‘In a radio interview, Magalong also said that Congress should invite President Bongbong Marcos to provide details of his recent inspection of flood-control projects.’
MAYOR Benjamin Magalong welcomes being summoned by the House of Representatives to present evidence on congressmen allegedly receiving regular kickbacks of up to 40% from government projects. Congressman Terry Ridon of the Bicol Saro Party-List has called on Magalong to show proof of his repeated allegations directly before House members.
In a radio interview, Magalong also said that Congress should invite President Bongbong Marcos to provide details of his recent inspection of flood-control projects. During his State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President said that during his inspection of numerous flooded areas hit by the recent three typhoons and habagat, he found that flood control projects were “palpak” or “guni-guni lang.”
The cities of Manila, Marikina, Caloocan, Navotas and Malabon experienced unprecedented massive flooding and declared a state of calamity. Magalong said it was clear that when the President angrily stated “mahiya naman kayo!” his statement was addressed to members of the House of Representatives who were directly seated in front of him during the SONA.
The President ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to submit to him a status report of flood-control projects, especially those that have remained pending or unfinished.
In his Pastoral Letter last July 25, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David said that “we are told that climate – yes, climate change is real, and it is devastating. But let us be clear, the real disaster here is corruption. The very funds meant to protect our people have been siphoned off by systems that enrich a few and endanger many.”
Cardinal David also urged the administration to confront this “sin against the poor, a betrayal of public trust and a mockery of justice for its dismal failure to mitigate the flooding problem.”
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Ermin Erfe Garcia Jr. passed away last week. He was 75. The name became familiar to me as I pursued Broadcast Communication at UP. Journalism professors and students would talk about him in awe and high esteem. The name never left me, even as a TV news reporter starting to venture into the world of crime, corruption and drugs.
Ermin Erfe Garcia Sr., editor-in-chief of the Sunday Punch, was gunned down in his office in Dagupan City in 1966 as he was about to expose a racket of ghost employees run by some politicians. He was only 45 years old and his son, Emin Jr. was just 16.
Two years later, Ermin Jr. would take over Sunday Punch editor-in-chief, the youngest newspaper editor in the country’s history with a burning legacy of courage and selflessness that was never stilled by his father’s blood and heroism. The son would become “a pillar of truth, freedom and democracy” for a people that continue to hunger for them.
Ermin Jr. later became the secretary general of the highly prestigious Asia-Pacific Press Institutes and the longest-serving executive director of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI). Before he passed away, he was the executive director and trustee of SINAG, a people’s crusade for good governance.
For almost his whole life he would be in Manila at his PPI office from Monday to Wednesday and then to Dagupan City to directly oversee Sunday Punch from Thursday to Saturday.
