LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

Utility check: Piltel, Bawadi, Beneco
MARCH F. FIANZA

While searching for an important telephone number in the white pages of the PLDT telephone directory 2006-07, I noticed that the list of office names, particularly, national government offices based in Baguio , is not properly arranged. Sifting the pages, I was reminded that it was not the first time that I noticed the jumbled listing. I mean, I have gone through the same exercise in the past and will have to go through it no end everytime I look for a government office telephone number, unless it is corrected.

At last, I located the number 443-7316 of CENRO Pacdal and dialed it. Still I was not lucky even after the entire search because a sweet slang on the opposite end of the line said “The number you dialed is not yet in service.” I thought my own eyes cheated on me so I got back to the PLDT directory and there were the numbers – 443-7316. I dialed them again and expected an answer like “CENRO Pacdal hillu” or maybe “CENRO Pacdal gud murneng apow!” But the same sweet voice insisted on answering the phone with “sorry.”

The next thing I did was to look in the 2004-2005 PLDT directory back issue, although something told me that I would be seeing the same numbers. And true it was – again the numbers 443-7316. The last choice I had was to call the DENR RED office where the guy at the other end of the line gave the correct telephone number. The telephone number, I learned, should have been written as 442, not 443 as erroneously listed. Except for the phone numbers of private subscribers and those listed in the yellow pages, the directory for the national government offices confuses anyone. I do not see the logic in the system of arrangement that PLDT used. It does not seem to be arranged alphabetically or otherwise.

The names of the offices were mixed like pinakbet or pancit, just like telephone wires that tangled and sagged from street poles. The first in the list of national government offices is that of the agrarian reform department. It is followed by its sub-offices or divisions, including the Bangko Sentral Gold Buying Station. The latter office, I believe, has nothing to do with agrarian reform. The next on the list is the Finance Dept. of Regional Finance Office-CAR, and under it is Camp Dangwa . This suggests that the said finance office is under the PNP since it is located in Camp Dangwa .

That is followed by DENR-EMB Gibraltar Road although the same office is again listed in another page. Practically all that appear under “national” are not properly arranged. After DENR-EMB, Land Transportation Franchising & Regulatory Board is listed, then Local Govt & Finances, followed by Land Transportation Comm, then Land Transportation Office. Under LTO is PMA and a list of offices such as Commandants of Cadets, Dean’s Office, Hospital, etc; all offices found inside the PMA compound. Obviously, the PLDT phone directories were not edited thoroughly prior to final printing as certain words were misspelled while some were printed in the plural form such as Commandants (of Cadets). There is only one commandant of cadets in the PMA it is never an office under the LTO.

Well, unless maybe PLDT considers LTO a military school, so of course LTO will have cadets. In the following page, I see more lists of PMA offices and the Dept of Public Works & Highways alternately squeezed in between each other. The rest of the list for national offices is a red spaghetti mess. Those in charge of producing the telephone directory should fix it in order for PLDT to serve its clients better – or be sacked.
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Tax payers do not seem to fully enjoy their concreted city or barangay roads anymore as many diggings by the Baguio Water District have yet to be fixed. Whoever is tasked to do the restoration works on the dug-out sections of the road should see to it that the repairs are acceptable to road users and tax payers.

True, repairs are carried out but many are poorly done. In the repairs that we saw, some of the holes that were dug were not completely cemented while other restoration works had subsidence sections. This shows that the contractors did not use compactor machines before pouring concrete. Visibly, the contractor cheated on his work. I wonder if the BWD directors ever talk about this in their meetings. I wonder if any of them give a whimper about the diggings.

Never mind that graft occurs everywhere, even in Malacanang. At least we can make life sweeter and more livable in this city if all those diggings are fixed the way they should be. And never mind that the water-consuming public is not informed of what directors do, as long as they (directors) instruct the contractors to restore the diggings properly. That would be good public service in exchange for their allowances – at least. By the way, have you heard of the news about a director suing another director? For what? That, I did not hear. Meetings there are too silent and so transparent – one can read another man’s mind.
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For awhile, Ka Narding last year campaigned for the proposal to convert Beneco into a stock cooperative or corporation,– not independently but because he had friends who wanted to take over the operations of the electric coop. The proposal lost overwhelmingly.

He seemed to have mellowed down as he talked about the 27th annual general membership assembly (AGMA) to be held in Mankayan on December 1st. While it was more practical to hold Beneco assemblies in areas more accessible to a majority of its members, some of them were held in Benguet towns that were still within the franchise area of the coop. An assembly in the past was also held in Itogon, not only in Trinidad and Baguio . It is not farfetched that future general assemblies will be held in the other towns in Benguet. This is also to give chance to other members who, for several assemblies, were unable to attend due to the fact that they had to travel the distance and spend extra money. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com