WHAT? P4.8 million for four motorbikes? That’s a cool P1.2 million per piece – the price of some junior SUVs already!
Shocked was one espresso mate at Starbucks Marquee Mall over the news of Angeles City Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno’s latest purchases.
Nothing shocking, not even surprising there, butted in the caramel macchiato-lugging member of our coffee syndicate.
Not if the bikes were brand new Aprilia or Ducati, maybe even Harley Davidson, chimed in the barrista who looked like my Tito Rey Pineda. (Wished it was my uncle there as he would surely know, being a collector of real big, real expensive bikes.)
For Christ’s sake, Blueboy bought only Yamahas, nowhere near the league of those Italian masterpieces. No matter the 1300 cc emblazoned on their tanks, the espresso man cutting there.
So what are you implying? Some shenanigans in the purchases?
If that’s how it appears to you, that’s your own look-out. I am saying that Blueboy indulged (city police director Senior Supt. Pierre) Bucsit’s fancy. If you don’t know yet, this guy is a bike enthusiast. I have seen him on board a BMW and on a real big Honda.
Give the mayor the benefit of the doubt, the macchiato guy pleaded. The bikes were for a very good purpose. Blueboy himself said – in Punto! – that the bikes would help the police move around better and faster to stop or prevent crimes in the city.
Oh yeah? Espresso man just could not be convinced. Did not Blueboy say the same thing when he spent P50 million for those Toyota cars and pick-ups for the police last year? As well as P4 million for those high-powered assault rifles?
You have very good memory, there.
Of course, I use to be an intelligence officer, remember?
Yeah, I remember too, it was at the Christmas party for the media at the house of Gen. Efren Alamares in Clark that Mayor Blueboy, with his then city administrator Bong Alvaro, announced the city purchasing those police vehicles and firearms. I even had the chance to cradle a baby Armalite in my arms then.
Okay, so has the peace and order situation improved with these purchases?
Not from where I looked, seeing only the list of high profile killings in the city starting right after that media party and have remained unsolved until today. Let’s see if I can still remember the names: businessman Ting killed in Sto. Rosario; businessman-DJ Punsalan ambushed less than a kilometer away from the city police office in Sto. Domingo; Joven Deala, the brother of apl.d.ap of Black Eyed Peas, shot dead in Marisol; two Americans – an oldtimer in Angeles shot dead in a robbery, and a tourist killed on just his second day in the city; another tourist, a Malaysian, knifed dead; Pulung Maragul Barangay Capt. Flay Cunanan and former Malabanas Barangay Capt. Thelmo Lalic; a policeman waylaid in Barangay Salapungan; a couple, and then Ms. Ballesteros, the Angeles University nursing student stabbed to death in her own dorm. I am sure there are still others that skipped my faded memory. But I am equally sure, all these cases I mentioned are to this day unsolved. That is in the true sense of unsolved: suspects either still unknown, much less apprehended. And that is only for the killings, we have not even touched other crimes like robbery, carjacking, drug-trafficking.
So what can we conclude from this? Macchiato man asking.
Espresso man responding: Crime control or prevention takes more than police cars, guns and expensive motorbikes. Blueboy could have spent those P4.8 million for some other more beneficial concerns, like installment payment for the P64 million debt to the Kalangitan landfill to ease the city’s garbage problem.
Crime control need not be even expensive. Blueboy need not even spend a single centavo to improve the peace and order situation in Angeles.
Oww, you’re pulling our legs. So what’s the punchline?
Yes, Blueboy need not spend a single centavo to prevent crime in the city. All he has to do is fire Bucsit.
It suddenly dawned on all of us that our espresso mate looked every bit like, follicle-challenged and all, mayor-a-wishing Tony Mamac. Yeah, as in Kay Mamac, hindi ka mapapahamak. We see some promise for the city there.
Shocked was one espresso mate at Starbucks Marquee Mall over the news of Angeles City Mayor Francis “Blueboy” Nepomuceno’s latest purchases.
Nothing shocking, not even surprising there, butted in the caramel macchiato-lugging member of our coffee syndicate.
Not if the bikes were brand new Aprilia or Ducati, maybe even Harley Davidson, chimed in the barrista who looked like my Tito Rey Pineda. (Wished it was my uncle there as he would surely know, being a collector of real big, real expensive bikes.)
For Christ’s sake, Blueboy bought only Yamahas, nowhere near the league of those Italian masterpieces. No matter the 1300 cc emblazoned on their tanks, the espresso man cutting there.
So what are you implying? Some shenanigans in the purchases?
If that’s how it appears to you, that’s your own look-out. I am saying that Blueboy indulged (city police director Senior Supt. Pierre) Bucsit’s fancy. If you don’t know yet, this guy is a bike enthusiast. I have seen him on board a BMW and on a real big Honda.
Give the mayor the benefit of the doubt, the macchiato guy pleaded. The bikes were for a very good purpose. Blueboy himself said – in Punto! – that the bikes would help the police move around better and faster to stop or prevent crimes in the city.
Oh yeah? Espresso man just could not be convinced. Did not Blueboy say the same thing when he spent P50 million for those Toyota cars and pick-ups for the police last year? As well as P4 million for those high-powered assault rifles?
You have very good memory, there.
Of course, I use to be an intelligence officer, remember?
Yeah, I remember too, it was at the Christmas party for the media at the house of Gen. Efren Alamares in Clark that Mayor Blueboy, with his then city administrator Bong Alvaro, announced the city purchasing those police vehicles and firearms. I even had the chance to cradle a baby Armalite in my arms then.
Okay, so has the peace and order situation improved with these purchases?
Not from where I looked, seeing only the list of high profile killings in the city starting right after that media party and have remained unsolved until today. Let’s see if I can still remember the names: businessman Ting killed in Sto. Rosario; businessman-DJ Punsalan ambushed less than a kilometer away from the city police office in Sto. Domingo; Joven Deala, the brother of apl.d.ap of Black Eyed Peas, shot dead in Marisol; two Americans – an oldtimer in Angeles shot dead in a robbery, and a tourist killed on just his second day in the city; another tourist, a Malaysian, knifed dead; Pulung Maragul Barangay Capt. Flay Cunanan and former Malabanas Barangay Capt. Thelmo Lalic; a policeman waylaid in Barangay Salapungan; a couple, and then Ms. Ballesteros, the Angeles University nursing student stabbed to death in her own dorm. I am sure there are still others that skipped my faded memory. But I am equally sure, all these cases I mentioned are to this day unsolved. That is in the true sense of unsolved: suspects either still unknown, much less apprehended. And that is only for the killings, we have not even touched other crimes like robbery, carjacking, drug-trafficking.
So what can we conclude from this? Macchiato man asking.
Espresso man responding: Crime control or prevention takes more than police cars, guns and expensive motorbikes. Blueboy could have spent those P4.8 million for some other more beneficial concerns, like installment payment for the P64 million debt to the Kalangitan landfill to ease the city’s garbage problem.
Crime control need not be even expensive. Blueboy need not even spend a single centavo to improve the peace and order situation in Angeles.
Oww, you’re pulling our legs. So what’s the punchline?
Yes, Blueboy need not spend a single centavo to prevent crime in the city. All he has to do is fire Bucsit.
It suddenly dawned on all of us that our espresso mate looked every bit like, follicle-challenged and all, mayor-a-wishing Tony Mamac. Yeah, as in Kay Mamac, hindi ka mapapahamak. We see some promise for the city there.
