Yesterday was the 13th anniversary of that fateful afternoon in July 1990 when an intensity 7.7 quake jolted our city. The tragic aftermath of that calamity sent many people to tears and down to their knees, begging mercy from God.
I vividly remember that the days that followed were filled with uncertainty. People were in a mad rush to leave the city. Businesses closed shop and began scouting for relocation sites in neighboring towns. The city was in the verge of becoming a ghost town.
But had it not been for a few brave determined souls, who firmly believed that Dagupan can rise from its ruins, this city would not have been where it is today.
As a young reporter then, I distinctly recall that among the tireless figures who rallied Dagupeños to stay put and help rebuild the city was businessman and civic leader (now Mayor) Benjie Lim, who chaired the economic reconstruction group. There was also then vice mayor (now DILG undersecretary) Al Fernandez, who steered the city government’s rehabilitation efforts that extended until his assumption as city mayor in 1992.
As we silently prayed in Thanksgiving yesterday, we can only look back to that tragedy as a learning experience: that nothing, not even a natural calamity, can stop the resolve of a united people to survive and eventually rise up from where they have fallen.
*****
In the last few weeks, Usec Al Fernandez has been unfairly treated in primetime radio commentary programs simply because of the perception that he is going to run against Mayor Lim in next year’s mayoralty race.
He has been tagged as the “unseen hand” behind the Bagong Barrio squatters’ opposition to their relocation; as the “financier” of the market vendors in opposing their transfer to temporary stalls in McAdore; and as the “brains” when the controversial streetlights that cost the city government P10 million was questioned by the Sangguniang Panlungsod. There are other accusations hurled against him and these have been aired almost daily.
But the most unfair that was said against him was broadcast last Tuesday morning when a commentator, quoting an unnamed source, said that Usec Al had asked Speaker Joe de Venecia during a supposed secret meeting that he be appointed DILG Secretary when Secretary Joey Lina leaves his post to run for senator and that his son, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, be anointed as the administration party’s standard bearer in the Dagupan City mayoralty race next year.
What we see here is a clear demolition job and a desperate attempt to shoot down the Fernandezes in their future political plans, more than an effort to create a rift between Mayor Lim and Usec Al and Vice Mayor Fernandez, for that matter.
Usec Al, in a rare radio interview about a month ago, has repeatedly said he has nothing to do with the squatters’ and market vendors’ opposition to their relocation and in the opposition to the streetlights. He also pointed out that he is supporting the administration of Mayor Lim.
Whoever is feeding false information to unsuspecting commentators and other media practitioners in the city just to advance his or her character assassination plan, does not give enough credit to the ordinary Dagupeños’ intellectual capacity to discern what is right from what is wrong; what is true from what is false.
And whoever is behind this disinformation campaign must be a very disturbed and insecure person, who thinks that by spreading these rumors, the Fernandezes will just fade out from the local political scene. Otherwise, he or she should come out in the open. After all, this is a democracy.
As one city councilor aptly put it during a regular session: “You cannot put a good man or a good idea down.”
*****
ENDNOTES: National Bureau of Investigation agents from Manila raided the Maya Emporium Tuesday night, seizing about P4 million worth of counterfeit computer printer inks … With the “salvaging” over the weekend of alleged drug pushers in various parts of the province, including one from Dagupan City, we hope that drug trafficking in the Pangasinan will be substantially reduced soon…
QUOTE: The right things to do are those that keep our violence in abeyance; the wrong things are those that bring it to the fore. -- Robert J. Sawyer
No comments:
Post a Comment