Tubong Lugaw: How contractor profits from gov't project

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I had a chat recently with a government contractor. Every time we crossed path we talked about my usual curiosity how the State monies changed hand to the contractor and government officials.

The profitable re-graveling project

We discussed about re-graveling and riprap where incomes for the contractor have been a windfall.

Riprap is those loose stones used to buttress banks for breakwater that connect the two edges of the concrete bridge) while re-gravelling is putting of sand and gravel to the road in the villages so it would not be muddy for vehicles.

This police station hosts VIPs

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANAOAG – Being assigned as chief of police (COP) in this police station entails a big responsibility.

This pilgrimage town’s station is host to luminaries like the president of the Republic, senators, congressmen, cabinet members, to name a few.

VIPS. Manaoag Chief of Police Senior Inspector Eric Gonzales (extreme left)
posterity poses with Congressman Pol Bataoil and Police Regional Director
Chief Supt. Ericson T. Velasques in front of the visitor's lounge of the station. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

                        

The personages come here because of the world’s famous Minore Basilica of Our Lady of Manaoag where they attend mass.

According to the newly installed COP Senior Inspector Roderick Ylan Gonzales, while just barely warming his seat he had already been a host to Senator JV Ejercito Estrada, Congressman Leopoldo Bataoil (2nd District, Pangasinan), Governor Amado Espino, Jr., Vice Governor Ferdinand Calimlim, businessman Edward Aguilar, Regional Director Police Chief Supt. Ericson T. Velasques, Chief Supt. General Diosdado Valeroso, to name a few, at the world class multi-million pesos two-storey visitor’s lounge of the police the national government funded to boost up the Philippine National Police’s station here.

Since September when he took the reign of the police here from Chief Inspector Edison Revita, Gonzales expedited the procurements of needed equipments like the two P15 thousand worth Epson F-20 printers and P16 thousand high resolution cameras.

He said he bought them through solicitations with friends when he was just two weeks in office.

“We will be using them on the police civil relation, tactical operation centre. We have been printing a lot of documents here, and we need these equipments badly. Sira –sira na kasi ang printers namin dito”.

The other solicited gadgets he chalked up from businessmen's friends are the 15 brand new hand held two-way radios his police would be using in their patrol and operation.

Gonzales said he relied on asking donations because he could not use the P49 thousand a month Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) because it is only appropriated, as ordered by higher headquarter, on gasoline, office supplies, and others of his station.

Hired goons in Ilocos Norte and Abra

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

During the birthday celebration and distribution of Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance (CONA) early October of former Congressman Mark O. Cojuangco, Pangasinan’s gubernatorial bet, I met Tayug Mayor Tyrone Agabas, a lawyer, who told me he would be duking it out with the town’s Vice Mayor Carlos Trece Mapili for the mayoralty in the 2016 election.

When I bumped again with him lately at the provincial office of the Commission on Election in Dagupan City he told me he and Mapili patched it up and agreed to run in tandem just like in 2013.

“So you’re running unopposed (for the mayoralty)?” I posed.

He said there was a man who challenged him. But he was a “nobody politically in the town”.

His kind words in stopping short calling the opponent as nuisance.

Tayug Mayor Tyrone Agabas, whose wife is Congresswoman Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, told me he was a son of a mayor, too, in the rambunctious Abra province. His father was the chief executive there from 1960s to 1970s.

He thought when he lived in Manila and studied law there at San Beda College he would be shunning away from politics, but he was wrong.

“Marlyn who was my law classmate had a political lineage in Pangasinan that smitten her thus here I am now in politics,” he told me.

The Congresswoman came from the illustratious family of the Primicias who produced a governor, congressman, and senator in the humongous province.

Tyrone used to be a Board Member while his wife Marlyn was the provincial vice governor, before he became a hizzoner of the Wild-Wild West Tayug town where its former mayor the tough Guerrero Zaragoza was assassinated.

“In my watch Tayug became a peaceful town,” Mayor Agabas said.

I was all ears with the mayor when he told me about the political families and supporters of former Abra Governor Vicente Isidro Valera and Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin where the former was implicated for the murder of the latter.

He said one of these families is a relative.

I could not fail not to mention or think about Abra, I told him, whenever election in Pangasinan looms because some mayors in the province either hired goons from the place or in Ilocos Norte.

                                                                                         ***

When I told recently BDO-Dagupan City’s manager Henry Arce, a resident of Ilocos Norte, about the Ilocos goons hired by Pangasinan’s politicians, he told me Ilocos politicians hired Abra goons during election barnstorming and voting.

I wrote a column on these goons when a mayor in Central Pangasinan told me he hired those guys but he provided them with their long and short lethal firearms.

Here’s an excerpt of that column I wrote after a Pangasinan mayor was assassinated:

 “Before a mayor of Pangasinan, who allegedly maintained sicarios (hit men), went to Infanta recently to pay his last respect to the slain Mayor Ruperto Martinez, I went near his van.

He showed me two Russian-made folding- type Kalashnikov AK-47s sprawled at the floor of his car.

“Why not use those M-15 A4 Carbine (baby M-16 Armalite used by U.S special forces in the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq) your family has been giving as gift to political friends,” I asked him.

He just laughed. He told me AK-47 (that has a 100-round detachable box and drum style magazine) is much powerful than M–15.

When I told this story two day later to a high elective official in Central Pangasinan who used to hire close-in body guards from Ilocos every election time, he told me he sold all his M-16s he bought before in lieu of the much powerful AK-47.

I could not agree more. This Russian made assault rifle invented by an Ivan Sergeant Mikhail Kalashnikov has been known to have the same fire-power with the longer M-14 rifle (first entered service in 1957 and was used by the U.S Marines when they set foot in Vietnam in the early of 1960s).

According to the online Wikepidia: “The main advantages of the Kalashnikov rifle are its simple design, fairly compact size, and adaptation to mass production. It is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to clean and maintain. Its ruggedness and reliability are legendary. The AK-47 was initially designed for ease of operation and repair by glove-wearing Soviet soldiers in Arctic conditions. The large gas piston, generous clearances between moving parts, and tapered cartridge case design allow the gun to endure large amounts of foreign matter and fouling without failing to cycle”.

***

To would- be- assassins, who would emulate how Mayor Martinez was killed in broad daylight; just take a pre-caution my dear killers. The Toyota Land Cruiser, Mitsubishi Montero, or the Starex Van you want to ambush has probably a cache of full-jacket Kalash versus your .45 caliber hand gun.

Susmariosep, that would be a mismatch”.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com).

Billionaire - mayoralty bet uses feng shui for date with Comelec

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BAYAMBANG – A feng shui expert told a billionaire-mayoralty bet in Bayambang, Pangasinan that October 13 was a lucky date to file his certificate of candidacy (CoC) at the Commission on Election (Comelec).

Feng shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment.

TICKET. The mayoralty ticket of Dr. Cezar Quimbao (4th from left)
meets the press and his hundreds of supporters at the convention
 hall of his Royal Mall in Bayambang after  they simultaneously filed
their Certificate of Candidacies at the Commission of Election.

 Business tycoon Cezar S. Quimbao said that he should be filing his CoC on October 12 to avoid October 13, that represents misfortune, because of a business trip abroad on October 14.

“ Sabi sa akin ng feng shui master, sir Quimbao mag file kayo, 13 is a good day from 9 Am to 11 (Am) so nakita ninyo ho nag file kami. Nag simba kami,” he told media men and his supporters at a press conference held at his Royal Mall in the rustic town an hour after he and his ticket filed their CoCs at the Comelec.

He said the feng shui expert told him October 13 showed that he would be changing his career from being a businessman to a politician.

 “Pero hindi ako magiging traditional politician. If ever given a chance magalit na kung sino magalit, gagawin natin kung ano ang nararapat, wala akong vested interest sa pulitika,” he told the roaring and applauding crowd.

Quimbao had already gave hundreds of millions of pesos to this first class town’s coffer as business taxes after he registered here his mammoth businesses like Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc , U.S $80 million Build-Own-Operate’s Land Transportation Office-Information Technology’s Stradcom project , U.S$ 120 million Lares computerization of the Land Registration Authority, and others that are mostly based in Manila.

In one of these years he paid P20 million in business taxes that this town’s used to buy several heavy equipment like bulldozers and funded some infrastructure projects.

He was known to bankroll the mayoralty victory of Mayor Leocadio de Vera in 1997‘s election and supported incumbent Mayor Ricardo Camacho during the latter earlier term in office.

But his relationship with the mayor turned sour when the latter was implicated to a series of corruption issues.

Quimbao sued Camacho at the Ombudsman after this town Councilor Levin Uy discovered at a seminar in Baguio City that Camacho approved the release of P1,896 million from the coffer to pay the 8,000 grills for an 8 kilometers interconnected grills that Quimbao had already paid in the town’s bid for the Guinness  World Record’s longest grill during the fiesta’s street grilling with   112,000 pieces of freshwater fishes.

2 ways govern substitution of 2016 election bets

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 The recent rule passed by the Commission on Election (Comelec) talks only of the two periods of substituting a candidate who vies for an elective position in the 2016 election.

This  candidate can be either running for the presidential, vice presidential, senatorial, congressional, governorship, vice governorship, provincial board, mayorship, vice mayorship, or councillorship.

SUBSTITUTION.  Actress Lucy Torres-Gomez (middle) who substituted her
husband  Actor Richard Gomez who was vying for the 2010 congressional
election in the Visaya Region. PHOTO CREDIT: PEP

Resolution No. 9984 said the first period that will commence from October 12 to December 10, 2016 covers about the substitution of a candidate in case of death, disqualification or withdrawal of another.

Section 19 of the Resolution cited that an official candidate of a duly registered political party (PP) or coalition, who dies, withdraws or is disqualified for any cause after the last day for the filing of Certificate of Candidacies (COCs) which is October 12 may be substituted by a candidate belonging to, and nominated by the same PP or Coalition.

The law says, however, that no substitute shall be allowed for any independent candidate.

“The substitute of a candidate who has withdrawn may file a COC for the Office affected on or before December 10, 2015 so that the name of the substitute will be reflected on the official ballots,” Section 19 stressed.

In the second period it also says that no substitution due to withdrawal shall be allowed after December 10, 2015.

Section 19 provides that the substitute for a candidate who died or is disqualified by final judgment, may file a COC from December 11, 2015  up to mid-day of election day; Provided that, the substitute and the substituted have the same surnames.

“If the death or disqualification should occur between the day before the election and mid-day of Election Day, the substitute candidate may file a COC with any Board of Election Inspectors, Election Officers, Provincial Election Supervisor or Regional Election Director, as the case may be, in the political subdivision where such person is a candidate, or in the case of a candidate for President, Vice-President or Senator, with the Law Department; Provided that, the substitute and the substituted candidate have the same surnames,” the law says.

Pulse Asia is more credible than Social Weather Station

 Did SWS flirt with its client?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Polls like what two major Philippines survey outfits’ Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia (PA) have been doing became a major factor for the strategy of an elective candidate to map out how he /she improves his /her weakness or strength in an area or stop his/her endeavor to save time, efforts, and monies as election nears.

Earlier, some political kibitzers criticized SWS how it came with 137% total sampling respond on its September 2 to 5 2016 presidential polls where it found 47%  for Senator Grace Poe,  39% for Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, 35% for Vice President Jejomar Binay, and 16%  for Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte  as against the standard practiced of a 100% based percentile poll.
The credibility of SWS had been questioned again by some sectors when it came days later with Survey No. 2 that was polled in the same September 2 to 5, 2015 period of Survey No.1 where a presidential aspirant Roxas landed No. 2 in the first survey while he landed No.3 in the second poll.
In No.1 poll, the top four presidential wannabes were sparsely distributed from each other while they were densely distributed in the No.2 poll. How these happen my dear SWS President Mahar Mangahas when those who were asked to answer were the same 1,200 people?
With 1,200 respondents divided by the 100% based percentile, the No.2 survey says 26% Poe, 24% Binay, 20% Roxas, 11% Duterte, 4% Roxas, 4% Senator Francis Escudero, 3% Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, 2% Senator Merriam Santiago, 1% former Senator Manuel Villar, and 5% undecided and others.
Was there a manipulation that ensued in the Ranks 2 and 3 (between Roxas and Binay) to appease a customer after he saw how close the race for the presidential office?
Why the distance, in Survey No. 2, of Binay to Grace became statistically tied and that of Roxas to Binay became almost tied as based on the margin of error (MoE) of plus 3 or minus 3?
Why survey No. 2 differed to survey No. 1 when, again, they have the same interviewees?
From the projection of 60 million voters that would go at the voting precincts in 2016, each plus or minus is 600,000 votes. Does your math how the distances of each candidate to those behind or above them count.
In Survey No.1, SWS said that Poe dusted off by 8% or 4.8 million votes Binay. If you add the 3 plus or 3 minus MoE that 4.8 million could be 6.6 million votes or 3 million votes.
Why the wide discrepancy on Survey No.1 versus Survey No.2?

Marcos on the Spratly, Vice Presidency

Q & A: Philippine Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. talks about the Philippines and Chinese claim on the islets and reefs in the West Philippines Sea and his probable run for the vice presidency with political columnist Mortz C. Ortigoza. Excerpts:

Senator Bong Bong Marcos (C) poses for posterity with
Veteran Scribe Ruben Rivera and Columnist Mortz
Ortigoza  (extreme right).

MORTZ: Sir, lately I was watching the Spratly and Scarborough Islets (in the West Philippines Sea) brouhahas there were 16 Pangasinan fishermen who wrote a complaint to the United Nations, then I saw your statement there that you were for the Bilateral Agreement with the Chinese.....
SENATOR BONGBONG MARCOS: No, no, no. I am for the Bilateral Talks with the Chinese..
MORTZ: Ya, Bilateral Talks with the Chinese...
MARCOS: Because, because for the first time in the entire situation the Chinese has agreed to talk in the framework of international law or the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) which is something that they never done before. Tapos noong nakaraan they talked about the 9 Dash Lines. Now they are willing to talk about under UN. That’s new. Hindi rin ni-rerecognized ng ating DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) hindi ata nalalaman kung gaano kalaking pagbabago ito. So we continued to do nothing except making our case in the jurisdiction ng UN.
MORTZ: The perception in the Philippines is the Chinese could not be trusted. One of the examples there is the Panatag Shoal’s hullabaloo where the BRP Pampanga left (in 2012 after it replaced the country’s frigate BRP Gregorio Del Pilar) with the Chinese as agreed. They, the Chinese ships, did not leave the place that’s why Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal now is controlled by the Chinese.