RDO No. 21A- North Pampanga Top 5 in Nat’l Collection

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Out of the 132 revenue district offices (RDOs) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue nationwide, 13 RDOs hurdled their collection target by at least 20 percent in August this year.

RDO No. 21A Chief Charmaine Caday-Dela Torre

RDO 21-A –Angeles City, North Pampanga ranked fifth.

RDO 21A is under the stewardship of RDO Chief Charmaine Caday-Dela Torre.

The top 10 highest collectors are RDO No. 34 in Paco-Pandacan; 2) RDO No. 95 in Jolo, Sulu; 3) RDO No. 81 in Cebu City North; 4) RDO No. 14 in Bayombong; 5) RDO No. 21A in Angeles City; 6) RDO No. 21C in Clark Free Zone; 7) RDO No. 54B in Kawit; 8) RDO No. 86 in Borongan City; 9) RDO No. 51 in Pasay City; 10) RDO 126 Regular LT Audit Division 3.

For the cumulative period from July to August, 16 RDOs surpassed their collection by at least 20 percent. RDO 21A Angeles City - North Pampanga ranked nine.

 

Major Generals Acorda, Estomo groom as Next PNP Chief

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

In the birthday bash recently of a retired police major general in the posh Valle Verde in Pasig City, I met some Colonels and senior officers of the Directorate for Intelligence (D.I) led by their chief Major General Benjie Acorda (PMA Class 1991). When my sister-in-law Liza Magaway – the Missus of Police retired Major Gen. Mariel Magaway (former chief of D.I and PMA Class 1986) – introduced him to me, I told Gen. Acorda that he was still a cadet when I worked at the public information office and at the tactics office of the Philippine Military Academy in the late 1980s. We recalled how cadets where dichotomized during the most devastating but failed coup d' tat dubbed as the December 1, 1989 Putsch against President Cory Aquino by the group led by Army cashiered Colonel Gringo Honasan and General Edgardo Abenina of the Reform Armed Forces Movement (RAM) and the Marcos Loyalists led by retired General Jose Ma. Zumel – a Rightist whose Leftist brother is Commie’s National Democratic Front of the Philippines Chair Antonio Zumel.

BRASS. Philippine National Police's Directorate for Intelligence (D.I) Chief Major General Benjie Acorda (PMA '91) (left of photo) and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Chief Maj. Gen. Jonnel Estomo (PMA '92).

“Where were you during that coup?” I asked the white tee clad but ramrod straight General as I remembered then PMA Superintendent Army General Boy Enrile was given a huge sent off and a warmed acrimonious welcome by workers of the Academy in Barangay Kias, Baguio City after he persuaded the beleaguered Scout Rangers headed by their chief then Army Captain Danny Lim ( West Point alumnus) to come out in their redoubts in those skyscrapers in Makati City after they holed in there to fight to the death the encircling government troopers led by AFP Chief of Staff Renato de Villa.

The tide of the putsch changed its course after President Aquino – at the behest of his Cabinet members like Defense Sec. Fidel Ramos – called by phone the White House which was under President George W.H Bush.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Colin Powel – a black American four –star Army General who came from the ROTC and not that college near the Hudson River called USMA or West Point – recalled on his 643 pages’ book with Joseph E. Persico titled My American Journey - I bought then at Book Sale - narrated how he and Admiral Huntington Hardisty instead decided to instruct US F-4- III pilots to take off from Clark Air Base in Pampanga and buzz the air base captured by the putschists in a manner that demonstrated "extreme hostile intent" with further instructions to shoot down any planes like those T-28 Trojans - we called in Cotabato in the 1970s and 1980s as Tora-Tora – and the rockets guided Sikorsky utility helicopters  that did takeoff.

“Nasa rebelde kami noong panahon,’ General Acorda told me recalling those challenging times in 1989 when he was still a cadet at the PMA.

***

While quaffing Johnny Walker's booze and chewing those delectable General Santos City sliced raw tunas mixed with Wasabi and Kikkoman with some officers, I heard that General Acorda was being groomed as the heir apparent of PNP Chief Rodolfo Azurin who will retire on April 23, 2023 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age but still a young mark of 56.

 “There are three of them being groomed to be the next PNP Chief. General Acorda, (Major) General Jonnel Estomo (PMA ‘92), and Major General Ronald Lee (PMA ‘92). It’s between Acorda and Estomo since Lee is still young”.

Estomo and Lee – a former provincial director of Pangasinan – are the chiefs of the National Capital Region and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

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.

LGUs Face Billions of Pesos Slashed Budget Next Year

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Local government units (LGUs) in the provinces, cities, towns, and villages will suffer a reduced budget of tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos on their national tax allotment (NAT).

NAT’s precursor is the internal revenue allotment as provided by law that funnel a huge chunk of funds in most of the LGUs in the Philippines.

Photo credit: Google.com

“Ang province (of Pangasinan) baba ng almost P900 million province P4 billion noon,” said by newly elected Manaoag Mayor Jeremy Agerico Rosario by comparing the P4 billion budget of Pangasinan this year and her impending slash budget next year.

Before his mayoral mandate started in June 30 this year, Rosario was a seasoned provincial legislature of the forty-four towns and three cities LGUs of Pangasinan.

If the appropriation budget of P4 billion would be reenacted next year by the administration of Pangasinan Governor Ramon Guico, III, the same NAT this year could not be given by the national government next year.

The Local Government Code of the Philippines cited that the LGUs shall have a share in the national internal revenue taxes based on the collection of the third fiscal year preceding the current fiscal year as follows:… (c) On the third year and thereafter, forty percent (40%).

According to the Department of Budget and Management, due to the drop in tax revenues collected by the government in 2020 at the onset of the Corona Virus Disease - 19 pandemic local governments’ share in the proposed 2023 national budget will be reduced to P820.3 billion,
A local budget memorandum issued by the DBM said  that LGUs share from all tax collections in 2020, which was the basis of their 2023 national tax allotment (NTA), included P665.8 billion from the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) tax take two years ago; P154.4 billion from the Bureau of Customs’ collections of import duties and other taxes, and; P32.6 million in national taxes collected by other agencies.

When divided to all local government units, the country’s 82 provinces will have an NTA share of P188.7 billion, which they will divide among themselves; the 146 cities, also P188.7 billion; the 1,488 municipalities, P278.9 billion; notwithstanding the P164.1 billion to be subdivided among the 41,935 villages or barangays nationwide.

Next year’s NTA will be below the record P959.04 billion in this year’s P5.02-trillion national budget—the first annual appropriation that implemented the Supreme Court’s Mandanas-Garcia ruling. LGUs’ 2022 NTA was based on all tax collections in 2019.

Binmaley Mayor Pete Merrera deplored to this writer that its present P350 million appropriation budget will be reduced by P44 million next year.

The P350 million budget of the 33 barangays’ LGU is one of the highest budgeted town among the first class municipalities in the province.

“Baba kami ng P40 million for 2023 budget,” the mayor of the pilgrims’ first class town Manaoag cited.

Rosario said that presently his burgeoning town has a budget of P268 million.

DPWH's New Buildings in P’gasinan

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The Department of Public Works and Highway have completed isolation facilities in various parts of Pangasinan.

The DPWH regional office in San Fernando City, La Union announced the consummation of the following facilities:

TOP BRASS. Department of Public Works & Highway Region -1 Director Ronnel M. Tan (left of photo) and DPWH 4th District Engineering Office District Engineer Simplicio D. Gonzales. 

The OPAG Building in Sta. Barbara. The quarantine facilities cubicle is managed by the Region-1 Task Force and Provincial Government of Pangasinan.

The Multi-Purpose Hall, Balayang in Alaminos City. It is a quarantine facilities cubicle managed by Region-1 Task Force and the local government unit (LGU) of Alaminos City.

The Pangasinan Provincial Police Office (PPO) male and female PNCO barracks in Camp General Antonio O. Sison, Libsong West in Lingayen.

The Eastern Pangasinan Hospital in Tayug. It is managed by the provincial government of Pangasinan.

The Regional Evacuation Center converted as health care facilities in response to Covid-19 pandemic. They are located at Brgy. Tangcarang, Alaminos City, Brgy. Poblacion East, Calasiao, Brgy. Poblacion, Dasol, and Brgy. Pugaro, Manaoag. They are managed by their respective LGUs.

The DPWH standard one storey health care facility container van at Brgy. Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City. It is managed by LGU of Dagupan City.

DPWH Region-1 and the 4th District Engineering Office District in Pangasinan are under the stewardship of Director Ronnel Tan, and District Engineer Simplicio Gonzales, respectively. 

Kilalanin Si Eddie at si Patti

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I wrote on my column several years ago about a Philippines Congressman who was a Korean.

“Korean? Paano naging Korean iyan e kilala ko iyan puro Filipino ang mga magulang,” I emphatically told a broadcaster.

He told me that the solon was unabashedly corrupt: Every time there was a contractor who would offer his service to his more or less one billion pesos allocation of projects yearly from the national government he would ask a poser: “Magkano Korean”. A play of words of "magkano ako riyan' as his cut to the project.

I thought many elective officials in the Philippines are Koreans but I was mistaken when I met the other day a contractor, a mayor, and a vice mayor of a town.

I learned that aside from a Korean, the Philippines coffer is being raided by miscreants and scoundrels like “Eddie” and “Patti”.

Here’s what ensued that I finally learned to know these two first names:

A contractor offers his service to the Hizzoner and the female Veem.

“Paano si Eddie, Mr. Contractor pag na finalized natin itong kontrata?” the mayor asked.

“Sino po si Eddie, Mayor?

“E di ako (Play of words of Eddie!” the hizzoner bellowed.

“Ay oo nga pala, okay na iyong 20 percent niyo Mayor”.

“Paano naman si Patti? the VM asked.

“Sino po si Patti? Iyong jazz singer na si Patti Austin?”

“Hindi. Patti ibig sabihin “Pati Ako!”

“Ay oo nga pala, meron kayo diyan Vice,” the contractor said embarrassed.

New Manaoag Mayor Faces Challenges

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANAOAG, Pangasinan – The newly elected mayor of this first class town faces challenges to his governance like the influx of pilgrims, traffic congestion, and the plan for a massive make-over of the public market.

“So the challenges in Manaoag at a glance: Siyempre iyong visitors iyong mga pilgrims, traffic, vendors, parking boys, among others. So slowly we are having consultation with all the sectors,” Mayor Jeremy Agerico “Ming” Rosario told Northern Watch Newspaper.

Any conditions of those challenges reflect how other people see the landlocked local government unit (LGU) is being managed.

The major problems that snagged this burgeoning town are the perennial traffic congestion and the scarce parking spaces specially for the pilgrims that stream to the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag.

Because of the normalcy of the situation that comes from the scourged of the two years pandemic, mass is being held almost every hour in the iconic Catholic's church.

To mitigate them, the mayor formed a group of traffic enforcers to manage them.

“Coming from the LGU na nag augment diyan during the rush hours at specially during the weekend in particular Sunday na talagang napakarami ng bisita. So malaking bagay nakakatulong po sila to ease traffic”.

He consulted too the vendors like the sellers of religious paraphernalia how to better service their customers.

One of the solutions is to prevent them away vending in the national highway because it is prohibitive by law.

The local government unit (LGU) would create a better enforcement body he dubbed as public order and safety office (POSO) to manage the traffic in the highway and the thoroughfares.

“Puwedeng puwede. Dapat e adapt ang magandang practices from other LGUs,” he retorted when asked if he was privy to copy how the POSO in Dagupan City operates.

The old market place here needs to be changed totally because it mirrors the image of the town to the outsiders.

“Kailangan major overhaul – possible construction,” he said.

One of the options to make it materializes is for the private sector to construct a new one in a hectare spaced public market.

Applying for a loan in the bank is not an option under his administration.

“We will be doing it step-by-step”.

When Rosario assumed office in June 30, he did not retrench those temporary workers left by his predecessor then mayor Kim Amador who is the incumbent vice mayor.

“I did not bring with me my political color. In short for as long as it was assured by the department heads na maskin ano ang political color dito kung nakakatulong e re-renew”.

Rosario, a surgeon and a seasoned former provincial legislature, called his administration’s One Manaoag.

To make his administration more efficient, he adapted the best practices done by other LGUs in and out of Pangasinan. Some of them are the wellness center, organization of the employees association, and creation of cooperative for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VM Scheming Against his Mayor

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Despite being seen in a chummy photo-op with each other, the Mayor is ambivalent about the public support espoused by his Vice Mayor.

Upon assumption of office in June 30 this year, the Hizzoner has to see if the Veem - his long-time political rival and nemesis – and his almost all allied members of the Sanggunian Bayan (legislative body) will support his needed resolutions and ordinances for his programs until his term will end on June 30, 2025.

The Vice Mayor is a seasoned former mayor.

A scheming  politico. Photo credit: Sound Card

Friends of the Hizzoner advise him not to lower his guards on succumbing to the assurances of the palsy walsy Veem to support all his programs and policies in his three years’ term in office. 

The red flag started to rear its ugly head when members of the more or less 70 of a homegrown club in the town told the Mayor that as the election of the president of their organization comes near, the Veem allegedly bankrolled the vote buying at P5,000 per member.

“Mantakin mo election lang ng presidente tag limang libo ang bilihan,” the mayor emphatically said.

But the fair haired boy of the vice mayor did not succeed because the Hizzoner told the members that incase the anointed candidate of the Veem wins he could not make a courtesy call in his office and the absence of support he will give to the organization.

The members heeded exhortation of the Mayor by electing the candidate who is friendly with him.

The Hizzoner’s peer told him that his Veem is maneuvering to recapture in 2025 the highest elective post of the town.

                                                      ***

Back to the pronouncements of the Veem of his unconditional support to his Mayor until 2025, we should take it with a grain of salt.

As what the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said in an axiom about politicians:

"Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges even when there are no rivers".

The Veem pledges are written in water, even if there is no river and no bridges salamabit hahaha, my dear Mayor.

                                                                          ***

For history sake to the Flips, er, Filipinos who ain’t read majors events in the past. Don’t you know what took the goat of Soviet Premier Khrushchev – First Secretary General of the Soviet Union - to bang his shoe on his table in a United Nations’ assembly so his voice could be heard?

A Filipino politician named Lorenzo Sumulong - a kin of the Aquinos of Tarlac.

 I don't know if Khrushchev was inebriated by the legendary Russian vodka, but the Commie leader pounded his shoe on his delegate-desk in protest at a speech by Philippine delegate Sumulong during the 902nd Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held in New York City on 12 October 1960.

The reason?

Lorenzo Sumulong - a 40 years Philippines Senator - called the people of Eastern Europe – part then of the iron of curtain of the Soviet that Josef Stalin annexed like what Vladimir Putin done to Ukraine's regions - and elsewhere which have been deprived of the free exercise of their civil and political rights because of the juggernaut bully state. Upon hearing this, Khrushchev banged his shoe and quickly came to the rostrum and demonstratively, in a theatrical manner, brushed U.N Delegate Sumulong aside, with an upward motion of his right arm—without physically touching him—and began a lengthy denunciation of the Filipino politician, branding him as a jerk, a stooge, a lackey, and a toady of American imperialism and demanded U.N Assembly President Frederick Boland from Ireland to call Sumulong to order.

*** 

Geez, how lucky are followers of warfare like me. When the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army battered and defeated the French in Dien Bien Phu and besieged the U.S military in the Tet Offensive, war enthusiasts contended themselves in reading what ensued on the broad sheets like New York Times and Mags like Newsweek and Times.

Now, every day You Tube videos abound with latest breaking news about the progress of how the Ukrainian army bludgeoned the absconding Russian soldiers in the democratic land their despotic leader Vladimir Putin ordered invaded.

Military analysts proliferate too. They are retired U.S Army Colonel Cedric Leigton, retired four-star Army General Wesley Kanne Clark -  Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000 -, retired Army General David Howell Petraeus who was the former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, former U.S National Security Adviser and retired Army Lt. Gen. Herbert Raymond McMaster to name a few.

Here’s an excerpt of the analysis of U.S Army retired Colonel Cedric Leighton on the possible military tactics of Ukraine as it prepares to launch an attack on the Luhansk Region Putin annexed as Russian Territory. Leighton also discussed the use of more lethal U.S made MGM -140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to fuel the momentum of the Ukrainian multiple attacks on the beleaguered Russian soldiers who have inferior number and who reeled in a low morale.

The ATACMS provide the soldiers the ability to engage both point and area high value targets with precision fires out to 300 km.

Probably part of the 18 M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) the U.S will give to Kyiev government economic and military packages – part of the $15.8 billion aid.

Since the war that started in February, the U.S government gave Ukraine 16 HIMARS plus the incoming 18 HIMARS and ATACMS that will be 34 long range sniper like rockets and missiles.

Despite hitting accurately their targets - thanks to the GPS guided- HIMARS - that resulted to the Russians being massacred, screaming like whore when hit, and running like rats from their positions, the HIMARS can fire only 95 kilometers unlike the 300 kilometers range of the ATCM that can hit Russian cities, too susmariosep.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

The Lethal, Costly Weapons of a Cobra

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Follow

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.