POLITICAL SHOWDOWN IN DAGUPAN SEEN

Guadiz also doubts Metrostate’s capability

While Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez continues to hound city hall, in his capacity as presiding officer of the city council, about the mysterious transaction entered into by Mayor Benjamin Lim for the development of the Magsaysay Park, the investigation of the affair at the committee level has had little progress.

After two postponements, Dagupan City Councilor Teofilo Guadiz III finally convened a meeting of his committee on laws and ordinances on Friday but the meeting did not last long and ended shortly after a few hushed discussions and additional documents were submitted by City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued and City Administrator Rafael Baraan.

Guadiz left without issuing any statement to newsmen about the status of his committee’s work.

However, in a talk to newsmen last Monday, Guadiz said the documents submitted to him showed it was not City Administrator Rafael Baraan who headed the Special Pre-Qualification Bids and Awards Committee but a certain Maximilliano Tan, reportedly an architect and believed to represent the Non-Government Organization sector.

He said the documents reflected that Baraan was a mere member of the SBAC while the city council was allegedly represented by Councilors Michael Fernandez, chair of the ways and means committee, and Vlad Mata, allegedly as a member of the minority in the city council.
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SOME 1,000 students, priests, nuns and residents from Dagupan and adjacent towns led the march that culminated in a peaceful prayer rally at the Dagupan City Plaza on Friday afternoon to register their objection to charter change, particularly the holding of Constituent Assembly at anytime.

The rally, organized by Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese, was supported by the Dagupan City government as Mayor Benjamin Lim is a known critic of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the chief proponent of the charter-change in the House of Representatives.

 Joining the rally were members of the Philippine Independent Church, United Methodist Church, students from various Catholic schools in Pangasinan, and militant groups such as the Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Akbayan.

Lim said many Filipino people disagree with charter change not only because of the highly suspect motives of the principal political characters whom he described as “untrustworthy”.
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THE Sangguniang Panlungsod was evidently kept in the dark by the office of the mayor on the controversial bidding and awarding of the build-operate-transfer (BOT) project of the P84 million tourism park building at Magsaysay Park.

This was gleaned from another letter that Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez fired off to City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued and City Administrator Rafael Baraan seeking more definite answers. (Copy of the new letter can be viewed in Fernandez’s blogsite (http:// alvin.prepys. com).

Clearly dissatisfied with the reply of Baniqued to his December 7 letter, Fernandez wrote to the two anew last December 14, seeking among others a straightforward reply to his query about the status of Metrostate Realty Development Corporation (MRDC).

The vice mayor had alleged earlier that MRDC was not a pre-qualified bidder, being a separate corporation belatedly formed by S and F (Siapno and Feliciano) Realty Corporation and LXS Builders and Supplies (headed by one Alexander Siapno), two of pre-qualified groups that submitted their intent to participate in the bidding.
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THE controversy over the planned Magsaysay Park project that has pitted the city mayor against the vice mayor appears to be turning for the worse as City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued chides Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez for his seeming ignorance of the law.

In her December 13 letter to Fernandez, Baniqued said the bidding process conducted that led to the awarding of the contract to Magsaysay Tourism Complex on a build-operate-transfer scheme to Metrostate Realty Development Corporation had legal basis contrary to what he alleged.

She assured the Sangguniang Panglunsod that is now considering draft resolutions prepared by her office, that all the plans for the project were not arrived at “on sheer whimsical premises or caprices of the mayor”.

Baniqued said the project was approved by the City Development Council and pointed to the 2nd to the penultimate paragraph of the CDC resolution, which indicated that the Magsaysay Park Development project was adopted a priority project of the Dagupan City government even as she stressed that “there is no provision in the law that requires the CDC to approve the plan, the bidding or the terms of reference of the project which they have identified as priority project for inclusion in the Annual Investment Plan.”

She rejected the vice mayor’s view that the project had to be ‘prioritized’ subject to the availability of funds of the local government unit, claiming that the AIP includes projects which may be funded by other sources other than the internal budget of an LGU.
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VILLASIS– For the teachers’ cause, Rep. Mark Cojuangco (5thDistrict) launched and led a 100-kilometer walk for a cause to raise funds for the scholarships of teachers who wish to pursue masteral and doctorate degrees.

The walk started December 11 in Bautista town and passed through Sison, Alcala, Sto. Tomas, Villasis, Urdaneta City, Binalonan, Laoac and Pozorrubio, including some interior barangays.

The son of business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco said he was compelled to raise funds in another way since he knew that there is not enough fund in the national government coffer allotted for teachers who want to upgrade themselves.

He said he could have just simply passed the hat around in raising funds for his Educators’ Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ECEF) but he chose the walking fund raising event since it also promotes walking as healthy habit.

Cojuangco, accompanied by members of his staff, some local town and barangay officials and students, were met by town officials and residents along the way who handed their donation to the walkers.
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After the spectacle at the House of Representatives and the foiled attempt of the allies of the Arroyo government to convene a constituent assembly without the participation of the senate, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz has only one thing to say - “it’s time for the national leadership to go.”

“The logical conclusion is but-one: it appears that the time has come for the national leadership to go, to renounce the office, to move somewhere, to leave everything behind,” he said.

Cruz cited the many “serious and standing socio-moral predicaments and political adversities” confronting the Arroyo government as it “continues to be accused of lying, cheating and stealing, the long hanging threat of impeachment proceedings, the actual worsening economy notwithstanding all loud and repeated official protestations to the contrary,  people’s hunger grows while their death for lack of medicine multiplies and there is not only less education available for the children but also less educated youth.”
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Benjie Villamil
17 Dec 2006

Father, Ipagpatawad mo wala kang karapatan na humusga kahit sino (POLITICOS). Diyos lang ang may karapatan .

Benjie

CONTROVERSIAL SITE — The controversial Magsaysay Park is now clear of any debris or burned structures including steel bars and trusses, by a private contractor but it is not known who ordered it since the city engineering office claimed it was not called to do the job. A two-storey tourism complex is being planned to be built in the area to replace the burned commercial complex owned by Bugnay Commercial Development Corporation that was gutted in a 2004 fire. - (Punchphoto by Ray Zambrano)

PROTEST MARCH—Protesters, in a show of solidarity, march along A.B. Fernandez Avenue in Dagupan City carrying a streamer expressing their opposition to constituent assembly as a means to amend the charter. - (Punch photo by Ray Zambrano)

CENTURY KILOMETER WALK — Rep Mark Cojuangco (5th district) with former Villasis Mayor Ramon Morden and others walk past the old city hall of Urdaneta enroute to his 100-kilometer journey on foot in his district in order to raise funds to finance the scholarships of public school teachers. - (Punchphoto by Ray Zambrano)