'Take charge' guys

Posted on February 17, 2007 - Filed Under |

EASILY the hottest issue last week (and the previous week) in City Hall and media circles is the brewing word war between Publisher Ermin Garcia, Jr. of the newsweekly Sunday Punch and environmentalist Nick Melecio.

Both friends of ours thru our various advocacies now and before, we really think — at the risk of being rebuffed by either or both for offering unsolicited advice – they should each be sticking to the issue, a very real one to be sure, of a full investigation of the now tentacled foreshoreland scam over at Bonuan Binloc. So unfortunate for brilliant and courageous men like them to be waging a now almost personal fight i  n the news and commentary pages. We find that such a waste.

Sidelining the ‘landgrab’ issue a bit, we believe Ermin’s aside in his first column that mentioned Nick was simply a spice added, a friendly ribbing, that has somehow been the punctuating line of Ermin in his column pieces, something like a canvas artist’s tell-tale mark in his masterpieces.

Unfortunately, Nick failed to appreciate it for   what it was worth – or really meant. That it became the starting spark of a brushfire which both men now seem to be recklessly fanning with personal innuendoes and biting sarcasm thrown left and right, would only delight the original targets of Ermin’s expose on the land scam at the Tondaligan area (or around it, as Nick seemed to suggest) because the issue could unwittingly be sidetracked by their raging word war. It takes the heat off from them.

Ermin, Nick, nothing like sitting down together over coffee or C-2 (or whatever poison of choice) and reviewing the aims of your crusades for good government and healthy  environment now – before the madding (howling?) crowd  of opportunists and crooks out there begin to get very comfy, real comfy, at the superheroes’ suddenly going on mutual annihilation mode.

No one ever dies from words – however biting these may be. That’s the secret mantra for   de-stressing. Insult is but a mind-process thing.

 * * * *

At last Thursday’s Kapihan of the Pangasinan Tri-Media Association (Patrima) Inc., where utilities –telecom, electric power and water services – got the once-over from local media, it was clear these units or agencies are ably run by men who knew their business.

It’s a comforting thought to have none of the bumbling, stammering, groping kind of executives during such media “cross-examinations.”

For sheer clarity of explanation and coolness under fire, Engr. Dominador Liwag (brother of our good friend from the city schools division, Flordelita — failed to get his designation though) of Dagupan Electric Corporation gets our vote.

\Too bad we failed to take down notes while he rattled off figures and dates (no charts or kodigos, see!) on Decorp’s basic concerns to answer questions from media colleagues. The main thing that I can recall was his line that Decorp is only one of the few electric companies in the country that does not apply penalties for late payments. In sum, he said the customer is actually given 38 days within which to settle his bill and that the company disconnects a consumer’s line only on the 40th day and charges no penalty for the payment delay when he finally settles his due payment.

Electric cooperatives, according to a friend, can’t claim the same thing since they add astronomical penalty charges and reconnection fees for such disconnections.

Which somehow leads to the question: Why is Mangaldan, a neighboring town of Dagupan, holding out from availing of Decorp’s services despite the long, painstaking cry of its residents to be rid of their present electric cooperative’s less-than-reliable service.?

Yes, Mayor Hermie Romero, why?      

* * * *

The other Patrima guests, PLDT Dagupan Manager Gerardo Marquez and  Engr. Adolfo Valle of Dagupan City Water District (DCWD) didn’t fair badly either in the exchange with media panelists led by Patrima prexy Butch Velasco. Both showed a remarkable degree of savvy in providing a bird’s eye-view of what the public can expect from their company/office by way of improved services in the immediate future.

More guests of their kind, please, President Bush, er, Butch Frankly, we’d much rather have their kind on the show than guests from the current political roadshow whose airlane spiels are almost always predictable, if not altogether parochial.

Oh, yes, Happy Valentine’s to all lovers, young and old, passionate or reserved, moneyed or penniless, erect or hanging down, ‘lol!

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