THE PEN SPEAKS
Danny O. Sagun

DAGUPENOS indeed are not aware that an ordinance was passed last November 14 making motorists pay when they park their vehicles on the city’s main road shoulders.

Some sanggunian secretariat staff, in fact, did not even know of such a measure being passed in that session. And how could beat reporters of newspapers and radio stations, those ubiquitous and nosey fieldmen, have failed to report the same in their public affairs or news programs that afternoon or even the next day? We usually listen to morning newscasts and commentaries but we heard nothing about the passage of that ordinance. Ah, maybe the beat reporters were already tired of the antics and grandstanding of some SP members, not to mention the late start of sessions because the honorables come either too late or not at all, that sometimes they chose not to cover the council sessions anymore?

Our suspicion is that the measure was passed when nobody, including the media, was looking or listening. For if our city legislators really wanted the public to know of their intention, they would have called for public consultations or hearings as they did some two years ago when the city increased its real property taxes. Roland H of DWPR swore in his morning program that no consultation of any kind was held.

We heard last Wednesday morning City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued over Super Radyo discussing the possible charging of parking fees along the city’s main thoroughfares and side streets. Yes, she was talking in the future tense. So we sent a text message to anchor Orly N. about the passage of ordinance No. 1853-2005 by the sanggunian last November 14. Dindin said she it was her understanding that the pay parking ordinance was adopted without the required quorum. In short it was null and void.

Null and void? Yes.

And Mayor Benjie Lim, for sure, will not dare affix his signature on a defective ordinance, given the observation of CLO Baniqued. We ourself saw the draft of the ordinance when we visited the sanggunian secretariat last week with Boss Behn for a meeting with the PMS and DILG on the coming December 2 Charter Change consultation of the Consultative Commission members at the Regency Hotel in Calasiao. (Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez is at the helm of the event being a Con-Com member himself representing the vice mayors league.)

While the ordinance was adopted unanimously by the members present, six councilors were absent on that day. Perhaps, that measure would be valid when and if no one questions the quorum. But knowing some intrepid personalities here, we believe that many this early are already raring to question the validity of that ordinance before the courts, especially when or if Mayor BSL signs it notwithstanding.

That ordinance being defective or not, Baniqued though sounded agreeable to the charging of parking fees, citing the legal precedent in Baguio City where the High Court ruled in favor of the city in its own controversial pay parking ordinance.

So, motorists, brace up for the coming days when a parking attendant approaches you as you park your vehicle anywhere in the city proper and issues a ticket based on Ordinance 1853-2005. P20 is charged for the first hour and P5 for every hour afterwards.

We reserve our comment on the need to charge parking fees in the meantime though being a motorist ourself.

We must note here the reaction of Councilor Joey Tamayo via e-mail last Monday. He clarified that he is not the chair of the peace and order committee of the city council as we erroneously reported in this paper last week. Sorry for the slip, we stand corrected. Our only point in the story was Tamayo’s having been bypassed (so we thought, forgetting that he was no longer the committee chair) by his colleagues when they rushed to enact the ordinance without calling for public hearings.

We meant to cast no aspersion or anything by our citing the good councilor’s name, knowing full well that he was the only one during an earlier deliberation in the session who had noted the lopsided sharing arrangement of the parking proceeds – 20 for the city and 80 % for the parking operator – and had boldly queried whether a much fairer 60-40 sharing was possible.

You guessed it, his idea was promptly shot down pronto! How generous of the city to give almost everything to the lucky operators – the plural form here used deliberately.

WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza

ON Friday, December 2, it will be Pangasinan’s turn to be consulted by the Constitutional Commission (ConCom) on what provisions of the 1987 Constitution Pangasinenses would want revised or amended.

From what we heard from ConCom Commissioner and Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, there will be at least 300 participants representing various sectors in the province in that consultation.

More than the shift in the form of government (from presidential to parliamentary) and the change of its structure (from unitary to federal), it would be interesting to know how Pangasinenses will view the national patrimony and economic reforms issues of the proposed Charter change, which have been the subject of animated discussions in the Visayas and Mindanao consultations.

For instance, under the present Constitution, the development and utilization of natural resources and operation of public utilities, among others, are limited only to Filipino citizens or to corporations owned at least 60 percent by Filipinos.

This is the same restriction imposed on ownership of private agricultural lands, although through a Supreme Court decision, the restriction has been interpreted to also cover lands for residential, commercial and industrial uses.

Commissioner Fernandez said that he finds it ironic that while developing countries, including China and Vietnam, have been aggressively inviting foreign investors to help develop their economies, our Constitution continues to restrict foreign investments, which would have brought in needed capital to improve our infrastructure and establish new industries.

“With this capital would have came technology, management and access to markets abroad, creating needed jobs for our youth and attracting back our OFW’s presently employed as technicians and supervisors abroad,” Commissioner Fernandez said.

“These are some reasons why most members of the Commission believe it is now time to allow more foreign investments in the Philippine economy,” he added.

In fact, the Commissioner said, there is now a growing consensus among his colleagues to favor the proposal that would allow 100 percent foreign ownership in public utilities, which include passenger ships, rail transits, airlines, telecommunications, water distribution and distribution of electricity, to inject the capital needed to improve services of public utilities, and make those services more widely available.

Many Commissioners, he added, also think that large scale development of the country’s natural resources (such as mining) could be hastened and could provide more benefits to the economy if allowed to be done (under strict state supervision) by foreign companies with 100 percent ownership. Small-scale developments will be restricted to fully Filipino owned companies.

And on the ownership of commercial and industrial lands, many Commissioners have suggested that this be allowed to foreign companies, under conditions to be specified by Congress or Parliament, including the establishment of the proposed industrial or commercial project in the property within a specified time period.

We can only surmise that if the Commissioners are favoring these proposals, it is because they reflect the people’s true sentiments.

But Commissioner Fernandez hastened to add that the proposals are not yet final and these will still have to be thoroughly discussed by the Commission. Once finalized, he said, ConCom’s recommendations will be submitted to the President, who shall in turn endorse it to Congress. These recommendations will then be discussed in Congress and will pass through the proper Constitutional process (Constitutional Assembly, Constitutional Convention, etc.).

Finally, the proposed amendments will then be returned to the people, who will have the final say via plebiscite.