Million-peso toilet paper

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March L. Fianza

Former Pagcor officials are now in hot water for fund releases worth P21 million allegedly spent on burgers or merienda from a fastfood store for police operations in Manila .

Imagine if that burger is one piece. That could probably be the biggest burger in the world. Well, that can be eaten and digested and flushed in the sewer of Manila and may never be seen again. What can not be hidden is the P21M that was used to purchase it. The amount is too big to hide.

A relative who used to work in Pagcor’s main office said what has come out in the papers lately is not an isolated case. There were similar cases of “unknown” disbursements but these were immediately capped tightly to avoid leakages to the press.

Does this explain why names of big-time publishers, editors, and radio and TV news personalities appeared in a “bluebook” that contained the list of “consultants” being paid by Pagcor?

By the way, once upon a time I heard Sir Mondacs, my neighbor in this paper, call Pagcor as “Pagcortaan.” But isn’t that the reason for its existence? It is the mother of all legitimate and illegitimate gambling operations. It was created to produce money – “pagkuartaan” indeed.

A funnier story is one that I heard during a campaign sortie of an Ilocano politician somewhere in La Union. It was discovered that the incumbent LGU head included in his financial report that at least P1 million of the town’s budget was spent on toilet papers.

The challenger politician jokingly criticized his opponent as typical Ilocano politicians certainly make things very light out of serious matters. He said he can not imagine just how big is one buttocks that could use a million-peso toilet paper. In the politician’s campaign speech he said, “nakadakdakelan met dytan nga ubet!”
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As frank as I have known him to be, Mayor Morris Domogan said the city is still taking advantage of the garbage trucks they bought more than 10 years ago. These were bought directly from outside suppliers under the local government code which relieves the LGU from paying customs duties.

Comparing these to the second hand trucks bought by the past city administration upon the insistence of a former councilor-broker, the second hand trucks were never used to the max. They are now on display at the athletic bowl, Domogan said.

When someone asked why he is using his private vehicle, Domogan said the mayor’s official car has to undergo a series of tests in order to correct any trouble. He confirmed that the car is “nalabusan”or vandalized considering that many of its accessories went missing, including the seat cover and carpet.
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With ex-congressman Domogan back as mayor this time, residents of Asin, Tuba, particularly those whose lands are traversed by big metal water pipelines and other facilities owned by the city of Baguio , are hopeful anew that solutions to their problems will finally come.

In an informal dialogue with Mayor Domogan last week, the Asin residents through their organization’s officers were asked to submit to him a proposal that could include lot rental fees and conditions which they think are reasonable, agreed upon and signed by all affected lot owners, and duly subscribed by a lawyer.

What is lamentable, according to them, is that persons allegedly brokering for a certain company they identified as Pan France, have been misrepresenting them by MISINFORMING Domogan that the landowners have now “agreed to be paid their claims based on what Hedccor used to pay them.”

But, all is well that ends well as they told the mayor that there is no such thing since there were no previous payments made to the landowners out of the hydros’ production. What was employed then was the three-way production-sharing scheme between the City, Bawadi and Hedcor. And even as the IPRA was enacted in 1997, they still chose to wait until the contract between the sharing parties expired a few years ago.

Going back to the “two barrio kapitanes” whom I remember was known to other punong barangays in that town as “tuba boys,” the resident-landowners said they can not be represented by the two tuba boys, much less talk in behalf of them because land claims or payments are personal matters, not a barangay issue. The least they can do is show moral support to the landowners’ fight.

But then in a court case that is on-going at the sala of Judge Pamintuan, the wife of a former elected Cordillera politician who is one of the landowners said, “uray agpakita da laeng kuma ti moral support ijay korte ngem awan tupay makitak nga aniniwan dagita nga kapitan uray basit laeng”(it’s good if they provide us moral support by showing themselves in court but I have not seen them around, not even a part of their shadow).

At least, there is a good sign that they are aware of people around them. They know who among their neighbors are sincere in helping them, and they know who among their neighbors have been “selling” them.

I happened to see the landowners in their meeting last week, many of whom are close relatives on my Lola Emily’s Tuba side. Their faces looked brighter as Baguio now has a city mayor that they can approach and talk to face to face.

According to them, no fruitful dialogue has ever occurred between them and the past mayor. In fact the issue is now in court. From the way they expressed their stories I felt that they were now beginning to experience exhaustion – in terms of money and other resources.

They too, do not have the luxury of time, especially for the senior citizen members of the organization whose lives are running short. If possible, they want the issues resolved now because they do not want to pass the problems to their descendants. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com