DAGUPAN CITY–Unless resolved with
credibility, the Garci phenomenon will continuously disturb the nation and dividethe people, said Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Cruz said in a statement that," It (Garci phenomenon) is an issue that continues to haunt the conscience of people and the peace of the land. Good or bad, this is the truth. To say the opposite is but wishful thinking".

Chief State ProsecutorJovencito Zuño said the other day that former Commission on Elections (Comelec)commissioner Virgilio Garcillano is not yet off the hook in the alleged cheating that took place in the May
2004 elections. Zuño said cases against Garcillano that had been dismissed by a panel of prosecutors did not include his alleged role in the reported massive
cheating in the 2004 presidential elections.

Cruz said,"The Garci issue is very much bigger than a person. It is fundamentally the serious matter of the legitimacy of the present national leadership—not to mention its big loss of credibility before the serious and thinking populace".

The prelate noted that there are those happily gearing up for the alleged candidacy of a person. At the same time, many are those who are sadly reminded of the workings of still the same Comelec, he said.

He said certain politicians are eagerly looking forward to have a person in their ticket. But there are certain groupings and entities that are more and more annoyed by the transactional politics in the country, he added.

Now, it's back to square one: impeachment case, with Garci question having come up, the so called “Hello, Garci” tapes are once again brought to mind, Cruz said.

And this is necessarily accompanied by no less than the impeachment process twice shelved not really by reason of demerit by mere tyranny of numbers, he said.

There is moral certitude that the same case will be once again—for the third
time—raised in the halls of Congress, Cruz said.

"And when once again thrown out, the present Malacañang occupant again also
loses by default—by denying her to have her day in court, in this particular still in socio-political open wound with serious fundamental socio-moral dimensions, begs for closure," he added.

DAGUPAN CITY–Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said that Church law categorically forbids clerics from assuming any public office whenever this means having a share in the exercise of civil power.

Cruz issued this statement after no less than Batanes Bishop Camilo Gregorio, appointed by President Arroyo to be member of the special investigative body she formed called Melo Commission to probe spate of killings of left-wing activists and journalists, requested that he be replaced Tuesday.

The commission headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo will also have as its members National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nestor Mantaring, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencio Zuno, Catholic Bishop Camilo Gregorio, Senior Counsel Vinluan, and Atty. Nelia Gonzales, representing the legal and academic community.

Gergorio earlier expressed willingness to be part of the commission created by the President last Monday.

Cruz, former president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said that this universal church law prohibition applies to all deacons, priests and bishops of the Catholic Church in the four corners of the globe.

"The law is quite strict and rigid such that any cleric who entertains a definite and defined contrary option, should terminally leave the clerical state", he said.

He said that the so called “Melo Commission” is definitely neither a purely private nor civil body.

"As designed and constituted by no less than the highest executive office holder in the land, it is incongruous to even think that it has nothing to do with the exercise of civil power in its executive expression in other words, all clerics in the country are forbidden by church law from membership in the said commission as such," he said.

”Hopefully, this canonical prohibition would assuage the apparent paranoidal preoccupation of the present administration that clerics in the country like to take over its tenure of power, intent to assume its public office and pursuant prerogatives”, Cruz said.

"Would that the said church law put to rest the seemingly progressive self-agitation of Malacañang that the local Pilipino church hierarchy is interested in changing its occupant due to its design and desire to have a presence therein," he added.

He noted that it is not only the fundamental law of the land that indirectly provides the separation of the church and state. The universal law of the church also affirms its separation from the state is inherently for church ministry-definitely not for government service, he added.

It is strange that the present administration fervently invokes the principle of the separation of church and state whenever clerics denounce the unethical contents of its political options and actions, Cruz said.

"Yet the same is rather fast in enlisting no less than bishops for membership in the said commission that is envisioned precisely to investigate and resolve political killings in the country," he added.

Cruz said, "What a self-contradiction!”

CALASIAO, Pangasinan—House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said “senators are playing martyrs” on the proposed Charter change (Chacha).

De Venecia, proponent of the shift from presidential to parliamentary form of government, said the abolition is both the Senate and the House of Representatives as there will be one unicameral House parliament once Chacha is made.

Senators and congressmen are deadlocked on Cha-cha. Senators want that any amendment to the Constitution should be approved by the Senate and the House voting separately, with each chamber mustering a vote of three-fourths of all its members. But congressmen insist on their assertion that the two chambers should vote as one.

De Venecia said,” How can you have a Constituent Assembly voting separately? They will never have ¾ of the Senate”.

He added that “the senators refused to budge”.
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MANGALDAN, Pangasinan—The Sigaw ng Bayan Movement spokesman spearheading the campaign for the shift to parliamentary form of government said he is “hoping
the opposition should not resort into argumentum ad hominem or the lowliest form of debate trying to associate the move to change the Constitution in order to benefit only the President”.
Lawyer Raul Lambino told local newsmen in an interview in
his residence in barangay Bari here town that “we would like to make a disclaimer (to what the opposition keeps on saying that Charter change (Chacha) is intended to benefit President Gloria Arroyo) because when we talk of charter change, what we have in mind is the welfare of the nation, the welfare of the future generations of the Filipinos”.
He added it is farfetched in their objective to give particular
benefit to an individual political personality such as the President or any of those who are in favor of shifting the form of government from presidential to parliamentary.
He added that the opposition leaders keep on saying that Chacha will benefit the President and certain personalities in the administration. “What they are not saying though is that the reason why they’re opposing this because if they are saying that this will benefit the administration, well, we can also lay claim that they’re opposing because they have plans of becoming senators, they have plans of becoming President, that’s the reason why they are objecting to this Chacha”.

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STO. TOMAS, Pangasinan—The Biskeg na Pangasinan (Strength of Pangasinan), a group of powerful political leaders, has been accredited by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) national office as a local political party.

Biskeg founder, Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr told this writer that copy of the party affiliation was furnished him recently by Comelec Commissioner Romeo Brawner.

'This is history in Pangasinan because this is the first time that a local group of leaders was officially recognized as a local political party by no less than the Comelec,” Villar, former mayor for more than 20 years here, said.

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LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—A four-cornered fight emerges in this premier province for the coming gubernatorial race in 2007, if elections push through, as political pundits consider it a real heavyweight battle.

This, as Governor Victor Agbayani is about to complete his three successive terms and the then strongest possible candidate in terms of influence and resources, Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr of Local Governance under the Office of the President, expressed intention not to run in the coming elections.

Thus emerged Vice Governor Oscar Lambino, Reps. Amado Espino Jr and Conrad Estrella III of the second and sixth districts respectively and Dr. Jamie Eloise Agbayani as the heavyweight contenders for governor.

Lambino, Lakas provincial chairman, is now on his last term and might possibly have as his running mate Mayor Vivien Villar of Sto. Tomas town. If this tandem materializes, observers say Lambino gets a big boost in his bid as Villar is the wife of Undersecretary Villar who is the founder of Biskeg na Pangasinan (Strength of Pangasinan) which is a group of powerful political leaders in the province. The lady mayor has also assumed her post for many terms already. With this tandem, they will get voters from the vote- rich third and fifth districts of Pangasinan with strong support from neighboring towns and cities whose mayors and local officials give high regards to her husband who is acknowledged as the “Kingmaker in Pangasinan”.

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BINALONAN, Pangasinan—Fight looms between Mayor Ramon Guico Jr. of this town and the provincial government as the mayor refuses to remit to the provincial treasurer’s office the collected real property taxes (RPT) here because of “unfulfilled promises” of Gov. Victor Agbayani.
Guico, also the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines gave this challenge to Agbayani in a phone interview with this writer, saying,” Why not show us where the RPT is being spent?”
He added,” Kalokohan lang yan. Saan ba napupunta yan? Walang bumabalik na projects naman sa amin (That’s foolishness. Where is it spent? Nothing goes back to us)”.
He chided Agbayani for his promises which remain unfulfilled. He said these are the asphalting of roads in barangays Sili, Moreno, Camanggaan and Sta. Catalina which the governor pledged to undertake even before the 2004 elections.
He said only inspection and survey were made by the engineering brigade of the provincial government prompting him to do the projects himself.

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DAGUPAN CITY— Where did General Douglas MacArthur and his forces really make their historic landing in Pangasinan?

Sixty one years after MacArthur and his allied forces landed in Lingayen Gulf on Jan. 9, 1945 during the World War II to liberate the country from Japanese forces, Mayor Benjamin Lim wants to know the truth behind the real place as to where the landing was exactly made: Was it in Lingayen or in Dagupan City.

Lim echoed this query again during the commemoration of the Jan. 9 Lingayen Gulf landings last Friday here where former President Fidel Ramos, Philippine Veterans Ba nk officials and war veterans were in attendance.

Lim said he wants to request the veterans and historians to help them “because Dagupeños have a secret evidence, two pictures where MacArthur landed in this part of Pangasinan”.

The first photo showed MacArthur walking along then Torres Bugallon now known as A.B Fernandez and the other taken at the Home Economics Building of West Central Elementary School where the general was giving instructions to his troop, according to Lim.

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DAGUPAN CITY— Do your homework and stop bellyaching!

These are the strong words of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr, fed up by the constant “badmouthing” of Mayor Benjamin Lim against him, as he finally released his punches, so to say, against the mayor.

Lim accused de Venecia of blocking the bangus processing plant project and of giving only small projects in the city compared to other towns under de Venecia’s turf in the fourth district of Pangasinan, among others.
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DAGUPAN CITY–Life was never the same again for this man of cloth who hogged the headlines in 2005 for his unrelenting anti-jueteng campaign.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Cruz whose name is almost synonymous with the campaign against jueteng in the Philippines, is fighting the giants, as some people say, with his crusade to rid the country of this very popular illegal numbers game called jueteng.

Cruz, national chairman of Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng (Jueteng-Free Philippines), recently told this writer that 2005 was the banner year for anti-jueteng campaign marked by unprecedented exposes about the illegal game’s influence in local and national governance during a Senate probe. Cruz prominently figured in the inquiry, bringing along with him witnesses like Sandra Cam, Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor, Richard Garcia, among others.

Known as the Juetengate II, a sequel of Juetengate I that toppled then President Joseph Estrada due to, among others, corruption charges including jueteng payola briberies, the 2005 jueteng scandal exposed by Cruz and his witnesses brought embarrassment to President Gloria Arroyo after her husband, First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo and son Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo and presidential brother-in-law Rep. Ignacio Arroyo were implicated as among the top beneficiaries of jueteng payola.

Credit goes to the indefatigable Cruz, whose crusade opened the eyes of the people and the officials that eventually led to the stoppage since late April 2005 of jueteng for the longest time in the province and in most parts of the country.

Cruz described 2005 as “the climactic conscientization of the people on the extent and evil that this illegal numbers game brings to the country.

He said his consolation was they were able to reveal that jueteng ties down the hands of the officials and its beneficiaries, silences the police, disables the national officials who are also their protectors and beneficiaries.

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