A branch of prominent chains of drug store in the mammoth
Pangasinan province that compete with the renowned Mercury Drug Store had been
a target of a burglary recently in the wee hour.
The St. Joseph Drug Store in Lingayen, Pangasinan was robbed where
the theft used a construction hammer that created a hole on the door where they
wiggled in to consummate their greed.
Media man Mon Untalan, a resident of the Capital Town, informed me
in my “bunker” here in Cotabato Province that the bad guys, he suspected lived
in the nearby squatter area, stashed away three hundred thousand pesos in cash and
assorted medicines.
"ito na ang
epekto ng walang hanapbuhay,walang sinasanto ang kumakalam na sikmura,"
Mon quoted one of the kibitzers as
police investigated the robbery.
Motorized tricycle drivers and their
family in Pangasinan and other parts of the country avoid starvation because of
the loan sharks, we colloquially called 5-6, who lent them amid the one month
enhanced community quarantine imposed by the Philippines president.
 |
| The vaunted mammoth Bangus Festival in Dagupan City. |
Hernan Cabunot, 26, said before
Corona Virus 2019 (Covid19) spawned its deadly disease to people here and
abroad he earned a net of five hundred pesos daily in Dagupan City.
“I am earning one hundred pesos more than the four hundred
pesos of Amboy because I ferry passenger in a university belt,” he cited
to this columnist in a telephone call while referring to fellow driver Manuel
Rivera, 35, whose routes are in different areas of the 171,271 populated (2015
Census) coastal city.
Will crime rates hike if they could not borrow another set of
monies from the loan sharks like those turbaned Bombay who now hesitate to lend?
“It could happen,” he said especially if the local
government units in the barangay and town could not feed their constituents
like him and his family despite President Duterte exhortation to the LGU to use
their funds.
This what I feared, the more the lock down prolonged versus the dreaded
phantom pandemic Corona Virus, the more poor Filipinos commit theft, robbery,
and homicide to survive starvation.
***
Thanks that
Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim did not stonewall the acrimonious clamor especially
in the social media to postpone in abeyance the traditional vaunted Bangus
Street Party to be held on April 6 to May 20 this year.
The recalcitrant mayor
blinked and announced in a March 13, Executive Order that “Bangus
Festival 2020 is postponed until further notice”.
He was hell bent
before to hold the “charivari” despite other Pangasinan towns and later
Governor Amado Espino, III announced that he and the
Sangguniang Panlalawigan all forthcoming barangay fiestas including Sangguniang
Kabataan activities in the province.
The procrastination of Lim ensued before SARS
Corona Virus became a clear and present danger and before President Rodrigo
Duterte announced in March 16 the enhanced community quarantine of the entire Luzon Island.
The bangus city mayor
ambivalence not to suspend the street party raised howls from members of the
traditional media.
Sunday Punch
Op-Ed Ding Micua hit on his March 18 Random Thoughts’ column the still
single Lim who is probably in his early 40s. Excerpts:
“Dagupan is not an island that it can go against the tide to fight
COVID-19. Maybe Mayor Brian Lim thinks he has every reason to balk at the
order of the President because his staff has already spent so much time
preparing for this year’s festivities. But he cannot sacrifice the health
of the people just to prove that the Bangus Festival under his administration
is better than Mayor Belen’s.
Even Dr. Rosario Pamintuan, chief of the regional disease surveillance
unit of DOH Region 1, suggested to the management of Bangus Festival
and LGU Dagupan to rethink their steps amid the current national public health
emergency posed by COVID-19.
Hopefully Brian-Red will have a change of heart after they see how the U.S
government is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
But Aksyon Radyo
Commentator Joel Balolong was unforgiving by assailing that the mayor was
compromised not to cancel the event because some of his trusted men had taken
the cut from sponsors who will pay for the aesthetics and shows of the party.
Whether the
vitriol of Joel, a harsh critic of Lim, was true or not I saw the softening and
acquiescence of Lim to the adverse mainstream and social media members’
criticism about the menace brought by this lethal pandemic that killed already
thousands of lives globally.
If Lim insisted
to have this street carnival many of us in Dagupan City and those who regularly
attended this mammoth party in Northern Luzon could be likened to those Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Union
(LGBTQ) who were infected by the virus because they insisted to attend the street party in Miami ,
Florida U.S.A .
The organizer of
the LGBTQ event insisted to hold thousands gays to converge and frolic amid the
growing menace of the killer pneumonia disease.
“The Winter Party Festival, an annual
weeklong LGBTQ event held in Miami, drew thousands from across the country,
when it kicked off earlier this month.
But though it ended March 10, in the week
following the event several attendees have tested positive for the Corona
Virus, according to the festival organizer,” nbnnews.com reported.
It said one by
one, state and cities have begun to prohibit large crowds in an attempt to curb
the virus spread. In Washington State, several countries have banned crowds
over 250 people, while New York City has implemented a similar ban for
gatherings over 500. On Monday, President Donald Trump announced new guidelines
which advised against gathering of more than 10 people.
