SALAMAT SA MAAGANG PAMASKO Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano and Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano!
Chows treat at Grumpy Joe - Dagupan City by the staff of Senator Allan Peter for the members of the fourth estate in the gargantuan province's Pangasinan.
By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA
Six first class towns in
Pangasinan have already submitted their year 2024 budget to their respective
legislative bodies for approval.
The thriving towns of Mangaldan,
Lingayen, Binalonan, Calasiao, Binmaley and Manaoag have P430, 000, 000 plus,
P408, 222, 843, almost P400, 000, 000, P380, 000,000 plus, P324, 360, 000 and
P268, 000, 000, respectively, proposed appropriation ordinances.
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| MAYORS OF FIRST CLASS towns in Pangasinan: (Left top photo and clockwise) Binalonan Mayor Ramon Ronald V. Guico, IV, Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno, Manaoag Mayor Jeremy Agerico Rosario, Binmaley Mayor Pete Merrera, Calasiao Mayor Kevin Roy Macanlalay and Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil. |
MANGALDAN
Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno, who
attended the November 11 second committee hearing called by the lawmaking body,
said that she hoped the budget should be passed immediately by the august
chamber since there are countless activities for the town next year.
Some of them are the Mangaldan
Birthing Clinic that was certified already by the Department of Health (DOH),
the proposed Animal Bite Center and the thriving town’s bid for the
certification of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
LINGAYEN
Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil told this
newspaper that it has a P408, 222, 843 proposed budget for next year.
“Our national tax allocation
(NTA) is P313, 222, 843 and local income is P95, 000,000,” he told
this writer on a short messaging service.
BINALONAN
Pangasinan Governor Ramon “Monmon” Guico,
III told this writer that his town – where he was a mayor there for nine years –
has P392,554,000.00 proposed budget for 2024.
The governor’s younger brother Ramon
Ronald Guico, IV is the newly minted mayor of the landlocked town.
The governor said that the NTA –
the successor of the internal revenue allotment (IRA) – of Binalonan is P191,264,614.00. while it has a
bigger collection of P201, 289, 386 from the local taxes and revenues.
“Our goal was to be IRA independent and that the local income will exceed the IRA,” he told
Northern Watch Newspaper.
Just like the first class town’s
Sual, Pangasinan that derived its huge business and real property taxes from
the mammoth San Miguel Corporation runs 1,200 megawatt coal power plant it hosted, Binalonan has the monolith’s Japanese owned Sumitomo North Philippines Wiring Systems
Corporation and other Manila based businesses that put shop there.
What makes this eastern Pangasinan
first class town unique compared to the other five rich towns mentioned at the
second paragraph of this news article, Binalonan has the lowest population of 56,382 (2020
Census) among them all.
CALASIAO
Calasiao has more than P380
million for 2024 according to Mayor Kevin Roy Macanlalay.
“Naka submit na (2024 budget) for approval sa Sanggunian. P380 (million) plus,” Macanlalay recently told Northern Watch Newspaper.
BINMALEY
Mayor Pedro A. Merrera told this
newspaper that his administration had only added six percent for this year’s
budget that will make the next year’s appropriation at P324, 360, 000 when
asked by this writer about the modest budget of one of the most populated
municipalities in the eight towns’ Second District.
To buttress it, Merrera said he
asked his staff to aggressively monitor and implement the fees on building
construction’s permits.
“Actually kung titingnan nga
natin mukhang maliit talaga. That’s why we are trying to upgrade our local
source funds kasi iyan lang iyong isang uri kasi lahat dito ay tinitingnan even
these building permits even the building construction lahat na mga business –
tinitingnan namin kasi iyan din iyong payment of these taxes balang araw
maibibigay din natin ang kagandahan ng bayan”.
But if one quantified the
town’s P71, 287, 329.85 supplemental budget approved by the lawmaking
body, the coastal municipality has P377, 287, 330 this year.
The strategy of Merrera to boost
his town’s taxation was done in year 2022 by Lingayen Mayor Bataoil.
In his First 100 Days Report to his constituents on October 10, 2022, Bataoil zealously told the public that he would collect more taxes like those in the market stalls, real property taxes and other sources to buttress the public coffer.
MANAOAG
Manaoag Mayor Jeremy Agerico
Rosario told Northern Watch Newspaper that his administration
will have proposed appropriation budget of P268, 000, 000 next year.
The pilgrims’ town has a population
of 76, 045 (2020 Census).
Next year’s budget of all the provinces,
cities, municipalities and barangays in the Philippines is based on the
national government’s tax collection in year 2021 – the year where the economy
was recovering from the ravaged of the dreaded Corona Virus-19 pandemic in
2020.
According to the Local Government Code, 40 percent of the national taxes by the national government should be shared by the provinces (23 %), cities (23 %), towns (34%) and barangays (20%).
The operation of commercial seaplanes is expected to boost more Pangasinan’s tourism industry.
Gov. Ramon V. Guico III along with his father, 5th District Congressman Ramon Guico Jr., were the prime passengers ferried by the seaplane from take-off at Binalonan and successfully landed at the Limahong Channel here recently.
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| SEAPLANE takes off in the Lingayen sea boarded by Pangasinan Governor Ramon 'Monmon" Guico, III and his father and namesake the Congressman of Pangasinan's 5th District. |
From Lingayen, the Governor and
his namesake father were on board the Airtrav RP-C1208 en route to the City of
Alaminos and Bolinao where they were joined by 1st District Congressman Arthur
Celeste.
With seaplanes as a means of
transportation, tourists and passengers are expected to have an amazing travel
experience with a shorter time of one hour from Manila to Lingayen and the
Hundred Islands.
Gov. Guico, a pilot himself, said
that the seaplane can accommodate about ten passengers.
The seaplane is expected to take
the route from Manila Bay to Lingayen, the Hundred Islands, and other coastal
towns in Pangasinan should the project push through.
The seaplane project will not
just be another Pangasinan’s first but an eloquent expression of the governor’s
great love for his province and people, with the aim of securing a stable and
sustainable future for Pangasinenses.
The proposed project is in
collaboration with Cong. Celeste. (PIO News)
My video interview with the driver of a vintage opened wall bus of Victory Liner being displayed at the Capitol ground in Lingayen, Pangasinan. This bus is nostalgic for me upon seeing it because of the similar busses Dangwa, BAL and others that passed by our house at the PMA, Baguio City in the early 1970s.
ON THE SEAWALLS
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
BINMALEY, Pangasinan – The mayor
here has no beef with Pangasinan 2nd District Rep. Mark O. Cojuangco
on the stretches of seawalls being built at the shorelines here and in
Lingayen town.
Mayor Pedro A. Merrera said that what offended him during the public hearing called by the sangguniang panlalawigan (provincial lawmaking body) in September 14 was when the engineers of the Department of Publics Works & Highway (DPWH) designed the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) sheet file's walls that could not stop the plunging waves that cause the flooding of the residential areas of the two towns.
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| NO BEEF. Pangasinan 2nd District Rep. Mark O. Cojuangco (left) and Binmaley Mayor Pedro A. Merrera. |
The seawalls are the pet project
of the Congressman.
The DPWH, Merrera denounced in
that hearing, made a mistake when it designed a slope sea wall instead of the
straight or curve seawall.
The mayor is a former District
Engineer of the DPWH in Quezon City.
The slope seawalls, he explained,
could not prevent the plunging waves to go ashore and flood the dried land and
residential areas.
“Ang ating pinuprutektahan
iyong mismong karagatan na once the swash that is the plunging wave na
tinatawag the current na kung ginamit mo doon na slope seawall swash lang iyan
papunta sa kabila. So wala ring kuwenta iyan dapat ilagay nila doon is more
curve seawalls,” he said.
Merrera said he did not see any
file bearing on the seawalls built on the seashore of his town. He doubted if
the DPWH considered the per square inch of the swash of the waves against the
walls. He questioned too the small three inches in diameter pipeline
constructed by the public works to mitigate flooding on the residential areas
near the shoreline. The pipeline is where the flood water enters and exits to
the sea.
The proposed P1.7 billion 10
kilometers seawalls become acrimonious because opponents cited that the
following civil, administrative and criminal offenses have been committed by the executives of the DPWH:
They deviated from the
purpose of the Tourism Road Infrastructure Program ((TRIP)
provided in the General Annual Appropriation of 2023 of the Republic of the
Philippines that gives P75 million budget for the bay walk in the stretches of
Lingayen and Binmaley. The multi-million pesos’ allocation is for the construction
or improvement of access roads leading to declared tourism destinations.
Examples of TRIP are drainage construction, tree planting, and asphalt overlay;
They
committed Technical Malversation. The crime has three (3) elements:
"(a) that the offender is an accountable public officer; (b) that he
applies public funds or property under his administration to some public use;
and (c) that the public use for which such funds or property were applied is
different from the purpose for which they were originally appropriated by law
or ordinance (Article 220 Revised Penal Code of the Philippines);
They violated the Presidential Decree No.156 Series of 1993 known too as “Proclaiming Lingayen Gulf As An Environmentally Critical Area. The Decree says Lingayen Gulf is an area to be devoted to sustain production of fish and other marine products, preserve genetic diversity, protect natural features, and enhance outdoor recreation; and
Their
failure to acquire Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) from the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources on an area which bar them to
create a wall because there was no significant flooding – as the sand dune
stops the waves according to protest leader retired Col. Sonny Verzosa.
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials 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.
By Mortz C. Ortigoza
I rubbed elbows recently with bigwigs from the Bureau of Internal Revenue
(BIR) that run eastern Pangasinan whose office is in Urdaneta City and those in
central Pangasinan whose office is in Calasiao, Pangasinan.
Those in the eastern part told me that many contractors and their dump-trucks have been shunning Pangasinan in their quarry operations because of the new taxes imposed by the provincial government. They instead do their sand and gravel operations in Rosario, La Union. Rosario and Sison, Pangasinan share a boundary.
“Hanggang sawa ang pagku-quarry
nila sa ilog ng Rosario pagnakabayad na sila ng P1,000 lang doon,” a tax executive quipped.
His companion told me if that would be the case, they would put their personnel in a checkpoint at the highway of Sison and flag and impound those dump trucks loaded with sand and gravel.
“Alam mo ba na hindi na
kailangan ng BIR ng warrant sa korte, we can just seize the properties of the
errant taxpayers and arrest them whom we think don’t pay their excise taxes to
us,” she told me about
Section 15 of the Internal Revenue Code.
The law says: The Commissioner, the
Deputy Commissioners, the Revenue Regional Directors, the Revenue District
Officers and other internal revenue officers shall have authority to make
arrests and seizures for the violation of any penal law, rule or regulation
administered by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Any person so arrested shall be
forthwith brought before a court, there to be dealt with according to law.
When I told them if they need a cop or cops to implement their plan, they
answered in the negative.
“Those people are reasonable
after we explained to them why we seized their properties,” an answer I got.
How about if they arrest em’ would they still be reasonable? That I
forgot to ask, hahaha!
When I narrated the aggressive attitude of those bigwigs in eastern
Pangasinan to the brass in central Pangasinan, he cautions them to practice
prudence.
He said those errant quarry operators are wealthy people whose business
runs into multi-million pesos money churning machine.
“Papahintuin mo ang ganoon ka
laking negosyo, delikado ka!”
He told me that his counterpart in
eastern Pangasinan should be wary of killer riding in tandem on a motorcycle at
the behest of the businessmen they offended.
“Ano ang halaga ng certificate
of appreciation sa pag impound ng mga trucks at pag penalize nitong mga quarry
operators kung mamatay ka naman?” he posed to me.
After evaluating the positions of the two tax officials on the knaves and scoundrels I
mentioned, I just quipped to myself: A gung-ho and a vacillating taxmen versus
their query -- the tax evading quarrymen.
Query and quarry? Damn, they rhyme!
***
As a seasoned Tax Code reading sanamagan
reporter that covered the BIR, I know those bigwigs (whose loved one became
collateral victim) were ambushed by hired guns because of their zealousness to
implement their mandate from the government.
My friend retired BIR Assistant Regional Director Ernesto De Vota was
driving his Toyota Corolla (ETJ-333) before 6 P.m. of January 24, 2008 when an
unidentified armed man blocked his path and fired at him in Valenzuela City.
The then district revenue officer of Valenzuela sustained minor wounds in the
shoulder and hand.
The down-to-earth Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa - whom I interviewed
at the main BIR office in Quezon City – because of his ardor to implement his
brainchild’s Run After Tax Evaders (RATE)
a malefactor threatened by the RATE hired someone who shot to death his wife
Evelyn in June 24, 2006 while attending a prayer meeting at Barangay Sto.
Cristo, Quezon City. A pastor who attempted to shield Evelyn from the gunman
was also killed in the incident.
Guballa was then the national chief of the feared National Investigation
Division (NID) when the gruesome treacherous incident ensued. We became friend
when he became the regional director of the BIR in Region-1. De Vota was his
assistant director then.
BIR Revenue Region 8-Makati City Director Jonas Amora was shot to death
by still unidentified assailants riding in tandem on a motorcycle in November
21, 2016. His driver Angelito Pineda was wounded.
And I am not yet citing those Chief of Collectors and Examiners being peppered to death by the bullets of assassins here and outside of the province.
