Tricky pols raise ugly heads in BLISTT

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

by March Fianza

Last week, Baguio mayoralty bet Jose Molintas sent to my private mail in FB his thoughts on issues that stand out as the problem that the city now faces… congestion. He cited the BLISTT idea (Baguio, La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, Tublay) as the one program that can offer the answer.

He said, the BLISTT is an idea to decongest economic activities on education, tourism and business to name a few, in the neighboring towns located in Benguet that are adjacent to the Baguio area.

Looking at another mayoralty candidate’s statements, retired RTC Judge Del Claravall is practically saying the same in his “Bangon Baguio Bangon” appeal. Although, there is no mention of the BLISTT idea, the things related to it are his statements on solving traffic congestion, improving water supply and controlling real estate over-development – matters that can be fixed by association with the Benguet towns.

Atty. Jose “JoeMol” Molintas said he supports the BLISTT concept and the sooner it is applied, the better that it answers the need to decongest Baguio City. The built-in plus factor is that, being an Ibaloy, it gives him more advantage in dealing with the leaders of the BLISTT towns.

This is one topic that has been discussed in many circles but it has not attracted the attention of our national planners. Instead, they spent more time and money talking about regional autonomy and other matters that do not appeal so much to the man on the street.

Unlike the transient population and seasonal tourists, mayoralty bets Molintas and Claravall who are more permanent citizens of Baguio are sick and tired of the way city hall has been running the affairs. Atty. Molintas says that with the implementation of BLISTT, an uncontrollable Baguio population can spread out and decongest the city.

Another solution in relation to the BLISTT idea is to start the construction of low-cost housing and rent-to-own houses in the adjoining Benguet towns that may be offered to Baguio’s informal settlers who will have to move out from the center of the city. Meanwhile, there is a need to stop the construction of subdivisions for the rich that only attract outsiders and real estate brokers.

I believe, Atty. Molintas pushing for the BLISTT idea as the one solution to Baguio’s clamor for decongestion and retired judge Del Claravall’s idea of rebuilding (or reinventing) a city that we want makes more sense than Domogan’s wish to construct a “money maker” parking lot at the Melvin Jones football grounds to decongest traffic.

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If you look closer, you will notice candidates’ posters with all sorts of statements that attempt to win over voters to their side. Supposedly, these serve as convincing strategies if the statements were true. Although, some cases I find not so entertaining but a bit insulting to the intelligence of the electorate.

There are posters of candidates expressing in general statements claim of skills to fight graft and corruption in government. What skills are there to talk about when sitting senators cannot push one presidential bet to answer corruption allegations against him?

Then there are posters that label candidates as “action man”. What is there to claim when all government people in the executive level are expected follow the natural course to put into action and put in place what a legislative body has resolved and wants implemented?  

In one city, a re-electionist congressman and a candidate for councilor assert their love for the environment. But what track record can they who claim to be protecting the city’s green cover show us when one of them was indicted for destroying the same?

One councilor bet who does not plan on relinquishing the chairmanship of a re-greening group has not lifted a finger against the destruction of a Pine forest atop Mount Santo Tomas. What re-greening movement was that? It is best that people forget it and let it die a natural death.  

On the campaign trail outside the poster, politicians try every trick to catch the attention of the electorate. And since Baguio is home to Ibaloys, one congressional bet who is married to an Ibaloy lass was heard carelessly announcing in public his Ibaloy affiliation saying, “I am an Ibaloy by penetration and insertion”.

That sounded more as an insult to Ibaloy women than an admirable comment. On the same token, because of the A-Team leader’s careless comments, someone mistakenly defined the letter “A” to mean “arrogant”.

For all we know, the arrogance and carelessness could have been inherited in the genes. It brings back stories of once upon a time about a thoughtless electric company director who used a company truck in hauling illegally cut Pine lumber for the construction of a house somewhere at Crystal Cave. I now see a house in that area adorned with Pine. The rest is history.

Relatively, these stories make me recall a similar story about a truckload of Pine lumber intercepted at the Lucban police station sometime in the 90s when I was still editing another paper. The police identified a director of a government agency as the owner of the contraband.

The director’s daughter and son-in-law are now avid supporters of a re-electionist candidate today. What can I say – kanya-kanyangraket. They cannot be blamed for having common connections to illegal tree cutters and transporters of illegal lumber.

The last I heard of the re-electionist is that he distributed P500 each to all barangay kagawads in the city at the start of the local campaign while every barangay kapitan of the 128 barangays received P5,000 each. Ten days before election, each barangay kagawad in the city will again receive P1,500 while all the kapitanes will get P10,000 each. The gross total is only P3,968,000 – something that the “foundation” can easily dole out.

In Benguet, the latest arrogant act carried out by the “Green Team” was reported by supporters of the “Yellow Team”. They said that the Green Team has rented a room of a house along the Tublay highway and made it appear like it was their headquarters.

The objective of the dirty move was to let people see that a ribbon of highway dominated by the Yellow can be disrupted by the Green, and that there are also supporters of the Green Team in Tublay which is of course, “Yellow” country.

When asked to comment on the latest dirty trick, a Yellow supporter said “ok lang, dibale ta ti green ket maluom agbalin nga yellow… ngem ti yellow hanen nga agbalin nga green” (it’s ok, anyway the green ripens to yellow but the yellow cannot become green). In other words, the Green supporters will soon become Yellow supporters.