True Benguet representation

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

(last of two parts)    

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet --It appears that LGU officials from the provincial level down to the barangays have compromised Benguet. From the looks of it and from what we have been hearing from barangay, municipal and provincial officials; they are supporting legislative caretaker Eric Yap because of financial assistance that they received for personal benefit or otherwise.
    In the world of politics, there are individuals who offer services by moving around doling out cash because that is what they do in private and public life. Money begets money. Pay as much to win a seat in congress, and collect as much or even more than what was spent.
    Benguet is not negotiable. I am sorry for saying, but the action of the sitting provincial board in adopting Yap as a “son of Benguet” was the fatal step that brought us to where we are now – more divided than in previous elections. Our honorable elected provincial officials, so to speak, created a lion that they cannot kill.
    In the case of ordinary citizens, cash assistance under the Tulong Panghanapuhay Para Sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) program of the DOLE had been distributed on several occasions in the presence of the politician from the south. That qualifies as a violation of the anti-EPAL law that DOLE should have disallowed.
    With a scenario like that, it would appear as though the cash being handed out were personal funds of the legislative caretaker. People should be informed that TUPAD is financial aid from the DOLE that would always be given to beneficiaries whoever is congressman or governor.
    Atty. Richard Kilaan who is running for board member in Benguet explained that all government projects that were launched at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were financed out of the P13 Trillion fund that the Duterte administration borrowed from different sources. These are people’s money, not from any government official or congressman.
    Be thankful that medical equipment to fight the COVID-19 pandemic were also delivered to the province. A Molecular Biology Laboratory was built behind the Benguet General Hospital that was named after Yap as he claimed that this was built with his own money.
    A contractor businessman close to former governor Pacalso admitted to this writer that the BeGH Molecular Lab was funded and constructed by one of their friends in the construction business. Who deceived who?
    In a news report, he claimed that he did not know the hospital management named the laboratory after him, although pictures showed him holding up a sign that read: “Benguet General Hospital Molecular Biology Laboratory Eric Yap Building.” Pictures do not lie.
    As chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, Yap increased the funding for public works in Benguet from P1.929 billion in 2020 to P9.578 billion in 2021. Thank you but concerned persons in the construction business are not taking this lightly as they want to know where the amounts were spent.
    The Benguet caretaker congressman reported that more funds for infrastructure projects in the province will help employ those who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, all that came after that news report were multi-million rock-netting projects that were being built allegedly in consideration of a 40 percent share deducted from the gross.
    Yap’s supporters boasted that the legislative caretaker had put in more infrastructure funds surpassing the funds during the watch of former congressmen Samuel Dangwa and Cosalan. But a district engineer from another region who requested that his name be withheld for obvious reasons came to the DPWH’s rescue.
    In October 2021, the engineer sent me a text message saying: “with DPWH funds during Cong. Cosalan’s term, one would see paved roads instead of rocknets”. The truth is that P10B under Yap’s watch could have constructed hundreds of kilometers of good roads and hard infra that Benguet really needed. Instead, we see dozens of rocknets worth a total of billions.
    One newspaper account said Benguet caretaker congressman Yap also filed House Bill 7778 on September 27, 2020 pushing for the establishment of the Autonomous Region of the Cordillera. Indeed, Congressman Yap showed respect to the clamor of the people of the Cordillera.
    When this will be debated in Congress, Yap cannot discuss the items in the bill because he has not participated in public consultations and research since 1988. He cannot even answer questions about Kankaneys, Ibaloys and Kalanguyas in Benguet because he does not know these ethnicities.
    It is not as simple as getting enough money for his district or having connections especially after a new administration sets in. Certainly, a real congressman and true representative of any community has to know the ways of life of the people he represents. He has to speak and understand their languages, otherwise he cannot represent Benguet.
    On the other hand, Mayor Palangdan was described as the underdog in his bid for congress as compared to Yap who claimed he has the connections in congress and has money to dole out for his mayors, barangay chairmen and supporters. 
    But Palangdan, according to Cosalan and other Benguet leaders who endorsed him said, the retired Benguet prosecutor and three-term mayor evidently has more training and experience in government service than Yap whose most visible qualification is to dole out money.
    Palangdan also served as Beneco board president and it was during his term when 100% of barangays in the province were fully energized. As mayor, he was instrumental in the collection of National Wealth Tax from Philex Mining Corporation amounting to P200M which was divided equally by and between Itogon and Tuba.
    Palangdan started government work at the Provincial Agriculturist Office, working with the late former Vice Governor Robert Tindaan. As lawyer, electric cooperative director, miner and farmer; he knew the issues that were troubling the province.
    Honestly, it worries me why Yap is running in Benguet and not in Mindanao. I feel that there is something morally wrong in voting for a candidate we do not identify with. Imagine a province represented in congress by one whose family background which includes his wife, children and associates are unknown.
    Will Benguet vote for someone they do not know? If yes, I am quite sure that the province will be ill-famed and be put on the Philippine map because it will become the country’s laughing stock.  
    By the way, I learned that whether people were for local or national candidates, many preferred to be resilient and move forward rather than be stuck on receiving occasional dole outs.
    This does not mean snubbing aid of any kind, but the good thing in stopping dole outs can provide the voter better values and assurances of a better future. As the saying goes: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”