COMMISSIONERS IN PANGASINAN. Commissioner Rita Linda V. Jimeno of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines answers mediamen’s queries during the press conference coordinated by the Philippine Information Agency and Presidential Management Staff at the Regency Hotel before the commissioners proceeded to consult with various Pangasinan sectors on the Charter Change last Friday. Jimeno was with the team of commissioners assigned to meet with Pangasinan and La Union sectors that included San Fernando City (Pampanga) mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez, Dagupan City Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, lawyer Raul Lambino, Gary Teves, Sister Luz Emmanuel Soriano and businessman Liberato Laus. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka).

By DANNY O. SAGUN

CALASIAO – While members of the Consultative Commission may have their personal views on Constitutional changes, it is the actual pulse and sentiments of the people that will be held paramount and respected in coming out with the commission’s final report for submission to President Macapagal-Arroyo.

The seven commissioners attending last Friday’s Charter change consultation-dialogue at the Regency Hotel here thus assured their Pangasinense audience as they belied beliefs and allegations that the consultation activities were just a “formality” and that a final draft of proposed changes in the 1987 Constitution has already been prepared ahead.

Led by lawyer Raul Lambino and Dagupan City Vice-Mayor Alvin Fernandez, the Con-com members said that results of the consultations from all parts of the country that kicked off in October will all be collated to come out with a final report to be submitted to the President and later to Congress for final action.

The group first met the local media in a press conference and then held the consultations and workshop with different sectors of society to include local officials, educators, businessmen and many others.

Proposed changes in the 1987 charter include the shift of government system and structure from the present unitary-bicameral to federal-parliamentary as well as economic reforms and national patrimony.

Lambino said that he and his colleagues will not waste their time and efforts and even their resources if there was already a final draft ready for submission. He also noted that discussions over proposed changes are very lively and extensive leading to revisions or adjustments in the drafts prepared personally by the commissioners themselves.

He and Fernandez said that the draft prepared by Con-com chair Jose Abueva was treated just as “talking points” and has undergone several amendments so far as proposed by the other members.

Fernandez also bared that the process involved now is very much different from what happened in the past when the 1935, 1973 and 1987 Constitutions were pre-drafted. Now, he pointed out, people are consulted and their sentiments given due consideration.

While the Charter change could not solve the country’s problems overnight, they said that in a way such changes would bring about reforms and economic progress. They also pointed out that election of national leaders in a parliamentary government does not entail so much expense and thus prevent corruption. Under the present presidential system, a presidential candidate has to spend P4 to P5 billion to win, an expensive exercise that breeds corruption, the commissioners said.

Joining the two Pangasinense commissioners were lawyer Rita Linda Jimeno, Rey Teves, former Congressman Oscar Rodriguez, Luz Soriano, and Liberato Laus. (PIA/DOS).

NOVELTY PAINTING. Alaminos City mayor Hernani Braganza shows to visitors a color painting of the Hundred Islands that liberally used bangus scales (kaliskis) to compose it. The city government has been on an intensified promotions program for Pangasinan’s tourist spot the past several months and the results in terms of tourist arrivals at the Islands, according to Braganza, has been very encouraging. (Pangasinan Star photo)

THERE is no pay parking ordinance passed by the city council yet. That’s according to Dagupan City Vice-Mayor Alvin Fernandez, presiding officer of the sangguniang panlungsod.

Fernandez, reacting to the banner story of Pangasinan Star last week, called up to clarify that what the sangguniang panlungsod passed last November 14 was “just an ordinance designating the parking areas.” He claimed that the body has yet to prescribe the fees and penalties in the use of such parking areas by motorists which, he inferred, could be subject of another ordinance.

This paper reported last week that the pay parking measure was deemed defective due to lack of quorum when it was passed which factor was also noted by the city legal officer in a radio interview. Another major factor that effectively deemed the measure void was the absence of thorough consultation thru public hearings before the measure was passed.

The vice-mayor maintained however that there was quorum during that session. Based on sanggunian records, seven members answered the roll call including the vice-mayor while six were absent including Alex de Venecia who was in the United States. There are 10 regular councilors and two ex-officio members.

De Venecia, being out of the country, was ruled out in the determination of quorum as per the rules, the vice-mayor explained.

Since the ordinance did not involve any appropriation or imposition of fees and penalties, a simple majority was required, he added.

A close scrutiny of Ordinance No. 1853-2005 authored by Councilor Luis Samson, Jr. showed otherwise. Prescribed in it was a parking fee of P20 for the first hour and P5 for every hour afterwards for light vehicles, and P30 for medium vehicles for the first hour and P5 afterwards. A prepaid monthly season parking fee or pass was also set as an option for vehicle owners – P1,000 for light vehicles, and P1,500 for medium vehicles. A fine of P500 was also prescribed as penalty for violators.

Apparently, the vice-mayor failed to notice such provisions in the ordinance.

Samson, it was learned, actually prepared a draft amendment to the ordinance a few days later which sought to raise the monthly season pass to P1,500 for light vehicles, and P3,500 for medium vehicles.

Fernandez, who admitted he was out when the measure was being discussed in the previous sessions being a member of the Consultative Commission for the proposed Charter Change, said that there was no pay parking ordinance to talk about yet. “Pag-uusapan pa yang mga fees and penalties,” he told the Pangasinan Star in a cell phone interview.

The sanggunian thru the concerned committees are expected to call public hearings for the purpose, he said.

The sanggunian was roundly criticized for not fully disclosing the matter to the public, considering that it carried fees and penalties.

MANY of the 300 emergency workers of the city government face a bleak Christmas after the city government trimmed down their number due to shortage of funds.

As a result, only a few of the EWs assigned in various offices have remained, grossly affecting the capacity of these offices to deliver the services expected of them by the public.

A report said only those carrying out vital functions, such as street and park cleaners, garbage collectors, traffic enforcers and a few others were retained. All the others were terminated effective Nov. 15.

The EWs were the first casualties of an apparent serious financial crisis besetting the city since October this year.

City Administrator Rafael Baraan earlier said that before the city government hired the EWs,l they were informed that their salaries were dependent on the availability of cash in the city coffer.

Baraan earlier said that they did not fill up vacant positions in the city government, anticipating that salaries for these positions can be reappropriated for wages of EWs.

To date, the city government is pressed for cash as shortfall in expected collection of revenues totaled P14 million as of October 31. This may go higher before the end of the year.

Baraan said the city government missed its revenue projections because of uncertain times, and on account of the fluctuating prices of oil.

The laid-off workers rued their termination only few more weeks before Christmas, foreseeing they will surely end up with no food on their dining table midnight of Dec. 24.

They said it is disheartening that they were the first to go when in fact there were consultants who are receiving fat monthly salaries in the hire of the city who were not touched. (PNA)

TAYUG–The lawyer son of murdered Pasig City Judge Estrellita Paas has deplored the trial court judge’s action dismissing the cases filed against the two persons accused of killing his mother.

In a resolution issued last Nov. 30, Regional Trial Court Judge Ulysses Raciles Butuyan of Branch 51 dismissed the cases for murder and theft filed against accused Jornald Vargas and Elmer Cabilles.

Lawyer Ronald Paas, private prosecutor said the resolution of Butuyan is unfair to the prosecutors and the family because this was issued haphazardly, noting that “it took him (Butuyan) only nine days to throw away the case.”

Judge Paas was brutally killed inside their home in Natividad sometime in the afternoon of September this year. At that time, her husband, Renerio, a retired Ombudsman, was attending a school activity.

Vargas and Cabiles were arrested by joint elements of the Natividad Police in Balungao town and Lupao, Nueva Ecija. Vargas is now out on bail for a separate case of illegal possession of firearm while Cabilles is detained at the Bureau of Management and Penology district jail in Urdaneta for another crime of murder.

Admitting he has not yet received the resolution of Judge Butuyan dismissing the cases against the accused, lawyer Paas said he might go up to the Supreme Court and file a case against Butuyan whom he accused of “biasness” and partiality during the preliminary investigation of these cases last Nov. 21 after the judge declined to issue warrants of arrest for the accused.

In that preliminary investigation, Paas filed an oral motion asking Butuyan to inhibit himself from hearing the cases but he only filed a formal motion to that effect on Dec. 2 or two days after Butuyan had already dismissed the same.

Butuyan said he waited in his sala till the afternoon of Nov. 30 for such motion but it never came, thus he had to dismiss the cases on the ground of lack of probable cause against the accused, or else he would be accused of being lazy and slow in his job.

When the motion did come at 9:30 a.m. of December 2, Butuyan issued an order stating that the Court finds no compelling reason to address the issues raised by Paas but nevertheless noted it.

In his resolution dismissing the cases against Vargas and Cabiles, Judge Butuyan stated the
inability of the prosecution to present their witnesses, including the accused themselves, and even the complainant, Reneiro Paas, husband of the victim and father of lawyer Paas.

Paas said although the accused through their counsel did not file a motion to dismiss Butuyan conducted the hearing and dismissed the cases despite being questioned on his partiality and biasness.

He maintained that the police as well as the office of the Provincial Prosecutor conducted a thorough investigation on the matter but that Butuyan ignored their findings.

“He should have deferred from doing anything on the case as there was an earlier motion to inhibit that was orally manifested,” Paas fumed (PNA)

By DANNY O. SAGUN

THE public has so far accepted the expanded value-added tax (EVAT) as a necessary measure for government to generate more revenues and stay away from the old practice of borrowing funds from international creditors, the commissioner of Bureau of Internal Revenue observed Tuesday.

Lawyer Jose Mario C. Bunag also noted that taxation is no longer viewed by the people as a burden. Instead, it is one way for them to contribute to the government for the latter to deliver basic goods and services, he pointed out.

After the initial protests by militant sectors against the tax measure, the public, he said, appeared to have accepted it. “Wala namang gulo o pag-aalsa na nangyayari, di ba?” he told mediamen later.

Bunag graced the Expanded VAT roadshow at the Leisure Coast Resort in Bonuan Binloc last Tuesday where he addressed some 2,000 participants that included lawyers, certified public accountants, mediamen, students and many others from various sectors who gathered to learn more about the tax measure.

In his brief message, the former bar topnotcher expressed hope that by the end of the year taxpayers would have filed and paid their respective taxes. “Sa dami ng taong naririto ngayon, inaasahan din natin na ganito rin karami ang magbabayad ng kanilang buwis,” he said.

Facing the local media after his speech, Bunag said the bureau expects to meet its targeted collections including some P82 billion from EVAT thru efficient collection efforts.

EVAT seeks to bring in more funds for government to deliver basic services in education, health insurance, environmental conservation and agricultural modernization by earmarking 20 percent of the incremental VAT collection.

In more concrete terms, 521 single-story buildings with five classrooms will be built in 2006, health insurance premiums will benefit 3.1 million indigents, 9,190 hectares will be reforested, and 1,012 kilometers of farm-to-market roads will be laid out.

The VAT law has been in effect since 1988 but the EVAT law (RA 9337) expanded the coverage to petroleum products, power and electric cooperatives, services of doctors and lawyers, non-food agricultural products, works of art, literary and musical compositions, and domestic carriage of passengers by air and sea.

The VAT rate of 10 percent is set to increase to 12 percent in 2006.

Representatives of the departments of finance, agriculture, trade and industry, energy, and BIR took turns explaining the law to the audience.

Meanwhile, the regional BIR office headed by officer-in-charge Romeo P. Buan reported to the BIR chief that it has exceeded by 102 million its collection target as of October 25. Revenue District Office no. 4 based in Calasiao under Joseph M. Catapia also surpassed its target by P11 million for the same period.

THE P315 M plus Dawel-Pantal-Lucao Diversion Road here is now 75 percent complete. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional office is optimistic it will be completed on time next year.

Engr. Fidel Ginez, DPWH regional director said that everything is running on schedule in the construction of the 4.897-kilometer long highway. The road network including two small bridges spans 30.68 meters and 12.7 meters wide through barangays Pantal, Poblacion Oeste, Tapuac and Lucao here.

A budget of P254 million has been released for the project which started on Nov. 15,2002. The fund came from the Office of the President through the initiative of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. whose congressional district includes this city.

The remaining P61 million is yet to be released which includes payment of road right of way (RROW) solely shouldered by the DPWH.

Under the P254 million available fund, Ginez said they could furnish the work on or before the third quarter next year. This involves civil works like reinforced concrete box culvert, slope protection, river bank protection, earthworks, reinforced concrete pipe culvert cross drains, Portland cement concrete pavement and miscellaneous like traffic signs, curb and gutter guardrail, project market, construction of access roads as well as facilities for engineers.

Ginez clarified that allocations for road projects varies based on the condition of the project like this one. He added that in the Dawel-Lucao road project case, theconstruction traverses fishponds and project implementors had to first remove unsuitable materials before they could do backfilling.

Ginez added that they now have very minimal problem as far as acquisition of road right-of-way is concerned as only one lot owner who is staying abroad, remains to be settled.

Meanwhile, Ginez said de Venecia has instructed DPWH to look into the feasibility of the city government’s proposal that the road network be connected directly to de Venecia Highway.

Ginez quoted de Venecia as saying that if the alternate route suggested by Mayor Benjamin Lim is feasible, the speaker will look for funds to finance it but the present design must first be completed.

The DPWH director said he has sent to his Central Office two plans recommended by the city government. Representatives from the Bureau of Designs in Manila have inspected the proposed site together with representatives from the mayor’s office some weeks ago.

Ginez added they are now waiting for the recommendation of the inspectors .

IF the United States wants to learn how to react quickly to a lethal outbreak of avian influenza among humans, it should look to China.

This was how a North Dakota newspaper editorial advised its home government on proper action to take to ward off avian flu outbreak or to contain one, if it happens.

“Last week, there was one person in China who died as a confirmed victim of the savage H5N1 virus, another who recovered and one more, a 12-year-old girl, who died and is suspected to have had the disease,: the Bismarck Tribune editorial started out.

“Since its first outbreaks, China has imposed quarantines in areas, is monitoring people’s travel in entire regions, has banned the sale of live poultry and – astoundingly – will vaccinate all poultry in China. China also has its own manufacturer of a human vaccine for avian flu.

“Well, Americans may say, it can happen over there,” the editorial read further, “because China has an authoritarian government. True in part, but is should be kept in mind that China is being forthright about telling the world what is being done there and the problems they have in containing this particular flu virus. China learned the necessity of openness when it tried to keep the outbreak of SARS quiet and almost caused an epidemic.

“The (U.S.)president and Congress are to be commended for getting a start on preparations to combat this viral foe. In this time of pressure to cut programs from the federal budget, President Bush is willing to put up $7.1 billion, and Congress a bit more, to prepare for an outbreak.

“The intent is good. The program developed so far is not as good on several levels, particularly in not providing for a rapid response.

“We thought the federal government and state bodies were prepared to respond quickly to critical events – but that was before Hurricane Katrina, when we learned how molasses-slow a response can be.

“According to the New York Times, “The (federal) plan sets lofty goals but largely passes the buck on practical problems. The real responsibilities wind up on the shoulders of state and local health agencies and individual hospitals, none of which were provided with adequate resources to do the job.”

“It’s good that there will be a meeting today of officials from several federal and North Dakota agencies in Bismarck. One federal official, explaining the need for the meeting, said, “We just want to establish roles and responsibilities, recognize that we all have different levels of expertise and coordination on any of these types of response plans.”
“That’s an encouraging attitude, that government recognizes that it’s time to get very serious about the threat of a pandemic,” the Bismarck Tribune concluded.

THE Office of the Muslim Affairs (OMA) has appealed to the city government to consider the plight of 37 Muslim families whose houses, located near the seashore, were demolished by authorities three weeks ago.

OMA Director Amoran Andoga was in Dagupan Wednesday to talk to city officials in behalf of Muslims whose homes were torn down by demolition teams from the city government.

Bringing along separate letters from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro, Andoga clarified that he came to Dagupan not to oppose the policies of the city government but to help bring its programs closer to the Muslim people.

Datu Michael Bagul, president of the Dagupan Muslim Association, hailed Andoga’s arrival, saying that this was an indication the national government, especially the OMA, has not abandoned them.

In an interview, Bagul said Mayor Benjamin Lim reneged on his promise to provide the affected Muslim families with a relocation site. Officials under Lim, however, said the mayor did not make such a promise but only gave them (Muslims) enough time of three years to relocate themselves.

The Muslims were among several who settled in Dagupan a few years ago in order to escape the ongoing war in Mindanao, Andoga explained, as he appealed for understanding on the plight of his Muslim brothers here.

City Administrator Rafael Baraan who led officials in the dialogue clarified there was no discrimination or injustice committed by the city government when it ordered the demolition of the Muslim houses after accommodating them for many years.

He explained that these had to be demolished after due notices as the Muslim houses were located inside the 72-hectare Tondaligan national park and also for being within a danger zone in the city along the beach area.

Finally softening on his stand over the issue however, Baraan said the city government will start looking for a place where the displaced families, either Muslims or Christians, could be accommodated.

There are at least 6,000 “informal settlers” in the city, according to City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued.