hearing was conducted by the three lawmakers.

“Kailangan natin consultation ng ating mga local leaders kung okay ba sa kanila kung sila ay mapunta sa ganitong distrito. Siyempre, ibang iba ang with proper consultation. There was a time may problem ito ang ni-opposed ng mga local leaders because they were not consulted,” Ventanilla cited what happened before.

In 2014, Provincial Board Member Alfie Bince proposed a resolution for Congress to create two more districts.

He said with the 2, 893, 858 province’s population on that year, it was opportune to request congressmen to hammer a law to add more districts to Pangasinan.

Bince cited on that year that provinces like the then 2.6 million populated Cebu, 2.4 million demographics’ Negros Occidental, and 1.8 million populated Camarines Sur have seven, six, and six districts, respectively. 

 Capital town's  Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil said that when he was a congressman in the early 2000s he filed a bill for additional two districts in the province on top of the six congressional districts under the Reorganization Committee chaired by then 6th District Rep. Marlyn Primicias.

“For the record, I sponsored a bill creating additional districts for our province during my time as Congressman in support to the SP (Sanguniang Panlalawigan) Resolution of former Provincial Board Member, Manong Alfie Bince, though it did not prosper for various reasons. Perk was not my priority but people’s need. I’m proud of our constituents, majority of them are intelligent and patriotic,” he told Northern Watch Newspaper.

Another Congressman, on conditioned of anonymity, told this newspaper in 2021 that there were several members of the House of Representatives in Pangasinan that would not sign for the sponsorship bill on the creation of more districts in the province after President Rodrigo Duterte ascended to power in June 2016.

They dread to see, the solon opined, that the billion pesos’ allocation yearly in their turf could be reduced too as their district is reconfigured by the constitutional edict.

Allocation of that amount is vulnerable to anomalous transaction where the contractor of the project gives an S.O.P or cut to the solon from twenty to ten percent of a certain infrastructure to be created.

 

Calasiao New Mayor Bares Programs

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – The newly assumed mayor here will continue the twin programs of his immediate predecessor, his plan to reduce the number of employees, and the construction of infrastructures like a new abattoir and livestock facility.

Mayor Kevin Roy Macanlalay cited how neat the material recovery facility (MRF) and the tidiness of town as legacies left by Mayor Mamilyn Caramat who passed away in January 6 this year.

NEWLY MINTED Calasiao Mayor Mayor Kevin Q. Roy Macanlalay (right, photo) and his older sister and Municipal Administrator Roma Q. Macanlalay.

“Sa ngayon nagiikot ako sa ibat ibang mga government departments natin medyo okay naman. Nagpaplano tayo ng kaunting adjustment para mbawasan iyong mga problema sa opisina,” he told Northern Watch Newspaper for his first media interview since becoming a mayor by operation of law when Caramat died in January 6. Macanlalay was elected as vice mayor in May 9 election last year as tandem of Caramat.

The decision to downsize the number of workers was based on the reduction by P41 million of the national tax allotment (NTA) – the precursor of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) - from the national government this year to this first class town’s 2023 budget.

This thriving municipality – one of the richest towns in the province of Pangasinan – contented itself with a budget of P380 million this year.

After the first slaughterhouse was converted to the offices of the agriculture and municipal environment and the construction of the second abattoir in Barangay Nagsaing was stopped by then Mayor Joseph Bauzon because of the opposition of the residence of the village, Macanlalay said his administration will construct another slaughter house and a livestock facility to the still undisclosed location.

The Bauzon Administration borrowed P35 million in the bank for the slaughter house in Brgy. Nagsaing.

“Iyon ang papalitan natin. Ililipat natin gagawin natin iyong slaughter house. Kailangan iyan. Ang gagawin sa slaughter house ang nakita ko ay property ng municipyo. Slaughter house ang kalahati katabi livestock”.

Macanlalay was lukewarm on the plan of the previous administration particularly its agriculture chief to convert the abattoir in Brgy. Nagsaing as home for the propagation of piglets.

“Iyang babuyan na iyan pinagaaralan namin dahil hindi ko alam kung feasible siya. Paanakan ang LGU ang may ari. Ang hirap niyan negosyo iyan magbubuhay ka ng baboy”.

The venture on piglets’ propagation would be funded by the Department of Agriculture.

Macanlalay said he will lobby for funds in the offices of the national government in Manila for the construction of another slaughter house.

“Oo sa susunod na weeks may mga nakausap na rin tayong kaibigan. Alam po naman ninyo iyong naging kaibigan ng pamilya natin diyan sa itaas na puede nating lapitan. Ipakita lang naman natin iyan e. Talagang kailangan ng Calasiao ang slaughter house”.

How a Corrupt Politico Enriches Himself

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Many mayors did not only enrich themselves through the S.O.P (heck no! Not the standard operation procedure but a bastardize euphemism of the Pinoys for “cut”) given by suppliers and contractors for their local government unit. Some of these Hizzoners are smarter than their counterparts because they become the suppliers and contractors themselves through a dummy. Aside from getting the 10% to 20% cut from the suppliers and contractors, they get too the profit the same merchants would earn in dealing with the “municipio” or city hall. That’s, salamabit, a double whammy!

Photo credit: Esquire 

A mayor who used to have a big construction business told me that he no longer deals with the projects of the provincial government because his governor –patron lost in the last year’s election.

But I jocularly told him everything was not lost to him because he still has the municipio where his dummies can do businesses and give him the dough that he can give too – the crumbs - to the indigents and where he can have the wherewithal – called ‘money for vote buying - for his reelection in 2025.

Woe to those mayors who did not only lose their governor –benefactor but lose, too, the mayorship election last year. I know a Hizzoner who borrowed tens of millions of pesos to win his reelection in the 2019 poll and borrowed again and still lost the May 9, 2022 election that left him mired with his 2019 and 2022 debts. This happened because of his desire to win an election that gives only more or less a salary of P150,000 a month in the first class town.

“Nagkalugi-lugi na sila mayor tapos iyong mga contractors at suppliers na nagbigay ng advance pay doon sa supposed deal pag nanalo siya nga-nga sila,” a source told me about another chief executive who lost the election.

***

How can a miscreant mayor enriched himself in a limited turf despite losing his contracting business in the Capitol?

With the 20% development or infrastructure projects (Section 287 Local Government Code) in a P350 million 2023 budgeted town, the Hizzoner can get a cut as high as 20 percent from the contractors on that P70 million a year or P210 million or more a year in his three years’ stint.

Twenty-percent of that dirty monies is P42 million – his juggernaut to ingratiate in patronage politics and vote buying.

As what my friend Dong told me about what his wife’s uncle told him: Pag upo pa lang ng Mayor umpisa na iyan sa pag ipon ng pera galing sa S.O.P sa suppliers at contractors, sa ingreso sa jueteng (the perennial’s illegal number game), at iba pang mapagkikitaan.

His seasoned uncle-politician and a lawyer however became poorer after he retired in politics.

“Pati mga ancestral properties pinagbebenta para may pang-gastos lang sa kanyang reelection,” Dong said.

***

Aside from the corruption taken from the 20% development fund yearly, the mayor can still get his dirty monies from the following below:

-               P54. 6 million kickbacks - P1.4 million in one month or P18.2 million in year that includes the workers’ 13^th Month Pay, or P54.6 million in his three years’ term if out of the 400 public personnel half of them are “ghost” employees who received a P7,000 average monthly salary.

-          “Have you heard about a third class town with 400 workers? According to critics that 400 personnel are bigger than those workers of a city. A first class town in Pangasinan has more than 200 personnel only, how come a third class town has this scandalous number?” another mayor, who asked on conditioned of anonymity, posed to me.

-          - 10% to 20% cut in the 5% Calamity Fund.

-          - 10% to 20% cut from the total budget of gender and development (GAD).

-           Aside from the percentages that I mentioned above, the politico can still purloin some percentages on the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) in the different offices on the supplies there where he, as the Bids & Award Committee (BAC) chairman, in conspiracy with the treasurer, the accountant, the budget officer, general services officer, and the head of office who are members jack-up the prices of a laptop computer worth P30,000 to P120,000 apiece (ala those national DepEd officials), and others and even tinker with the 2% and 1%  of the Discretionary Fund and Special Education Fund.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.

57 Families Beneficiaries of Cheap Priced Housing in San Fabian

By Mortz C. Ortigoza 

SAN FABIAN – Fifty-seven families who are residents here have been beneficiaries of cheap priced housing project located in the commercial area where they have to pay for 15 years.

According to Vice Mayor Constatante “Danny” Agbayani, the 57 units are part of a one hectare of the 10 hectares’ lands purchased by the municipal government.

San Fabian Vice Mayor Danny Agbayani and spouse's Mayor Marlyn Agbayani.

The rest of the lands, according to the former nine years’ mayor, have been prepared by the local government unit for commercial purposes.

The housing projects are 50 meters away to a mall that is being  constructed here.

  “Sabi ko iyon oh! Ito lahat binili ko binigay ko sa inyo iyan. Pagaari ng municipyo lahat ito. Iyong mga nagdadakdak pa kayo pa ang naunang kumuha ng bahay. Isipin natin iyong mga nakaraan sabi ko (former Mayor) Attorney (Conrado) Gubatan, (former Mayor) Atty. (Mojamito) Libunao mga attorney iyan bakit hindi naisip itong ginawa ko. Namili ako ng mga lupa para sa bayan. Nagawa ko, sila hindi,” he told reporters in his office.

Each of the recipients of the housing will pay P150, 000 in 15 years.

“Sabi ni (former) Board Member Von Mark Mendoza: Ha?! Binigay mo ito? Prime lot ito ah nasa bayan ah!”

The recipients are lucky, Agbayani said, because even the small parcel of lot where the house is built could not even be bought at P250,000.

Mangaldan Ends 2022 with Big Bangs

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN, Pangasinan – The newly elected mayor of this thriving town ended the year with a double big bangs as she garnered two prestigious government awards late of last year.

Mayor Bonafe D. Parayno told Northern Watch Newspaper that the landlocked first class municipality won the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) and the SubayBAYANI awards.

MANGALDAN Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno shows the plaque where the town’s Municipal Health Office won the Bannuar Iti Salun-At for Best Pharmaceutical Management Systems Program Implementer during the 𝗚𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗱 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 awarding ceremony held in Bauang, La Union on December 12, 2022.

“Napakasaya ko po, napakasaya namin sa Mangaldan at nabigyan ng importansiya ang ginagawa ng aming municipal employees at siyempre nandiyan din ang mga citizens na aming pinagsisilbihan,” she told the representatives of the various local government units (LGUs) in Region -1 at a fete held in November 10, 2022 at EM Royalle Hotel and Beach Resort in San Juan, La Union.

Mangaldan became No. 1 among several LGUs in the 48 towns and cities’ province because of its excellent monitoring and evaluation systems and advocacy for the preservation of transparency and accountability in the conduct of local project implementation and management.

Subaybayan ang Proyektong Bayan (SubayBAYAN) is the official online system monitoring of the Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG) that provides real-time information on the physical and financial status as well as the information on the actual location, implementation, and other basic data of the local funded projects (LFPs).

The booming town was among the 18 municipalities and cities in Pangasinan who won the most coveted and stringent on criteria basis 2022’s SGLG.

 “Nanalo rin kami sa SGLG,” he told this writer on the awarding held in Manila Hotel- Fiesta Pavillon in December 14, 2022.

DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos, Jr. said that out of 1,715 provinces, cities and municipalities nationwide, only 20.4 percent have received the recent Seal.

 He was elated that 350 LGUs composed of 18 provinces, 60 cities, and 272 municipalities hurdled the SGLG’s strict parameters. Abalos said the 350 LGUs are sources of inspiration to other local governments in pursuing meaningful local autonomy and development.

Among the 48 LGUs in Pangasinan, only the provincial government, two cities, and seventeen towns were honored.

These recipients were the cities of Alaminos and San Carlos and the towns of Aguilar, Alcala, Asingan, Anda, Balungao, Basista, Bugallon, Burgos, Lingayen, Malasiqui, Mangaldan, San Fabian, San Manuel, San Quintin, Santa Maria, Santo Tomas, Urbiztondo, and Villasis.

Mayor Parayno will use the P5 million incentive fund from the DILG to buy a set of solar lights to be installed in one of the villages in the town.

Parayno had been winning the SGLG when she was a six years’ mayor of this burgeoning town. She was reelected for the mayorship last May 9, 2022 election.

“I had more than 10,000 votes margin against my opponent,” she told Northern Watch Newspaper on the lead votes that defeated one-term Mayor Marilyn Lambino. Lambino defeated Parayno in the May 2019 mayoralty election.

Mayor’s “Pasabog” Went Pfft

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 Whoever advised Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez to crow at Facebook about an impending “pasabog (explosive news) she would expose the following morning (January 17, 2023) should be crucified upside down.

The Mayor is now a laughing stock by people inside and outside of the coastal city marred by infighting among its recalcitrant majority opposition and acrimonious minority councilors.

FALSE NEWS. Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez (extreme left of the left photo) in a huddle with opposition Councilors Alvin Coquia and Malou Fernandez after the Local Development Council’s meeting, Other photos from top and clockwise show opposition Majority Leader Red Mejia and Coun. Alfie Fernandez in a bar/restaurant with Coun. Dada Reyna, Coquia, and Fernandez a few days after the vaunted LDC meeting. Mayor Fernandez posted on Facebook that the meeting of the LDC where the two opposition solons would join the following morning was her pasabog or big news. Many people believe that the heydays of the opposition have been over after the duo capitulated to the mayor but those photos above rebutted her declaration.

The “pasabog” of the “Hizzoner” once dubbed as “the Mayor with Balls” was an embarrassing flop that fell flat on her face.

She looked like that Aesop’s fable my father told me when I was a kid: The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. It was about a shepherd who got the ire of the villagers who ran to his succor every time he yelled an imagined “wolf” that would endanger his herd.

The presence of opposition lawmakers Alvin Coquia and Malou Fernandez in the Local Development Council’s meeting was not really to defect as insinuated by the “pasabog” but to heed the Local Government Code’s mandate to “assist the corresponding Sanggunian in setting the direction of economic and social development, and coordinating development efforts within its territorial jurisdiction”. Not to mention the warning of Department of Interior & Local Government Provincial Chairman Virgilio Sison (who’s in the national news lately about those faked suicides of onion farmers in Bayambang) for the immediate passage of the P1.3 billion snagged city budget otherwise the opposition members face administrative charges because of their procrastination.

After reading my blog’s Opposition MembersDefected to Dagupan Mayor? a DILG honcho in a town sent to me in Facebook a video clip of opposition stalwart Red Mejia with Coquia and Fernandez in a bar a few days after that failed supposed defection's hullabaloo.

Damn, I should be titling or headlining my blog: Opposition Members DESERTED to Dagupan Mayor but am afraid that presumed grammar police and news reporter Atong Remogat would correct me again how the word DESERT entered the scene when there was no desert like in Saudi Arabian Desert. Or how come DESERT came into play when the topic was Dagupan City and not the Filipino sumptuous DESSERT like creamy leche flan and the yummy ginataang bilo-bilo.

 What say you Dagupan City’s intellectuals Prof. Nick Melecio and nonpareil writer Rex Catubig?

The city solons on that video at FB seem to mock their opponents and the Mayor that they were still intact and ready to rumble with their war of attrition with Fernandez who was responsible for the misery and defeat of their patron former Mayor Brian Lim.

A pro-Lim’s broadcaster said he called Coquia and Fernandez, a Dentist, if they succumbed to Mayor Fernandez's entreaty but the duo denied it.

During Lim’s last two years, Fernandez majority councilors stalled in approving the P1.38 billion 2022 budget.

After Fernandez won the May 9, 2022 poll, she saw to herself that she was almost kaput without the majority of the solons backing her proposed ordinances like the P1.3 billion 2023 budget.

Her cousin Vice Mayor Dean Bryan L. Kua becomes political inutile as he became a decoration in the august body reigned by Majority Leader Mejia and the ex-mayor’s mother Celia Lim.

Dagupan Citry is the only local government unit in Region-1, son of a gun, that still need to have its 2023 budget to be approved. Most of these LGUs okayed already their budget in the two-and-half months of the previous year as mandated by law.

The war of nerves in the Sanggunian Panlungsod (legislature) is embarrassing for the people of Dagupan. Without the budget we would not have the 20% development fund for infrastructure projects this year. It means no new school buildings or their repairs, no new roads, and others.

With a mayor who cried wolf in a dropped of a hat and with the anti-progress opposition members whose hatred with Fernandez afflict the more than 200, 000 populations (where most if not many of their voters are for sale), this city is going to the dogs.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

How Mayor, Guv, Solon Steal to Fund Their Election

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.

Funding Limit for Every DPWH's Office

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan – Every office of the Department of Public Works & Highway (DPWH) has monetary limitation on the government infrastructure project it implemented, according to the department’s top official.

District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales of the 4th District Engineering Office here told Northern Watch Newspaper that if a project cost more than P400 million, more than P100 million but not more than P400 million, and P100 million below, it can be implemented by the DPWH’s national office in Metro Manila, regional office, and district office, respectively.

Photo is internet grabbed.

“Depende puede kasi P100 million depende kung saan lumabas iyang pera,” he explained about his office whose jurisdiction covered a city and five towns that composed the whole 3^rd congressional district of Pangasinan.

Other district offices like the 2nd District Engineering Office in Lingayen, Pangasinan covers the 2^nd and 3^rd Districts.

He explained that his office has no part in the estimated P500, 000, 000 proposed 490 meters’ concrete bridge in Barangay Wawa in Bayambang, Pangasinan in case it materializes with funding from Congress.

Wawa is the place where a 20- ton limit steel bridge collapsed in October last year when a 63.5 tons 12- wheeler hauling truck with sands passed by.

He said that the DPWH office and the winning contractor for the project is not expected to pay a courtesy call at his office.

“Oo pag sila ang nanalo. Kasi hindi naman kaya ng contractor dito iyan”.

The role his office could play is when there is a complaint on the hypothetical bridge in Bayambang that he could relay to the national office in Manila. His other role is to monitor the ongoing project.

“Monitoring lang kung ano ang nangyayari. Pag may nagtanong e di sasabihin ganoon”.

If the project is below P400 million and above P100 million, the DPWH regional office bypass also his district office just like what the national office would do despite the project falls in his area of jurisdiction.

Opp. Members Defect to this Mayor?

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The heydays of the dominant opposition solons in the legislative body (Sangguniang Panlungsod) in Dagupan City seem to be over in more than six months of schism after two of its members “defected” to the minority members who are allied with Mayor Belen T. Fernandez.

Councilors Alvin Coquia and Malou Fernandez declared their cooperation to all and sundry to pass needed legislative measures – like the P1.3 billion snagged 2023 budget – in the first Local Development Council (LDC) meeting held last January 16 in the city.

Opposition members and Dagupan City Coun. Alvin Coquia (from left to right) and Malou Fernandez, Minority Floor Leader Michael Fernandez, Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, and Vice Mayor  Dean Bryan L. Kua. Photo for posterity taken after the Local Development Council meeting.

A day before the LDC meeting, Mayor Fernandez posted on her Facebook account about the “pasabog (explosion)” she would tell her constituents the following day.

Excerpt of what Coquia said: Kaya po kami nandito para ipakita na kami po ay sumusuporta sa inyong liderato Mayor (crowd applauded wildly while some Fernandez supporters cheered “I loved you, Alvin!”). Nandito po kami para pakinggan po ang inyong program. Siyempre alam naman po natin  sa amin po majority naghihintay na kaya po na magkaroon tayo ng paguusap upang maplansa po ang hindi po mapagkaunawaan.

Excerpt of what Coun. Fernandez, a dentist, has said: Iyong aming hinaing sinabi ni Councilor Alvin iyong unity na lang talaga. Ang inaasaha - asahan ng bawat isa majority one minority iyon po ang kailangang natin.

Politics in the Bangus City have been polarized even before Fernandez defeated last year in an acrimonious election former Mayor Brian Lim. The rivals are competitors in the chains of malls in Northern and Central Luzon. Fernandez allies in the lawmaking body in 2021 and the first semester of 2022 stalled Lim’s proposed P1.38 billion city’s budget. They approved it only in the transition period before Fernandez – a former mayor defeated by Lim in the 2019 election -  assumed office at noon of June 30, 2022.

In that assumption, Fernandez saw the political legislative landscape reverse from those dominant solons who were friendly to her to the hostile one – seven of them versus five with Fernandez – who would not acquiesce on the proposed legislative measures from the Mayor’s office. They even procrastinated or have the intention not to approve the P1.3 billion for this year.

Retribution or poetic justice, eh, against Fernandez who power played earlier against their mayor?

Without the P1.3 billion budget, the city could not have new infrastructure and other projects because the Local Government Code bar a local government unit to implement them. It could only function through the reenacted budget – as provided by Section 323 of the LGC - by funding those salaries and wages of existing positions, statutory and contractual obligations, and essential operating expenses authorized in the annual and supplemental budgets for the preceding year.

Any corrupt mayor or a governor in any part of the Philippines could be marginalized in his or her preparation for the next election in 2025 without the 20% development projects (Section 287 LGC). A P1.3 billion, for example, means absence of P260 million or P780 million in three years’ term. Customarily, 20 % s.o.p (euphemism of cut) from the project contractors means P156 million lost from that P780 million projects.

During the inauguration of Fernandez and her three councilors’ Jigz Seen, Dennis Canto, and Michael Fernandez as newly minted elective officials, I jocularly told one of the Dads that “You got three regular Councilors plus the ex-officio members of the Presidents of the Liga ng mga Barangays and the Samahang Kabataan Federation, that’s five. Lim got seven Dads and you need to buy through sums (that’s million of pesos or more my dear readers) or give the vulnerable Dad supervision of some projects (where the Councilor can get his S.O.P or share from the contractor) to make him susceptible and makes the political equation six-six”.

 It means Mayor Fernandez’s allied lawmakers become six versus the six Councilors of Lim that transforms Vice Mayor Dean Brian L. Kua - the Veem and cousin of Fernandez – to become a tie breaker in favor of the new Mayor’ programs that need legislative approval.

Now let’s go back to what happened a few days ago. What prompted the defection of Coquia and Fernandez (a best friend of opposition stalwart solon Celia Lim - the mother of the former Hizonner)? Was it because of the chutzpah of the mayor through quip pro quo (like psychological, spiritual, or financial, salamabit!) or was the duo was just patriotic to serve the Dagupenos whose more than two thousands of scholars have been groping in the dark for their tuition fees from the public coffer.

Or they were just there because the LGC says that members of the LDC are all the councilors of a local government unit and they should attend its meeting. Or their presence had the imprimatur from the opposition leader Councilor Red E. Mejia and former mayor Lim’s mother Councilor Celia Lim because earlier in their session Department of Interior & Local Government Provincial Director Virgilio Sison warned them that an administrative case of dereliction of duty looms if they – the vengeful-we-hate-Belen Fernandez majority opposition councilors - will not approve this year’s budget?

My broadcaster friend Harold Barcelona doubted the duo defected because in the January 18 session of the SB, Coquia and Fernandez still supported the ally -solons under former Mayor Lim.

When he saw the LDC meeting showing Mayor Fernandez supporters in the LDC applauded Coquia and Fernandez’s presence, former Councilor Chito Samson – an ally of the mayor – quipped on his Facebook account: Salamat Sa Diyos natauhan din si Konsi Alvin Coquia at Konsi Malou Fernandez.

Hours later he lamented: Haizt photo ops lang pala hahaha akala ko new majority na sa SP sorry na naman ang Dagupan.

We can ascertain finally if the duo abandoned the opposition if we could see them collaborate with the proposed ordinances of Mayor Fernandez and not only of the budget’s approval as pressure and warning from the DILG threatened them like a Sword of Damocles.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

How Mayor, Guv, Solon Steal to Fund Their Election

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.

Merrera Swells Coffer Thru Saving

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Because of the almost P30 million saving last year on procurement of equipment, materials, and services initiated by the mayor here, this coastal first class town had given a P20,000 Christmas bonus to each of its regular employees.

Mayor Pete Merrera told Northern Watch Newspaper how the P320 per license tin plate business people purchase here every year is being sold by the local government unit (LGU) to each of them for a measly P150 only.

Binmaley Mayor Pete Merrera

“Tingnan mo iyong ginawa mo noon e manipis e nagtatalo sila. Manipis iyong binigay mo kung gagayahin ko ang sa iyo P150 sabi niya,” he quoted how the two bidders from Manila argued during the bidding of the plates here.

He cited how P3.8 million new dump truck appropriated by the Sangguniang Bayan (legislative body) to be bought by the LGU was reduced to P3.3 million where the town saved P500, 000.

Merrera told this newspaper earlier that this town saved a lot financially under his leadership compared to the time of his predecessor Mayor Sam Rosario – who is now this town’s vice mayor.

“At least malalaki ang natitipid ko. Kung sila ang gumagastos ng 900 ako gumagastos ng 200. Dapat matuwa sila,” he told Northern Watch Newspaper after he unruffled some feathers on the camp of Rosario of his comparison with the two administrations.
To solve soil and infrastructure problems here, the Mayor, a Civil Engineer, reached out to his contractor-friends to lend him their heavy equipment gratis. The actuation saves the treasury by P6,000 and P7,000 per hour for the loader and grader, respectively.

Merrera negotiated with Metro Urdaneta Waste Management Corporation –Urdaneta City for a P500 to P600 per metric ton (pmt) service fee of the retrieval of the garbage here.

He said the Rosario Administration was paying P850 pmt to dump the refuse of the people here to Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation in Pampanga.

Guico Admin. Spikes on TRC Considered the Sad Plight of People – Solon

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The proposed amended tax revenue code (TRC) that will fund projects of the administration of Pangasinan Governor Ramon Guico, III considers the economic plight of the people as they lock horns with economic hardship from the pandemic and other financial scourges.

“Actually may pagtaas na iyon pinagaralan din naming mabuti iyan na hindi rin makaka-apekto sa mga negosyante sa mga tao,” according to Board Member Vici M. Ventanilla.

Photo is internet grabbed.

He cited however the necessity to pass it due to the reduction this year of the national tax allotment (NAT) that saw the provincial government lost P700, 000, 000 from its P6 billion 2022 budget to the present budget of P5.3 billion.

One of the reasons why the amendment this year is being pursued because the last revision and implementation of the Code was in 2012.

There were limitations of the schedules of taxes on real properties like an increase of up to five percent when they hammered the law according to the solon from San Carlos City.

“May limitiation din kasi iyan gaya ng mga taxes five percent,” he told Northern Watch Newspaper.

The new TRC will fund more projects under the Guico Administration.

When former Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. and the Sanggunian Panlalawigan approved the TRC in year 2011, it was met by aggressive opposition from Pangasinenses led by Abono Partylist Chairman Rosendo So who protested on its prohibitive increases.

Its implementation was delayed up to 2012 because of the uproar by the protesters.

As mandated by the Local Government Code (RA 7160), general revision of local government unit (LGU) tax codes should be made every after three years.

During the time of Governor Espino, public hearings saw real estate developers, real estate brokers, real properties organizations and Bureau of Internal Revenue officials were asked to present the zonal valuation of properties in the different cities and municipalities throughout Pangasinan. After the public hearings and additional review, the SP enacted a provincial ordinance that approved the Proposed Schedule of Market Values.

Under the RPT scheme, municipalities receive the biggest share of 40%, while the 35% goes to the province, and 25% to the barangay. In the case of cities, the province has no share and taxes are shared only by the city with 75% share and the barangay with 25%.

 

Coup Rumors

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

A police Colonel assigned in Metro Manila called my attention last Saturday that there was a brewing coup rumor in the country as armored personnel carriers were ubiquitous in the police camp.

“Heightened alerts ang dalawang kampo,” he told me through Messenger about the highest level of alert in Camp Crame and the nearby military headquarter's Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

TOP BRASS of the military and the police in the Philippines. From left photo and clockwise: Reappointed Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Andres Centino, dismissed AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, and national police's chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin. 

He cited that this looming putsch ensued after Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Bartolome Bacarro was sacked from his post without explanation. Bacarro was replaced by his Philippine Military Academy’s classmate General Andres Centino. The latter was unceremoniously booted out from his office and left in floating status in August 2022 when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. replaced him with Bacarro.

Bacarro was rumored to be a recommendee of disgraced former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez who resigned because of the alleged appointment- for- sale in top government positions.

A broadsheet of the Philippine Star reported that an "unsigned memorandum" from Caraga and Cordillera police offices quoted Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Arnold Azurin ordering all the cops to go on alert status "in view of the resignation of all Department of National Defense personnel at Camp Aguinaldo. All duty personnel are required 100 percent police presence and monitor movements of AFP troops."        

Because of this brouhaha, Department of National Defense officer-in-charge Jose Faustino Jr. - a former General - resigned from his post. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. appointed to the DND  Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez.

Bacarro's appointment was a slap on the face of Centino because of Republic Act No. 11709 passed by Congress and approved during the administration of Marcos’ predecessor President Rodrigo Duterte.  The law sets a fixed term of three years for eight of the most senior AFP officers, including the chief of staff and the commanders of the Army, Air Force and Navy.

The turned over ceremony of the top brass of the AFP was deprived of pomp and pageantry of the traditional changed of command ceremony where a band and colors lead by cadets of the PMA and military where the President of the Philippines and the Defense Secretary as guest of honors at the grandstand in Camp Aguinaldo.

Centino’s reappointment – a first in the annals of the AFP – was graced by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who presided over the ceremony, and Special Assistant to the President Anton Lagdameo Jr. It was held in the Tejeros Hall of the AFP Commissioned Officers Club House.

“Therefore, to implement this law, the [AFP] needs strong and determined leaders capable of steering the organization in the direction of stabilizing unity, and ushering in a truly modern and professional Armed Forces,” excerpt of the speech Centino’s cited.

“Both unprecedented and a welcome development, justice is done to a truly deserving officer by a President who is willing to rectify an error when it is the right thing to do,” he added on the mistake committed by President Marcos on the statute.

Journalists were not even invited to the ceremony of the 144, 000 strong military.

My Colonel-source even told me that there is restlessness among the almost 1,000 police generals and colonels after Secretary Benhur  Abalos called for their mass resignation.

This was due to the deteriorating narcotics problem in the country where the law enforcers were involved.

In October last year, Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr.  was arrested in Tondo, Manila and found to have amassed 990 kilos of shabu (meth) worth P6.7 billion he kept in the lending company office’s Wealth and Personal Development Lending Inc. in Sta. Cruz, Manila . The arrest led the police to investigate a general - who remained anonymous as of press time -  who was the patron of Mayo.

In December 6 last year, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Southern District Office Chief Enrique Lucero, agents Anthony Vic Alabastro and Jaireh Llaguno, and driver Mark Warren Mallo were arrested by police in a buy bust operation selling P9.18 million worth of shabu inside their office in Bonifacio Street in Barangay Upper Bicutan, Taguig 

During the administration of Duterte – whose gauntlet hand approach to narcos saw the death of 7,742 civilians (ACLED) – the appalling involvement of law enforcers like that of Sergeant Mayo and PDEA Chief Lucero et al. were unheard of.

These malefactors trembled to the take-no-prisoner approach of the Davao City’s Dirty Harry while they are not deterred to the present occupant of Malacanang.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials's idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.

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