CITY Mayor Benjamin S. Lim said Thursday his stand against President Arroyo and his brewing disagreements with House Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Jr., of the ruling Lakas administration party may have turned him away from administration favors but has brought more benefits to city’s barangays that are now being wooed more ardently and directly by the powers-that-be.

Saying that his alienation from the administration since after he joined the opposition clamor for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo may have become a “blessing in disguise” for the greater majority of Dagupenos, particularly barangay officials, Lim cited several projects benefitting barangays now coming from Speaker De Venecia’s funds.

“Mas maraming binibigay sa kanila, mas masaya ngayon ang mga barangays, di ba?,” the mayor rhetorically asked officers of the Pangasinan Tri-Media Association (Patrima) Inc., led by their incoming president Bernie Errasquin during their courtesy call on him at City Hall.

Lim said he has no regrets about his political stand and revealed he is ready to leave the party even before they cast him out for being a maverick.

Asked if he miscalculated things in revealing his anti-Arroyo stance, Lim revealed he did try to reconsider earlier on especially after De Venecia and former President Fidel V. Ramos, chairman emeritus of the Lakas-CMD, the administration party, talked to him.
Thus, he said, he tried to issue a disclaimer on television news and broadcast.

“But, my true feelings (about the political issue concerning Arroyo) just have to be out and so I went public and called for (her) resignation.”

He admitted having really done a draft that was, he pointed out, however prematurely revealed by some members of the press who happened to be in his office sometime last year. He denied that Ramos had anything to do with his action, adding that even up to now, he feels the former president, considered by many observers as his true political patron, does not want to give up totally on Arroyo yet.

Lim said Ramos is only definite about Arroyo cutting short her term by 2007 to pave the way for a transition to the parliamentary form of government and, if she so chooses, run for a seat in the coming Parliament.

Lim declined to confirm or deny whether it is because of Ramos that Lakas has not taken drastic action like sanctioning him or expelling him from the party for his anti-Arroyo position up to now.