A little delicadeza, Dongkoy
September 27, 2004
WHAT’S the top honcho of the Cagayan de Oro government's biggest contractor doing in China with the Big Boss of city hall?
UKC Builders got breadcrumbs from city hall during the Magtajas administration. After the 1998 elections, it was as if fortune guided UKC boss Dodong Uy's hand. So far, reports an enterprising journalist who checked city hall documents, UKC bagged nearly P1.5 billion in city hall projects under the Emano administration. A whopping P1.5 billion from one local government alone! Not bad for a province-based contractor.
It's not safe to say that UKC is city hall's favorite contractor. The presumption is that UKC, just like any government contractor, won the projects based on the merits of its bids and not because Dodong Uy is the apple of Dongkoy Emano's eyes.
But it's safe to say that Lady Luck is on Uy's side, definitely. The ratio is something like this: of 15 juicy projects of the Emano administration a dozen would likely end up in UKC's bag.
The "world-class" Bulua market-terminal was built by UKC. The Carmen market facelift was also undertaken by UKC. The ongoing Cogon project also went to UKC. And who would ever forget the equally controversial Huluga project? Who's the Berdugo used by Emano to defecate on the site of that ancient village? You guessed it right.
The standards set by the government for public servants are high. Soldiers and cops are barred from beer joints. So are judges. And no public official should be seen in a casino. The sad thing is, it's as if no one wants to live by these standards these days.
In a radio interview last week, Emano brushed aside talk that he and Uy quarreled over something. Proof to this, he said they were recently in China together. If Emano has delicadeza, he wouldn't even think of telling Cagayan de Oro that he and Uy spent two weeks in China together. And please, Mr. Mayor, don't even give us that "trade mission" crap because a columnist's personal written account of the "trade mission" showed that it was anything but a trade mission.
Imagine a contractor who raked in over a billion pesos in public funds spending two weeks in a foreign land with the same mayor who awarded him the projects. What were they doing together? Does that look, smell and sound right?
Public officials are expected to make an effort not only to come clean but to see to it that they are beyond reproach.
Did power make Emano lose his delicadeza, too?
Pastilan.
Why city hall doesn't need to pay for a traffic czar
September 20, 2004
READER Maynard Ilagan is obviously sick and tired of the traffic mess in Cagayan de Oro that he sent me an e-mail to ask what I think the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) should be doing to unclog the city's streets.
I won't claim to have the solution. I won't even pretend to be a traffic expert. But the years I spent commuting and driving motorcycles and automobiles somehow equipped me with the necessary qualifications to be an "expert" commuter and driver, not to mention that many years ago I passed the exams for drivers with flying colors. Mind you, I got my driver's license without the aid of a kodigo from an LTO examiner in exchange for a "tip".
Methinks the first thing RTA should do is get rid of lawyer and traffic czar Ramon Tabor. Not that ex-councilor Tabor is unqualified. I'm sure that like many of us, he is an expert driver, too. But I doubt if Tabor's driving and law expertise makes him a traffic expert.
Okay, okay--Tabor is a former councilor. But does that make him a traffic expert? If being a councilor makes one a traffic expert, why not make any of the present councilors the traffic czar instead? That way, city hall won't be wasting money to pay Tabor's consultancy fee.
Tabor may have served the Magtajas administration as councilor and concurrent boss of the now defunct Traffic Management and Enforcement Bureau (TMEB) but still, that doesn't make him a traffic expert. Tabor failed to bring any solution to the traffic mess during the Magtajas administration, what makes us think he has solutions today?
And even if he has solutions, city hall doesn't need a traffic consultant because Mayor Dongkoy Emano doesn't listen to sound advice anyway. Since when did Emano listen?
One of the first things Tabor did when Emano appointed him as traffic czar was to ask city hall to assign to the RTA a handful of local government employees who worked under him in the TMEB. The ex-TMEB guys were thrown to other city hall offices, some to outlying barangays, by the Emano administration because they were identified as Magtajas loyalists. Emano, according to my source, thumbed down Tabor's request.
Tabor isn't really calling the shots in the RTA. He is powerless because truth is, Emano remains as Cagayan de Oro's traffic czar.
And even if Emano listens to Tabor, how would that change the traffic situation in Cagayan de Oro? The last time I checked, the traffic problem in Cagayan de Oro is still monstrous.
One report quoted RTA director Ulysses Gere as blaming Cagayan de Oro's past planners for today's traffic mess. What he meant was Cagayan de Oro's road network is defective and RTA won't be able to do anything about the traffic problem except to strictly enforce traffic laws in hopes of making driving in Cagayan de Oro a little less inconvenient.
Poor road network planning is why the Maharlika Bridge has become a bottleneck, says Gere. The other bridge in Carmen is another major bottleneck, I'm sure.
Sadly, Cagayan de Oro motorists can't see the light at the end of the tunnel because the Emano administration proved to be no better than the past planners of the city.
So the Maharlika and Carmen bridges are bottlenecks. That's a given.
What did Emano do? He built a bridge in the boondocks of Indahag where traffic congestion is non-existent. You call that good planning?
Ask any traffic expert and you would be told that good traffic management is a result of clear thinking. Unfortunately for Cagayanons, the mayor seems to be having a hard time thinking clearly. Mention RTA and he would think politics.
Given all these problems, Gere says the only thing RTA can do for now is to strictly enforce traffic laws. Okay, do it. But does city hall need a consultant to make the RTA do that?
A little common sense, Mr. Mayor, please.
Pastilan.
9 gifts you can give to Dongkoy
September 6, 2004
"Be kind to animals."--Unknown
HERE are nine things you may want to consider giving to the man as a Holloween present next month.
Dont forget to gift-wrap.
1) Micro tape recorder. The cheapest one I know is available at Gaisano for some P1,500 only. He needs this so he can keep track of his pronouncements because he easily forgets.
Take Zaldy Ocon’s P100-million loan issue for instance. In July, the mayor said there was no loan from DBP and he would resign if Ocon proved that he borrowed money. Then he said it was Ambing Magtajas's loan. And when the local registrar said there was a P100-million loan based on documents, he suddenly remembered that he borrowed money after all. But he quickly added that the other half was that of Ambing's (How can that be when the 27 city hall lots were mortgaged for P100 million in 1999, a year after Ambing ceased to be the city's mayor?). Lo and behold, now we hear reports about Dongkoy's most recent claim that 21 of the 27 lots were mortgaged by Ambing!
How many versions of Dongkoy's story since July? Count.
2) Mentol cigarettes (preferably Salem). Goodness gracious! What have you been smoking these days, Dongkoy?
3) Calculator. So he and his jockstraps in the city council would know that 630,000 multiplied by 160 is 100,800,000 and not 50,000,000. The peso sign seems to make them forget that there's an animal called mathematics.
4) Teething ring. His mouth is known for its inability to shut when it should. A teething ring may appease it. Just make sure it fits.
5) Prosthetic foot. When Erap was still president, he said "pagamatyan 'ko si Ouano"--meaning, he would unconditionally stand by his then embattled acting city police chief Cesar Ouano through thick and thin.
Mere words.
The only thing buried six feet under the ground today is Ouano's police career.
He has long been putting his foot in his mouth I'm afraid he'd simultaneously swallow his feet soon.
If the teething ring doesn't work, a prosthetic foot might just do the job. Just tell him not to swallow.
6) A set of needles and threads. Remember those Sperry topsiders? One of the secrets for the Sperry's durability was the kind of thread used. A thread like that can stop any man from lying through the skin of his teeth. So if the teething ring and prosthetic foot don't work, stitch it!
7) Two golf balls. Where did his balls go?
Imagine ordering your cop chief to parade a group of mostly minors on mere suspicion that they committed petty crimes and defending the Scarlet-Letter campaign on air, only to do a Pontius Pilate before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) later.
His defense was simple: I didn't order the shame parade.
Case dismissed. His case. Not the cop chief's.
I pity the acting police chief--the mayor's failure to take full responsibility for the shame parade makes the city's top cop look like the mastermind.
8) Slick Willy dildo. Just don't forget to etch this message: "Don't do to taxpayers what you don't want others to do to you. But if you can't really help it, do it only to yourself."
Dongkoy can also use this dong-toy as a teething ring.
Talk has it you can buy this in a store somewhere along Pabayo Street.
9) Lubricant (honey-flavored). If you can't find one, Marca Leon or Minola cooking oil or used engine oil would do.
Pastilan.
Mr. Bean gives Kingkong a beating
August 23, 2004
ZALDY Ocon started as one hell of a big joke in the city council. He admits he doesn't know anything about the Robert's Rules of Order--the reason why points of order often interrupt him whenever he is in the middle of a discourse at the session hall.
As a media practitioner, he is not exactly a broadcaster par excellence. Many of his media colleagues despise him for his brand of broadcast journalism. But make no mistake about it--Ocon is revered by many DxCC listeners, the very people who made him Cagayan de Oro's 12th councilor.
He was and still is a big joke, alright. But this joke of a councilor cum broadcaster, "Mr. Bean" or "Kagawad Pandesal" is starting to stir the hornet's nest.
For the first time since Dongkoy Emano evolved into a political balite or like the Babaing Tuod in Mars Ravelo's Darna series, a small-time councilor is rocking the seasoned politician's boat and is making his kitchen very, very hot.
Any politician of Emano's stature would feel insulted. It's not a King Kong-vs.-Godzilla scenario. Rather, it's King Kong vs. Mr. Bean
Unfortunately for Dongkoy but fortunately for Zaldy, it looks like Mr. Bean now has the upper hand and is promising a big upset. Mr. Bean is clobbering King Kong in one corner with a combination of powerful jabs, right hooks, left hooks, right uppercuts and left uppercuts. Unless Emano gets a political tune-up now, he'd likely end up kissing the canvass the way the sociopathic and once unbeatable "Iron" Mike Tyson did when he faced Danny Williams in the ring last month.
What Zaldy Ocon is doing to the Cagayan de Oro mayor now is something the Fidel Ramos-backed Tito and Ruthie Guingona wished but failed to do in their 1995-1998 attempt to win Misamis Oriental.
Perhaps due to his politcal savvy or for some other reason, Emano never had a problem in warding off corruption issues... until "Mr. Bean" entered the picture and won an election last May.
Now, the alleged P100-million loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is haunting the Emano administration. The issue stuck--so wide and so deep--onto Emano like the label of his favorite imported cigarette.
In July, Emano told listeners of DxIF-Bombo Radyo he would immediately resign if Ocon proved that city hall secured a P100-million loan from DBP under his watch. But last Saturday, Emano found himself singing to a different tune. This was after Ocon recorded and replayed his interview with registrar Buenaventura Udang who confirmed that city hall mortgaged 27 lots to DBP for P100 million. The 1999 city hall-DBP transaction was documented and Udang is keeping the records right in his office.
Now, Emano is admitting that he borrowed money from DBP on behalf of city hall. But he is claiming that he only borrowed P53 million, not P100 million, in addition to an alleged P47-million loan of the Magtajas administration.
Ah, okay. Fifty-three-f@#$%^g-million pesos! Still a lot of money.
Now we're getting somewhere.
What's bugging a lot of people is why Emano tried to mislead people into believing that there was no loan only to admit later--after Udang's disclosure--that he borrowed P53 million. That it's "only (?)" P53 million doesn't make it less of a loan. Whether it's one peso, one hundred, one thousand, one million or one billion, Emano needs to give a clear accounting--unless, of course, if it's his personal money.
We are seeing a mouse giving an elephant the creeps. It doesn't take a political genius to frighten Emano after all.
Huli ka. Si Ocon lang pala ang katapat mo.
Now, would you be so kind as to explain how the money was spent, Mr. Mayor?
Pastilan.
Pinoy poli-talk
August 16, 2004
THE mayor of Valencia City should be ashamed of himself. Imagine a local chief executive and a former police major at that saying that he was leaving the fate of criminals in the hands of vigilantes. Did Jose Galario Jr. understand what he just said?
First, it was an admission that he, as the chief executive of the Bukidnon city, was a failure in terms of keeping his turf peaceful and orderly. It means he is palpak in his peace and order campaign and thus, the need for vigilantes. Second, it was an admission that Valencia has a vigilante group and that the recent murders there happened right under Galario's nose.
The moment a mayor starts to think that summary executions are the antidote to crime, it means he failed to keep his promise=--his oath of office--to always uphold the law while protecting his people.
Good mayors make sure criminals are jailed and not slaughtered by other criminals. How does one solve crime with another crime? The logic is simple: one crime + one crime = two crimes.
Only bad mayors allow shortcuts--they are either too lazy to sit down with their police chiefs to strategize and study what laws they can use against criminals or simply do not know what to do.
Remember what the FBI did to Al Capone? Did they "salvage" the man? No. They used tax evasion laws to pin down the brutal and evasive crime czar of Chicago.
Or was Galario merely trying to score pogi points by borrowing and modifying Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's "Dirty Harry" pronouncements?
The "Walking Tall" propaganda may have worked for Duterte but I doubt if a lot of people in Valencia would buy the crap. Macho pronouncements like that somehow lose their magic when used by poor copycats.
Cagayan de Oro's Dongkoy Emano has long been trying to do a Duterte but his efforts simply don't produce results. It's as simple as a Panchito can never be a Dolphy. A copycat can never be the original.
Proof to this, it took only one word--"Charot"--for Duterte to demolish the image Emano built for himself. Pressed for comment on Emano, Duterte told reporters in Davao: "Charot." That was it. Emano's macho image collapsed like the World Trade Center towers.
The "moral lesson" here is: when you're ugly, don't pretend to be cute (not to be taken literally).
There's something about us, Filipinos. We can easily spot an original from a copycat. We seem to have a dislike for people without a sense of originality. And we have this tendency to laugh at copycats, especially the poor ones.
Duterte's lines have been overused I don't think they still work even in Davao. For instance, if a mayor says "These criminals are scums of the earth and beasts who don't deserve to be called human beings", what the politician really means is, "I am a macho man, I'm tough, vote for me!"
Politics really does strange things to politicians that even when they make serious pronouncements, they sound funny. Which brings me to other funny things politicians in this country are fond of saying. They say one thing but mean another.
Here are some Pinoy poli-talk phrases and their probable translation (borrowed from the Election Lexicon published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism) and see if you can spot your mayor or governor or congressman:
* "If the people want me..."
Probable translation: "I want to run."
* "I am my own man/woman."
Probable translation: "I am sure of one thing: my gender."
* "We're still studying that."
Probable translation: "I have no idea what you're talking about. (Where the hell is my spokesman?)"
* "I have done the most in..."
Probable translation: "You mean you still don't like me?"
And here's probably the most abused line and its translation:
* "Pulitika 'yan (It's politically motivated)" or "I challenge you."
Translation: "I'm so tired of talking to myself"; also, "Give me a chance to confuse the issues some more."
Pabilib. Gaya-gaya.
Most of them can't even be original in their poor attempts at deceiving people. Politicians.
Pastilan.
How not to spend public funds
August 2, 2004
REP. Augusto "Jun" Baculio Jr. of Misamis Oriental's 2nd District needs to think of a way to convince us that he is not a tulisan. Baculio had better come up with a good explanation in connection with the reported P14-million graft case filed against him, his mayor-sister Emelita Almirante and other officials.
The graft case filed against Baculio and Co. is too serious the congressman cannot just dismiss the accusations as politically motivated charges.
The "politically motivated" defense is already a lumang tugtugin. I doubt if this kind of defense still works given that it has been used a trillion times by trapos. People know that this kind of defense is a copout of politicians who can't face some difficulty squarely. In most cases, it is a convenient excuse for corruption.
Let's just say that people with political motives were behind the graft case. So what? Does it mean Baculio and Co. did not steal? The issue here is not whether or not politicians who don't like Baculio were behind the graft case. Rather, the issue is on whether or not Baculio and Co. pocketed public funds intended for Misamis Oriental.
Based on newspaper reports, the accusations are:
* that Baculio and Co. spent P300 thousand for undelivered 21 thousand liters of crude and 125 gallons of engine oil supposedly for road projects in Gitagum, Initao and Claveria towns on March 5, 2002;
* that the congressman and other officials spent P500 thousand for undelivered 33,200 liters of crude and nine pails of engine oil on April 25, 2002, and that a similar transaction was made and consummated again on May 23, 2002;
* that El Salvador treasurer Elmer Pacuribot, with the green light of town Mayor Emelita Almirante, Baculio's sister, cash advanced P2.266 million from the congressman’s pork-barrel allocation for no specific purpose;
* that Baculio spent P3.9 million of his pork-barrel fund to give barangay officials mid-year bonuses;
* that Baculio paid a company P901,680 for the accident insurance coverage of 90,168 public school teachers and students in the province's 2nd District without a public bidding;
* that Baculio spent another P2.4 million to give similar insurance benefits to eight thousand barangay health workers;
* that Baculio gave a P250-thousand cash grant to the Lanise Farmers' Cooperative and P484 thousand as assistance to the Claveria Livestock Raisers' Cooperative; and
* that a P2.950-million fund supposedly given to the Claveria Livestock Raisers Cooperative is missing.
Baculio needs to explain how in hell can heavy equipment being used for a handful of road projects use up 87 thousand liters of crude, 125 gallons and 18 pails of engine oil.
How can Baculio allow a town treasurer, allegedly with the go-ahead of the congressman's sister, to cash advance over P2 million from his pork-barrel allocation?
Shouldn't mid-year bonuses intended for barangay officials be shouldered by local governments? Even if allowed by law, I don't see any logic in the release of nearly P4 million from the congressman's pork-barrel fund just to make a number of barangay officials happy.
And I doubt if a significant number of publicteachers, students and barangay health workers benefited from Baculio's P3,301,680-insurance coverage. Those who are familiar with insurance companies know how big commissions agents are getting from deals like this. The funds used to insure these people are not exactly money well spent.
I guess the people who voted for Baculio also want to know how the Lanise Farmers' Cooperative and the Claveria Livestock Raisers' Cooperative are using the P3,684,000 they got as "assistance" from the congressman. I hope the money was not used to buy goats for a Claveria farm owned by a Baculio man.
What is really questionable about livelihood assistance grants such as this is, the funds are not subject to government auditing.
No wonder Misamis Oriental's roads such as the one linking Youngsville to the highway in Opol town are becoming impassable. Officials are either buying the wrong things--spending taxpayers' money unwisely--or are squandering public funds for commissions.
Pastilan.
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