Bataoil versus Perez for PCL-Pang'nan Chapter

BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

 I thought the race to get the highest plum of the Philippine Councilors League-Pangasinan Chapter (PCL-PC) is a hiccup.

Lingayen Councilor
Ramon Bataoil

Can you imagine San Carlos City councilor Vicci Ventanilla and ticket dropping by at the houses or offices of the 476 councilors of the 44 towns and three cities' humongous province by giving each of them a cassava cake instead of the P10, 000 to P20, 000 that become an “ ugly custom” in the past campaigns.

 Ramon Bataoil for the marquee fight

 It took only a text message last August 9 from former Land Bank Manager and Asingan , Pangasinan beauteous councilor Vangie Dorao for me to change my hiccup to heave- out.
 “ It’s final, Councilor Ramon Bataoil of Lingayen for PCL presidency,“ excerpts of Vangie’s message.
Vangie, by the way, runs for the Public Relation Officer of the PCL-PC under Bataoil.
When I texted Judy Vargas, another gorgeous solon of Capital town Lingayen who runs for the vice presidency of the PCL-PC, to confirm Mon Bataoil challenging San Manuel councilor Shiela Perez, Miss Vargas retorted:
 “Is it a good move? Tito Ramon is a good choice. Perfect fit. Did it make our team better? .

San Manuel Councilor
Shiela Perez

Vargas explained that the move to replace Ventanilla with Bataoil was to strengthen the group.
 "Councilor Vicci (and the Cassava Cake? ) is still with us and will run as the Secretary General. This is for the betterment of Team Victory".
"Geez, the fight is no longer Manny Pacquiao versus Brandon Rio Locsin in Veni Vici Vidi (“I came, I saw, I conquer” –Julius Caesar). It’s Manny Pacquiao versus Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in Ramon. It’s a “Dream Fight for the PCL-PC derby,” I told my side kick Procopio Matulis who was imbibing his third bottle of Tanduay Rhum.
Just like the Perezes (Shiela, former PCL –PC L-President Dong Perez, their brother San Manuel Mayor Jericho Perez and their father San Manuel Vice Mayor Badong Perez), the Bataoils (Mon, and older brother Congressman Pol (2nd District, Pangasinan) have the wherewithal’s of millions of pesos to cough-up till the D-Day in August 19, 2013.

 Rep. Pol Bataoil as prospect for the governorship in 2016

But what intrigued me about the entry of Councilor Mon was the probable candidacy of Congressman Pol for the governorship in 2016 when his fellow PMAyer incumbent Governor Amado T. Espino ends his last term in that year.
 Can Pol be likened to the United States pivot by realigning some of its military forces from Europe and the Middle East and based them in the Asia Pacific region so it can deal effectively with the growing military threat of economic giant China?

Lingayen coun-
cilor Judy
Vargas

With Mon at the PCL-PC, Pol has already a comparative advantage to the 476 dads as conduits to the almost two million voters in the humongous province.

Gubernatorial Bets for 2016

 According to my source the probable gubernatorial bets for 2016 would be Abono Congressman Conrad Estrella, Vice Governor Ferdinand Calimlim, 5th District congresswoman Kimi Cojuangco, and Bataoil. Governor Espino, according to my source, will reclaim his old congressional seat in the 2ndDistrict or run as mayor of the mammoth city San Carlos.

Asingan Councilor Vangie
Dorao

“He is building a house at a village in San Carlos,” the source quipped. (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)

Sub-standard Dagupan road hit

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

One of the more than 10
 long cracks covered by
by pressure epoxy scarred
the P49 million elevated AB Fernandez
Road in Dagupan City.

DAGUPAN CITY – Is the P49-million peso newly elevated road at downtown area in this city below par? District Engineer Elpidio Paragas , the new head of the 2nd Engineering District of the Department of Public Works & Highway, said the series of cracks ensued because the private contractor forgot to cut some of the iron bars that were used to strengthen the concrete road.

“Hindi nila inapura na nilagare ito. So ang crack nag-umpisa na dito diretso na doon sa labas,” Paragas explained by drawing on a piece of paper what happened if some iron bars embedded in the concrete pavement were not cut.

The cracks can be seen from the stretch in front of CSI Mall up to the approach of Quintos Bridge near the Star Plaza Hotel. Some of them formed a letter “S” that crossed the road, while other could as long as two meters. Paragas said black objects put by the private contractor at the space left by the cracks were pressure epoxy.

One of the owners of business establishment in the downtown area whose stall was almost obstructed by the height of the elevation said some parts of the road have no iron bars when the private contractor made them, resulting in cracks.

“Hindi nila nilagyan ng bakal. Inuna nila ang bulsa nila. Dapat malaman ito ni Secretary Rogelio Singson para mapalitan ang kalsada,” the source, who asked for anonymity, quipped.

Despite naming 3 Nominees PNP CLUELESS WHEN GUV SELECTS HIS PD

                                                                BY MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

CLUELESS : PNP Region-1 Director Ricardo
 Marquez said that he could not ascertain
the exact date when Pangasinan Governor Amado
 T. Espino exercises his right mandated by law
to select one of the three nominees for the
 post of the province’s police director even
 the police hierarchy named  already the nominees. 

LINGAYEN - After naming the nominees for the police director of Pangasinan, two top police officials have no ideas the date Governor Amado T. Espino of Pangasinan can exercise his option to select one of the three nominees as mandated by law. “Mahirap mahirap, dahil hindi tayo ang magdedesisyon. They are the one (National Police Commission) deciding for it,” Philippine National Police's Region 1 Director Ricardo Marquez told Northern Watch in August 5.

NITTY GRITTY AT NAPOLCOM: Acting Provincial
Director Marlou Chan explains to the media
the nitty-gritty how the names of nominees for
police  provincial director is
submitted by the Philippine National Police
 to the National
 Police Commission under the watch of DILG
Secretary Mar Roxas who has to evaluate it. 

“Ang importante doon we observed due process as far as the PNP is concerned. Iyong process is ma-complete na natin,”he stressed.
Marquez said that out of the 13 applicants at the Senior Officers Placement and Promotion Board (SOPPB) for the top police post in Pangasinan, the board filtered it to three nominees to include Senior Superintendents Mariel M. Magaway, Ferdinand Divina, and Valerio de Leon.
 Magaway, a native of Dupax, Nueva Ecija is the chief of Counter Intelligence and Security Division of the PNP in Camp Crame, Divina , who hailed from Tayug, Pangasinan, is the former Region-1 chief of the Criminal Investigation Detection Group and incumbent chief of the Cyber Crime Group of the PNP in Camp Crame, while de Leon used to be the provincial director of Quezon.
 Chan said Marquez still waits for the transmittal of the three nominees from Secretary Mar Roxas, the chairman of the NAPOLCOM, before he submits the names to Espino who will select his choice.
Section 51 of the Department of Interior & Local Government Act and Republic Act 8551 (Act Establishing the Philippine National Police Under a re-organized Department of the Interior and Local Government, and for Other Purposes) provide that the governor appoints one of the three nominees submitted by the regional director.
 Marquez hopes that before the next writ of injunction hearing on September 5 filled by Espino to him, Chan, and Director Catalino Cuy, PNP chief for Personnel and Records Management, the governor has chosen already his provincial director.

ESPINO’S LAWYER: Attorney Geraldine Baniqued, 

provincial legal officer and Governor Amado
Espino's counsel, explains to the media the

 development of what happened in the chamber of Judge

 Caridad Villegas-Galvez when she  met the respondents

   PNP Region-1 Director Ricardo Marquez, and acting 

Pangasinan  police Provincial Director Marlou Chan.

He said however that he could not cite the exact date when the NAPOLCOM submit to him the list. “Madali , minsan matagal-tagal ng kakaunti. Marami rin concern ina-attend iyong NAPOLCOM. Pero we are hopeful before the next meeting before September 5 magkakaroon na rin ng resolution”.
Marquez said the legal counsel and the camp of Espino are quite satisfied how the aspiration of the governor for the law to be followed progresses because they saw how the national police practice good faith when they promised in July 4, 2013 to observe the law when they met with the respondents and their counsel at the chamber of Judge Caridad Villegas-Galvez of Regional Trial Court Branch 69 here.
"So naniniwala na good faith ang national police dito. We have started the process by posting (the availability of the police post in Pangasinan). Kasi may notice of vacancy we completed the process by submitting the list of eligible,” he stressed.

Dagupan’s bursar hits on poor performance

Mayor Belen Fernandez

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – A political kibitzer here lamented the poor tax collection efficiency under this city’s treasurer Romelita Alcantara.
 “Aside from her P40 million's deficit in the collection target of P612 million for this year, Dagupan has been dusted off by Urdaneta City,” the source, who asked anonymity, opined.
 Urdaneta City has a tax goal of P637 million excluding special appropriation this year.
 The source said this burgeoning city should be exceeding its tax target. “Alcantara lacks vision and imagination to boost the public coffer,” she quipped.
She proposed that aside from Mayor Belen Fernandez weeding out the excessive number of consultants, real and “ghost” emergency workers, and other dead woods hired by former Mayor Benjamin S. Lim, Fernandez should hire experienced financial consultants to advise her how to raise and collect more taxes. “She should get for instance savvy former treasurer Arturo Mandapat, Jr. who just retired as bursars of San Carlos City and Urbiztondo”.
 Mandapat, the source said, was responsible to the revenue turned around of San Carlos City and the classic tax spikes of Urbiztondo town.
“Mandapat was a perennial awardee of the Bureau of Local Government Finance after he exceeded his tax collection for several years. If Dagupan City reeled today on the P40 million deficits, San Carlos experienced  a tax surplus of P72.7 million under the chutzpah of Mandapat. Imagine what P72.7 million can do to the deficit-reeling administration of Mayor Fernandez,” the source posed.
Mandapat earlier opined in this paper how poor is this city’s in terms of tax collection. He said that Alcantara should have knowledge about the financial figures reported to her by business owners. “Normally business people do not report the correct amount of their income. Otherwise, they pay a lot of taxes,” he explained. He said most of businessmen do not have real books of accounts.
 Mandapat explained that despite of that adverse practice, there is a tool to detect it through “Presumptive Income Level (PIL)”.
 “Diyan sa PIL all kinds of business dapat meron siyang (Alcantara) experienced na magkaka -income usually how much the amount is derived from every kind of business”.
Mandapat said Alcantara should diligently conduct examinations of books of accounts. “She supervises her collectors in the field lalo na sa market. Mayayaman na iyong mga empleyado sa market! ”he stressed.
 A high official here said that the income derived from the “consignation” of aqua products at Magsaysay Avenue is not enough to pay the daily salary of market personnel who supervise the entrepot.
 “Dito sa amin (San Carlos City) iyong isang banyera (of fish) lang that is P100 ang tax nila dito. Ilang banyera ang nandiyan sa Dagupan ?” he posed.
 When the Department of Finance assigned Mandapat as acting treasurer of Urbiztondo, the tax collection effort of that town almost doubled. Some of his strategies were to oblige the Central Pangasinan Electric Corporation and Digitel to pay business taxes there. Even the water district there, the source said, pays now a 1% Water Sales Tax because of the pro-active intercessions of Mandapat.

Business plates anomaly in Dagupan discovered

By Alex Romeo R. Fernandez

 DAGUPAN CITY--First it was ATM (automated teller machine) cards, now it is business license plates.
 Mayor Belen T. Fernandez asked the Commission on Audit (COA) to make a thorough investigation after the city government unearthed last week another anomalous transaction at the City Hall this time involving the procurement of 3,000 business license plates from a firm that lost in an bidding.
 Fernandez made the discovery when she ordered an investigation following the attempt of a local firm called El John Company to claim payment for the plates.
 El John was reported to have been ordered to print the plates by Whatsitz Enterprises, which is owned by a certain Jason Estrada.
 Carmen Olpindo, head of the One-Stop Business Center (OSBC), which issues business plates, said the plates were delivered by Whatsitz Enterprises to her office last December 2012.
 The OSBC believing it was Whatsitz that won the bidding started issuing the plates, Olpindo said.
 However, further investigation disclosed that Whatsitz, in fact, lost the bidding conducted by Phil Government Electronic Procument System (PhilGeps). Olpindo said the OSBC stopped issuing the plates when they discovered the anomaly.
 Subsequently, the former administration conducted bidding for another set of plates last January. This time, it was RJS Techno Engineering Works, which won the bidding for 2,851 pieces of plates priced at P120 each. The Whatsitz plates were priced at P143 each.
 Both plates, however, will not be issued anymore, as they still bear the picture of former Mayor Benjamin Lim. That leaves the OSBC with a total of 5,369 unusable plates. “The anomalous transaction will undergo more thorough investigation,” Fernandez assured. (CIO/ARRF/080613)

Espino, Celeste Dismantle Illegal Structures at 100 Islands

Gov. Amado T. Espino, Jr. (in front) and Alaminos City Mayor Arthur Celeste (right) inspect the area around Quezon Island where dismantling operations on the illegal structures built within the island was conducted last August 3 at the Hundred Islands in Alaminos City. The activity is part of the Alaminos City government's effort to restore the natural beauty of the Hundred Islands defaced by the various illegal structures where Celeste sought the help of the governor in the restoration plans. Gov. Espino said he supports Celeste's plan of restoring the beauty, cleanliness and the pristine waters of the world-famous tourist spot. With the governor and the mayor are some of the provincial government department heads composed of Tourism Operations Division chief Malou Elduayan, Provincial Information Butch M. Velasco, Executive Assistant III Modesto Operana and Special Events Coordinator Marife Acerit. (PIO Photo)

SP directs NIA-AARIIP to submit a report on the status of irrigation projects in the province

Lingayen --- “Prepare a report and tell this august assembly what you’ve been trying to say with finality and totality.” This was demanded by Board Member Ranjit Shahani to Engr. Reynaldo Mencias, Project Manager of the National Irrigation Administration – Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (NIA-ARIIP), during the August 5 regular session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, here. The move was necessary to determine the status of the irrigation component projects in the province and to further elucidate the funding of the Php3.8 billion re-regulating pond built at the estuary of the Agno river in San Manuel. The NIA-ARIIP opened on July 23 the west bank gate of a 68-hectare irrigation water reservoir below the San Roque hydro-electric dam and started releasing irrigation waters to more than 12,000 hectares of rice lands in central Pangasinan. The reservoir at the mouth of the Agno River was designed to hold 5.5 million cubic meters. The news media, however, reported last week that the east gate of the pond designed to divert water from Agno to eastern Pangasinan remained closed after the NEDA put on hold the release of funds for the building of a 10-kilometer main canal from the reservoir to irrigation canals going to eight towns in Shahani’s district. Relative to this, board member Danilo Uy asked Engr. Mencias to address problems resulting from road widening in Urdaneta City that affected irrigation canals in the city. “Bago kayo mag-road widening, dapat may gawin kayong alternatives sa mga daanan ng tubig papunta sa mga farmlands, hindi ‘yung tambak kayo nang tambak,” he said. In response, Assistant Project Manager of NIA-ARIIP Ceferino Sta. Ana said the DPWH is responsible on the road widening. The NIA-ARIIP is studying plans on how to restore the affected irrigation canals and drainage systems,” he added. Towards the end, BM Uy asked Mencias “to check on the irrigation canals in the districts under their management so that farmers may know which are functioning and not-functioning.” With the re-regulating pond which stores volumes of water discharged by the San Roque dam, the province is expected to at least double its rice, corn and vegetable production with irrigation water made available yearround.. Aside from Pangasinan, San Manuel and Moncada in Tarlac and Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija will get irrigated if the Lower Agno River Irrigation System under the ARIIP project will be completed. During the launching, Mencias told newsmen that in addition to the P420 million funds allotted to build the canal that sucks water from the east bank gate of the water reservoir that was suspended, the project will need another P2.2 billion more to irrigate another 12,000 hectares more in eight eastern Pangasinan towns, the towns of Bautista and Alcala in the third district and the towns in Tarlac and Nueva Ecija. BM Liberato Villegas also stirred the attention of Engr. Frida Nidoy, Chief of NIA in San Fabian, to check on reports that the structure of the line canals in San Fabian which were recently built but were said to be breaking down.(PIO/Mark Gerry Naval Oblanca)