BY GONZALO T. DUQUE
Dagupan, a priority for drug-clearing
The committee on justice of the House of Representatives has just declared the presence of ‘probable cause’ on the two impeachment complaints filed against Vice President Sara Duterte, portraying her in public that she is guilty of the alleged charges levelled against her by the alleged complainants.
On the other hand, the husband of the Vice President, Manases Carpio, has filed criminal cases in court against Gerville Luistro, et al, and officials of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Anti-Money Laundering Council for violation of the Bank Secrecy Law.
My take on the matter is that normally, before an endorsement is to be made, the endorsers, like Reps. Leila de Lima and Chel Diokno, both lawyers, needed to have due diligence to first examine the complaint, the face of the complaint and its attachments, before they made their endorsement,
In other words, before endorsing the complaint to the justice committee, the evidence need yet to be attached to the same for them to examine if these are really worthy of being endorsed.
But instead of doing this, they deemed to blindly endorse the complaint, then went on to have a ‘public mini-trial’ and engaged on a fishing expedition at the expense of the Vice President.
Now that the formal charges will be finally sent to the House’s plenary on May 4, another strategy is allegedly being cooked up to ensure the eventual transmission of the complaints to the Senate for trial.
This is reportedly a scheme that involves a lot of funds for projects, allegedly intended to bribe congressmen into voting for the formal endorsement of the articles of impeachment against the VP to the Senate.
Masarap yata ang maging Congressman kung ganyan!
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I stand corrected when I wrote in my last column that there are now 700 policemen in the Dagupan City Police Office.
No less than Mayor Belen Fernandez corrected me when she said there are only more or less 450 policemen of DCPO, from the original 127, when it was yet a police station of the Pangasinan Provincial Office
Be that as it may, the increased number of our police force and the Pangasinan PDEA should be enough force to make Dagupan City as a priority area for drug-clearing operation, so that we can ultimately become drug-free..
By coincidence or not, and right after I wrote my column last week criticizing the inability of our police force to make Dagupan 100 percent drug-free, the DCPO, in coordination with PDEA Regional Office 1, raided a notorious drug den in Sitio Aling, Barangay Pantal, Dagupan City. Matagal na eto, eh! Bakit ngayon lang?
Need we wait for Mayor Belen to issue a marching order ( if she has not done it yet) for the police to clear Dagupan of illegal drugs.
With its increased personnel, I believe DCPO can do it.
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When The Sunday Punch is out on the streets, the Bangus Festival may already be over.
I must say that the simple celebration that we had, on account of the current economic crisis, had been quiet successful.
I feel a certain degree of nostalgic moment because there was a time , when I chaired one important event in the Bangus Festival years back.
Of particular interest is the Bangusine, which we introduced as a competition among our local culinary artists from various educational institutions here in Dagupan, featuring their best cuisines out of the city’s famous bangus.
At last, I can say that we once became a part of the Bangus Festival.
Mayor Belen is continuing with the Bangusine and tapped Councilor Danielle Francine Canto, a top nutritionist, as head of this year’s event.
I was informed that participants, other than from the universities, had been invited to add more savor and flavor to this year’s Bangusine under Councilor Canto.
Congratulations!