WINDOWS

Summers in San Nicolas

2010-01-24T07:26:00.000+08:00

The last time I was in San Nicolas was when Nielo insisted that I join him for lunch at his place a day after the Talong Festival. So I went there, tagging along a common journalist-friend I met earlier in a coverage. I thought that having lunch with him was a good opportunity for both of us to update each other, especially now that he is running for reelection. Besides, it’s been quite a while that I have not visited him.

I found Nielo at the front yard of Manong Lito’s mansion, which was actually built at the back of Nielo’s own house. It must have been 1 p.m. when I got there. But there were still groups of people having lunch in separate tables neatly set in the yard. I would later learn that his visitors were officials from the different barangays of Villasis. Nielo would tell me that every year, after the grand fiesta parade, these officials would flock to his house and he has to serve them lunch and engage them in conversation.

Times haven’t changed, I thought. At least for Nielo. As I watched him move from one table to another, shaking hands and sometimes patting the shoulders of the people he talked to, I was immediately reminded of our adolescent years and the escapades we shared together as close friends.

Every summer then, the Costales’ two-story concrete-and-wood ancestral house was our meeting place. Summer was our most awaited season because it was the time for us to be together and just be happy. I was then attending college in Baguio and Nielo and the rest of the gang were still in high school.

Almost every night, we were at their porch, sharing jokes and stories and teasing each other until late, late night or when our parents came looking for us. Being the gracious host that he is and a good cook at that, Nielo served us arroz caldo mixed with slices of hard-boiled eggs.

But there were also times when we would meet in front of Jojo’s house or at the small shade at the gate of Lilibeth’s house. And there, despite strong protests from the girls in the group – Jean, Lilibeth, Amy, Roslyn and Mimi -- because of the dust and smoke unleashed by speeding trucks and buses on the road, we would cook arroz caldo and feasted on it.

In the few times that our meetings would reach lunch time, Nielo would cook balatong, with each one of the gang member contributing either rice, mongo beans and other ingredients sneaked out of their respective kitchens.

What cemented our friendship was when we formed a basketball team to join the barangay tournament. We worked together in raising funds for the blue shirts that we printed ourselves. I don’t remember now if we were champions at that time.

We would also drink once in a while – maybe once a week – and my role was to pour the beer or gin from the pitcher to the glass to keep it going around. I remember Jojo telling me about his frustrations with me because I couldn’t drink much. Otherwise, I’d end up colored red all over and sleep on the table.

One late afternoon, when the gang had just finished off a bottle of bilog, we sat on a low bamboo fence and watched the people walking from the town to maybe Bacag or Lomboy. They may have come from a procession at that time.

As if by cue, Boyet shouted loudly and ran towards the passers-by as if he wanted to attack them. Romy would hold Boyet tightly, yelling on him to stop. The passers-by, of course, would run as fast as they could. And when this happened, the rest of us would all be laughing out loud that the people ran. Boyet, of course, did not intend to harm anybody. It was just for fun.

But sometimes, we found ourselves in trouble, even if it was only our idea of fun. One night, an Ilocos-bound bus ground to a stop with its conductor furiously shouting and running towards us. As if by reflex, we all scampered to different directions and hid. We’d learned later that one of us had picked up a dried carabao dung from the roadside and hurled it into the speeding bus, leaving a big crack on its windshield.

I think it was also one summer when the gang, along with the girls, went to Tombod to attend a dance party. From Bacag, we had to walk to our destination that late afternoon. I remember we had to pass through a newly plowed field, with all its big chunks of soil scattered all over. No one wanted to walk then ahead of the girls because we were watching Roslyn walk on the big chunks of soil in her heels. And oh boy, she walked so gracefully.

It was also during those summers when we added Malone and her brother Dennis to the gang. They were always in San Nicolas for the vacation and they stayed in their aunts’ house. Malone was a good singer and I remember her winning a singing contest during that summer’s May Festival.

But what I remember most during our growing up years was when we began to be attracted to the opposite sex.

I fondly remember one libot during the Holy Week when Boyet saw a girl who did not seem at all to be from Villasis. I cannot recall now how he was able to get her name and where she stayed that summer. But I still remember that throughout the libot, we followed her. The following day, we found ourselves riding on borrowed bicycles – maybe 12 of us – going to Unzad. The girl, whose name I cannot remember now, was shocked to see us all.

Jean, I must admit, was easily the crush ng bayan. But soft-spoken and always-ready-to-smile that she was, I think she hardly noticed it. Or if she did, she just ignored it. No one of us seemed to have gathered enough courage to tell her exactly how we felt. Besides, Gani, her brother was our gangmate.

Lilibeth eventually became the apple of Lemuel’s eyes. And of course, it was also during one summer when Jojo met Gina, who was then spending her summer vacation in San Nicolas. The couples lived happily ever after.

As I looked around on that front yard, I realized I was in what used to be kanyugan, a bushy patch lined with coconuts and other fruit trees. It was there where we took our short cut to the school and where we gathered kuribetbet, the most popular medicinal plant at that time. Now, it’s completely cleared and there are no more traces that it was once a forest.

I texted Nielo that I wanted a Coke. He excused himself from the group of people he was talking to and walked to their house. He later came out with a Coca-Cola bottle in one hand. As he shoved it to me, he said annoyingly, “Di ka pay la timmakder dita ta nangala kan. Kasla ka la bisita.”

I laughed out loud because when I heard those words from him again, I knew I was home.

I'm back!

2008-06-25T09:35:00.002+08:00

My God, it's been more than two years that I did not post anything in this blog. Yes, I moved. It was supposed to be for the better but somehow something went wrong along the way. Who was it who said that a person's last recourse is often his home?

Anyway, for those who kept returning to this site, thanks a lot. These may be people I've known in the past but didn't want me to know who they are. Sorry for disappointing you for a long time now. I'm sure you wanted to know what I've been up to and what has happened with my life.

Promise, I'll post more regularly this time.

The Speaker and the Bishop

2005-10-12T14:20:00.000+08:00

Ano kaya ang ibinubulong ni Speaker Jose de Venecia kay Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz? Hmmm... baka naman nangungumpisal? Ano man ang naging usapan nila, sila lang ang nakakaalam. The speaker and the archbishop had a chance meeting during the investiture of Engr. MacArthur Samson as second president of the University of Luzon. De Venecia, a die-hard supporter of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was guest of honor during the occasion. Cruz, archbishop of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese, had consistently criticized the Arroyo administration for allowing the illegal numbers game, jueteng, to grow into a multi-billion business. He had also called for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo after the controversial "Hello Garci" tapes came out.

Kaaron Gener’s farm

2005-10-10T08:02:00.000+08:00

The last time I was in Congressman Gener Tulagan’s farm in Rosales town was in 2003. From where we parked our ride, we had to walk then on a muddy earth dike surrounding a freshwater fishpond to reach Kaaron Gener’s bahay kubo, which was strategically built in the middle of the farm.

Last week, I had a chance to visit the farm again when I covered President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s visit to the town to hear Mass at the grotto. To my surprise, its surroundings have changed a lot that I thought I was in a resort.

From the highway, there is now an access road wide enough for light vehicles to travel on. Inside the farm, there is also now a wide parking space where visitors can safely leave their vehicles. On the way to the bahay kubo are one-room bamboo cottages that may be used by guests staying overnight. Then, there is a covered function hall, where indoor games and small seminars may be held. Beside it is a screened structure that looks like a restaurant. To top it all, there is now a swimming pool.

I never had a chance to go to the bahay kubo again. But from a distance, I could see that it has now more amenities than before. After all, it is where Kaaron Gener and wife spend the night whenever they are in town.

But what makes the place attractive is its very rustic setting. It has tall acacia trees and vegetable gardens, aside from the hito, tilapia and dalag ponds that dominate the scenery. It must be truly refreshing and relaxing to spend a weekend there, away from the hustle and bustle of urban living. No wonder, Kaaron Gener worked very hard for its development. It is in this place where he must have been recharging in the past many days after his tension-filled sessions in Congress.

From what I gathered during a short conversation with Kaaron Gener, he built his farm with the technical support primarily of the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. These agencies have helped develop his farm into a model farm to serve as the province’s show window on how technology and proper farming methods can enhance agricultural and fisheries productivity.

As everybody knows by now, Kaaron Gener is a farmer’s son and he himself grew up helping his parents in the rice fields of Talang in San Carlos City. By having a model farm, he wanted to show Pangasinenses a sample that farming not only helps in the food sufficiency program of the government but it can be a good source of income, too.

We will not be surprised if in the coming days, farmers, government officials and even politicians, will frequent Kaaron Gener’s farm to see for themselves what can be replicated in their own places. During her visit, President Arroyo herself expressed her admiration of the place. She was especially attracted by the papaya plants bearing several fruits and even had her photo taken beside one those plants.

And who else would be a better endorser than the President?

ENDNOTES: A fake anti-biotic was discovered in a hospital run by the provincial government. This isn’t the first time. We just hope no one at the Urduja made a lot of money out of it. . . A friend, Mary Ann Tamayo, who is now working in Baltimore, Maryland, celebrated her birthday last week. Happy birthday, Mary Ann. She used to work with the defunct Helping Foundation in the city until she was “pirated” by Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez to work in his office to jumpstart the computerization of the Sangguniang Panlungsod. But because she is so good with computers, she was noticed and eventually hired by the One Stop Business Center of the city government. How did she find her way to the land of milk and honey? Talent, determination and luck. I’m so proud of you, Mary Ann.

QUICK QUOTE: He who knows enough is enough will always have enough. -- Lao-tzu

(You can reach Gabriel L. Cardinoza at windows@digitelone.com)

Biometrics

2005-10-02T10:48:00.000+08:00

Two weeks from now, city hall employees will have to queue up before a computer terminal four times a day to time in and to time out.

This is because the city government has acquired five biometrics-based timekeeping devices that will require each employee to have one of his or her fingers scanned for the computer to register the actual time the employee arrived in or left the city hall.

Biometrics (bī´´ō-met´riks), according to Webopedia (www.webopedia.com), an online encyclopedia dedicated to computer technology, is an authentication technique that relies on a person’s measurable physical characteristics that can be automatically checked.

These physical characteristics could be the person’s face, fingerprint, hand geometry, retina, iris, signature, vein, and voice.
At the city hall, the biometric system will make use of an employee’s fingerprint. The computer first reads the employee’s fingerprint from a scanner; identifies the employee and registers the exact time he or she arrived in or left the office.
The new timekeeping system will now throw away the blue logbooks, where many employees have been writing for years 8:00 a.m. or 5:00 p.m., when they actually arrived in their respective offices at 9:30 a.m., or have left their workstations before 5:00 p.m.

It will also effectively eliminate the bad practice of some employees timing in or out for their officemates, even if that officemate actually reported in the afternoon or did not report at all.

Noting this habitual tardiness and the blatant falsification of daily time records, it was actually Mayor Benjamin Lim who first announced the use of biometrics in the city hall many months ago.

But it was Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, while the acting city mayor last week, who ordered the immediate purchase of these devices.

The vice mayor knew too well what biometrics can do in ensuring that employees report to work on time. In the entire city hall complex, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan has been using the computerized device from the time the mayor made the announcement and this has produced good results, in terms of the SP employees’ work efficiency.

Since then, when somebody calls the SP office at 8:00 a.m. someone decisive is already there to answer the phone. And when somebody comes to the SP office as early as 8:00 a.m. to transact business, someone is already there to attend to him or her.

From the SP experience, the new system is foolproof, in the sense that the data could not be tampered. But some employees still have a way of dealing with it: some come to the office very early and still in their shorts to time in and just arrive in the office by noon to time out.

But the vice mayor could not be outwitted: He installed closed-circuit cameras that would record the day’s office scene to easily identify employees who just time in and then go home.

This meant certainly meant additional expenses using people’s money. But this was a good buy and a sound investment at that. After all, it is the people in the end who will benefit from the improved quality in the delivery of services at the city hall.

QUICKNOTES: The Pangasinan Star now has a website (http://www.freewebs.com/pangasinanstar). But we still maintain our blog (http://pangasinanstar.blogspot.com), because it is here where we keep our archives… Suddenly, I don’t feel safe in Pangasinan. With the rash of highway robbery and killings in the past weeks, I suddenly realized I am not safe right in my own backyard. And I’d like to quote what the late Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez said when he survived an ambush in the mid-70’s: “What’s happening to our country, General?”

QUICKQUOTE: Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing. -- Abraham Lincoln

Beyond seminars and training programs

2005-09-18T10:41:00.000+08:00

In October 2003, Dagupeños were horrified and outraged at the sight of the uncollected garbage that had literally flooded the City of Dagupan.

No, the city’s garbage collectors did not go on strike then. That day, ironically, was the first day of the city government’s belated implementation of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on December 20, 2000 and December 12, 2000, respectively, and approved by President Arroyo on January 26, 2001.

R.A. 9003 mandates, among others, waste segregation in every household, the recycling and composting of wastes in the barangay level and the collection of residuals-- wastes that cannot be recycled or composted—by the municipal or city government.

There is no doubt that the city government only had the people’s welfare in mind when it implemented RA 9003. It was in keeping with its plan of transforming Dagupan into a healthy and an environment-friendly city; a city that would ensure the protection of public health and environment.

But whether it was successful or not in preparing Dagupeños for the implementation of the new law was the subject of the heated discussions that ensued in the days that followed.

As far as the Waste Management Division (WMD) of the city government is concerned, it has done its part in preparing the people for the new garbage disposal system by conducting a series of waste segregation trainings among government employees, barangay officials, students, teachers, barangay health workers and other village-based sectors since early this year.

WMD chief Reginaldo Ubando said that in these seminars, it was made very clear to all the participants that with the implementation of the new law, the city government would only collect the residuals, which, by his estimate, was only about eight percent or 12.8 tons of the 160 tons daily total produced by the city. (Recyclables comprise 48 percent, while compostables, 44 percent.) But as it turned out, there were no residuals to collect. To date, strewn all over the city are the same mixed household garbage and commercial wastes that Ubando’s office used to gather every morning and dump at the city’s 50-year-old open and unsanitary dumpsite, which is located inside the sprawling Tondaligan Ferdinand National Park just a stone’s throw away from the waters of historic Lingayen Gulf.

There, scavengers sift through the dumps in search for recyclables, re-usables and even edibles, at the same time that flies, dogs, cats and rats feast on whatever food is left for them to forage.

On the part of barangay officials, there is still nothing to recycle or to re-use and to compost because the households did not segregate. In implementing RA 9003, the city government had to shut down the city’s dumpsite then not only because the new law already prohibits its existence but also to force barangay officials to convince their residents to segregate. But not long after, it had no choice but to reopen it.

Obviously, the preparation of Dagupeños and other stakeholders for the implementation of RA 9003 should have gone beyond waste segregation training sessions and seminars.

The city government should have at least conducted a “walk through” for its implementation to immediately spot the problems that may arise when the real program is set in place. Or, it should have piloted it in one of the city’s 31 barangay. The city government should have also formulated first a solid waste management plan, as required by RA 9003, to serve as a road map in its implementation of the new law.

It is no wonder then that at the height of the heated discussions on the problem, irate residents repeatedly questioned the waste segregation policy, saying they are too busy eking out a living to have time for it. “How much more with composting?” another one said, adding that he lives in a rented room and that he does not have even a square foot of land for his own grave when he dies.

And to make matters worse, even if recyclables had been generated, the residents would have also nowhere to take them as the city government has yet to set up material recovery facilities, which according to RA 9003, shall serve as redemption centers for recyclables in the barangay.

Finally, the city government should have known that “there is a seething gap on how to effectively change the people’s throwing-away and non-segregating behavioral pattern and the burning, dumping, and back-end practices for disposal,” as pointed out by the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines.

“[And] the challenge,” the group added, “is to change these to patterns of resource conservation, segregation, re-use, recycling, and composting. This shift is basically attitudinal and culture-based and such task may be realized by a confluence of efforts.” And, yes, it takes some time, too.

The city government, in its eagerness to see results, may have also simply forgotten that even Rome was not built in one day.

The right thing to do

2005-09-11T10:32:00.000+08:00

Last year, the city hall announced that it was ready to implement the recommendations of the University of the Philippines Center for Local and Regional Governance (UP-CLRG) for a top-to-bottom revamp of the city government to make it more efficient and effective in the delivery of services to the people of Dagupan City.

Four years ago, the UP-CLRG found in a management evaluation that the city government was totally disorganized and inadequate in responding to the needs of the people and to the demands of public service. It suggested the adoption of a lean and mean organizational structure that would clearly define each office’s functions and responsibilities and save the city from wasting millions of pesos of the people’s money every year for the salaries of employees who just sit in their offices all day and wait for the sunset.

Why the reorganization plan has not been implemented yet more than one year now after the city hall announcement is not clear to me. And no one has bothered to ask why.

While many Dagupeños welcomed the city government revamp, there were those who questioned the necessity and sincerity of the revamp. Some even saw it as mere witch-hunting – a desperate ploy to purge the city government of employees who did not support Mayor Benjamin Lim in the last two elections-- more than a desire to rid the city’s bureaucracy of deadwood and non-performers. This perception was bolstered by a city official’s pronouncement that in the implementation of the UP recommendations, all city government positions will be declared vacant, in obvious defiance of the Civil Service rule on the security of tenure.

But there were others who believed that Lim was doing the right thing -- only at the wrong time. As a consequence of the revamp, almost 300 emergency workers will be the first to go. These include street sweepers, garbage collectors and traffic aides. The work that they will be leaving will be offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis to excess permanent employees from the different city government offices.And in the face of the economic crisis gripping the country now, this is not the right time for anyone to lose a job.

But whatever Lim’s motives may be – political self-preservation or a sincere desire to serve – the city hall reorganization is long overdue. It certainly took him a lot of courage and political will to arrive at this decision.

Implemented properly, the revamp should be the first step in the installation of a truly professional bureaucracy in Dagupan City, where employees no longer have a false sense of security and the public is fully satisfied with the services they get.

ENDNOTES: Ryan Ravanzo, Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino’s executive assistant, left for Missouri, USA last Saturday as member of the Rotary Club’s Group Study Exchange delegation. Ryan, an active member of the Dagupan Jaycees Inc., was nominated by Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, Rotary Club of Dagupan president. He will be touring various US cities for one month... Last Friday, Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo was in town. He inducted the new set of Supreme Student Government officers of the Dagupan City High School. Before coming to Dagupan, he dropped by Bayambang for a breakfast with Mayor Leo de Vera, then he proceeded to San Carlos City to inaugurate a P1.2-million school-building that Bayan Muna funded at the Speaker Eugenio Perez Agricultural School.

QUICK QUOTE: Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; it's when you've had everything to do and you've done it. --Margaret Thatcher

Nature's wrath

2005-09-04T10:31:00.000+08:00

I was shocked to see on television the extent of devastation that hurricane Katrina eft in Louisiana and Mississippi. I couldn’t believe it was happening to America, which is supposed to have everything in the world to protect its people.

I was especially touched to see Americans wading in waist-deep floodwaters and waving white clothes and placards from their rooftops to ask for help.

In one instance, a young mother was helplessly clutching her five-day-old baby on a roadside until the police saw her and took them to a safer place. In another scene, a teary-eyed mother, who obviously didn’t know what to do and where to go, was hugging her sick three-year-old boy as they sat in a stairway.

Everybody was tired, confused, scared and hungry.

Elsewhere were flattened houses and debris from the massive destruction. There were people everywhere and some of them had to loot groceries just to have food. It was, as President George Bush said, the worst natural disaster in American history.

And, as it turned out, despite America’s super infrastructures, it wasn’t super enough to protect its own people. The massive flooding in New Orleans was caused by a breached levee and no sandbagging was able to stop the rampaging floodwaters from submerging the whole city.

Fortunately for them, they are in America. Unlike in a third world country, they won’t have to wait for international aid anymore to rescue and rehabilitate their people. Although it took more than 24 hours before the American people realized the extent of the damage, it didn’t take long for government officials to organize rescue and medical teams.

There were helicopters everywhere. Five hundred buses were sent to New Orleans to evacuate the homeless to neighboring Texas. Truckloads of food and water were also sent to the area. Even their battleships were mobilized. America, indeed, had everything and those of us who are in poor countries could only wish we had the same resources during natural calamities.

If at all it was any consolation to us, it was while watching Fox News that I learned that the people in New Orleans were already told to evacuate even before Katrina’s landfall. But they did not budge, just like the way many of our people here react when told to move to higher grounds.Hard-headedness, after all, is international.

As the world watches America rebuild New Orleans from its ruins, there will always be lessons to learn, especially in the areas of flood mitigation, rescue and relief operations, evacuation and rehabilitation. But, to my mind, the most important lesson has been learned – that even a super power is no match to nature’s wrath.

ENDNOTES: By the time this paper’s issue hits the newsstands, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez shall have again assumed as acting city mayor. From what we heard, Mayor Benjamin Lim will be in India for a personal trip from Sept. 3-10… Last Thursday, Vice Mayor Fernandez and the Rotary Club of Dagupan, which he heads, conducted fogging operation in Barangay Carael upon the request of Barangay Captain Perfecto Velasquez, to destroy the breeding grounds mosquitoes, especially those cause the dreaded dengue fever. The activity also involved the City Health Office.

QUICK QUOTE: When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense. --Kahlil Gibran

Category A for Panelco III

2005-08-21T10:09:00.000+08:00

Among the three electric cooperatives in Pangasinan, there is no doubt that the Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Panelco) III serves best.

This is because I still have to hear complaints against its services and personnel from its more than 105,000 member-consumers in 17 eastern Pangasinan towns. And that includes me.

Unlike those from the central part of the province, where “Cen-pultot” has become a byword to denote the kind of service that the Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Cenpelco) offers to its consumers to date, Panelco III assures an uninterrupted and stable supply of electricity. No unscheduled outages. No voltage fluctuations.

This may be the reason why the National Electrification Administration (NEA) upgraded Panelco III’s category from B in 2003 to A in 2004, compared to Panelco I’s and Cenpelco’s B category.

In its memorandum dated February 24, 2005, NEA also cited Panelco III’s prompt payments of loan amortizations, low systems loss, high collection efficiency, prompt payments to power suppliers and non-power cost within its approved operating budget.

Compared to the national systems loss average of 14.43 percent last year, Panelco III only had six percent, which is obviously way below the national standard. In terms of collection efficiency, last year, Panelco III achieved 95 percent and it intends to push it to 97 percent this year.

And because it is able to promptly pay its loan amortizations and suppliers, there is no doubt then that Panelco III is financially liquid.

To top it all, NEA cited Panelco III as among the few electric cooperatives in the country that “did not incur even a single demerit point.”

Because of these accomplishments, Panelco III was adjudged as “Outstanding Electric Cooperative” during the 26th Annual Conference of the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association (Philreca), where Panelco III general manager Neri Policina and Board of Directors president, Engr. Solo Villar, proudly received a plaque for the feat.

We will not be surprised if by now, Panelco III has prepared for the coming of the malls and other business establishments in eastern Pangasinan, especially Urdaneta City and Tayug, where rapid urbanization are taking place.

With the implementation of the Magna Carta for Electric Consumers, which provides for the provision of free electric meters by electric cooperatives, we will not also be surprised if all barangays in Panelco’s coverage area have been energized.

ENDNOTES: Councilor Michael Fernandez was the city’s acting mayor last Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 20-21). This was because Mayor Benjamin Lim left for the People’s Republic of China last Aug. 15 and the designated acting city mayor, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, left for the United States of America last Aug. 20 for a speaking engagement in Long Beach, CA. He will be on leave until the 24th. When Mayor Lim reports for work on Aug. 22, Michael assumes as acting city vice mayor. Two positions in five days. . . From the time we launched The Pangasinan Star Online in the Internet last week, we have been receiving positive reactions from Pangasinenses worldwide. Many of them have also given their comments on the burning issues in Pangasinan. Now, they are home.

QUICK QUOTE: The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust

A dangerous road culture

2005-08-14T10:06:00.000+08:00

To date, I still have to actually see a traffic enforcer apprehend a tricycle or jeepney driver glaringly defying the city’s traffic rules.

I say this because everytime I’m stopped by the red light in an intersection, I obediently stop right before the pedestrian lane marked by two thick white lines. But as I patiently wait for the green light, a tricycle, and even a jeepney, suddenly appears from nowhere and occupies the space right in front of me, blocking the pedestrian lane in the process.

Isn’t this is a clear traffic violation? Unfortunately, to the city’s traffic enforcers, this is not because this has been happening everyday right under there very noses and they did not do anything.

At the intersection of Burgos St. and Perez Blvd. one early evening, I was tailing the vehicle of then city executive Elmer Lorica. I supposed he was going to turn left to Perez Blvd. while I was on my way to Guilig St.

From the left lane of Burgos, outside the iron railings, a white van suddenly appeared. He is not supposed to be there, I thought.

But just when I was looking for the traffic enforcer to see if he noticed the vehicle, Elmer got out of his vehicle and called for the traffic enforcer to direct him to apprehend the driver of the erring white van. At that moment, I had wished Elmer would always be at that intersection.

To my mind, most tricycle and jeepney drivers violate traffic rules simply because they do not know that what they are doing are violations. Or, if they do know, they do it simply because they know that they can run away with it.

The Land Transportation Office should partly get the blame for the emergence of this road culture. This is because the LTO does not have a stringent process in the issuance of driver’s licenses.

For instance, drivers do not even have to go through actual driving tests before they are issued their licenses. And with fixers still hounding the LTO, getting a driver’s license is still as easy as buying cigarettes. Somebody I know did not even know how to drive when he got his professional driver’s license.

On the part of law enforcers, they should be more aggressive in enforcing traffic rules. Those repeatedly apprehended for the same offenses should be made to undergo an honest-to-goodness seminar on road courtesy.

There has to be a way to discipline erring drivers. Otherwise, even if we fill up our streets with concrete barriers and iron railings and install traffic light in every intersection, our traffic will continue to worsen if we have drivers who think they are above the law.

ENDNOTES: It was Bayambang Mayor Leo de Vera’s birthday last Thursday, August 11. I missed his party at his residence in Barangay Bical. But those who were there swore that his spacious compound was teeming with guests that included Police Regional Director Freddie de Vera. I’m sure everybody left Mayor De Vera’s house happy… The Rotary Club of Dagupan led by Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez had a bloodletting activity last week. The vice mayor himself, after passing the screening, donated blood and it was almost immediately used to save a dengue fever victim confined at the Region1 Medical Center. Mabuhay ka, Vice!

QUICK QUOTE: To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. -- Emily Dickinson

Saving the new Malimgas market

2005-08-05T13:28:00.000+08:00

Last week, several vendors occupying the stalls at the second floor of the New Malimgas Public Market trooped to the Sangguniang Panlungsod session hall to ask the city government for lower rental fees saying that their small businesses are already losing heavily.

Very few people, according to them, go the area despite its being fully air-conditioned, despite its escalator, despite its two-level parking and despite the city government’s full-blast tri-media advertisements of the new public market as the most modern and cleanest in the country.

In fact, 46 stalls have closed and many more vendors are contemplating to give up theirs if they could not cut their overhead expenses, such as the rental fees.

What could have gone wrong? Wasn’t the market built on the premise that a cleaner, brighter and air-conditioned market will attract more buyers? That people would not mind spending a little more as long as they can buy what they need comfortably?

When the city government borrowed P256 million to construct the public market building, and P30 million more for its centralized air-condition system, Mayor Benjamin Lim was very optimistic that the revenues the new market will generate will be more than enough to pay for the annual amortizations of these loans that on the 5th or 7th year, the city will already be earning millions from its operations.

But with stalls closing down, Mayor Lim’s projections do not seem at the moment to hit the right path. The city hall is in for a long rough ride ahead.

Interviewed by hard-hitting commentator Orly Navarro last week, Mayor Lim could only blame the economic crisis that hit the country “because of the present political crisis” and of course, he said, because this time of the year, it’s gawat or lean season.

He, too, as owner of the Magic Group of Companies, which is engaged in retail business in the province, experienced dramatic decrease in sales.

But wasn’t there supposed to be a feasibility study? Didn’t the planners factor in the rising cost of oil and electricity and the possible economic crisis as an offshoot of a possible political crisis, like what we are in now?

With higher rental fees in the New Malimgas Market, it also means higher prices of goods that those found outside its premises. For instance, a buyer would prefer to buy bangus at the Magsaysay Fish Market not only because the fish there is cheaper by P5 to a kilo but because it is fresher.

Those buying clothing would rather go to the adjacent CSI Market Square or Magic Centerpoint than to the New Malimgas Market because they would have a lot of clothes to choose from and in many cases, they are cheaper.

We can only hope that Mayor Lim can reverse the situation at the New Malimgas Market. Fast. Otherwise, we may have just created a white elephant.

ENDNOTES: The Rotary Club of Dagupan, under the leadership of Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, had PENRO Juan delos Reyes as its first guest speaker in its regular meeting last Wednesday. Delos Reyes talked about environmental laws that Rotarians should know to familiarize themselves with these laws… Nandaragupan, a coffee table book about Dagupan City edited by Ms. Carmen Prieto, was launched at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Thursday. The book project cost the city government at least P500,000. With each book selling from P2,500 to P3,500, we hope the city government can recoup its expenses.

QUICK QUOTE: There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle. -- Albert Einstein

Pawassa in Washington 1

2005-07-29T21:32:00.000+08:00

Members of the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) pay a courstesy call to Washington State Lt. Gov. Brad Owen (fifth from right) at his office in Olympia, WA as part of Pawassa's trade and cultural mission to Washington State last July 13-17, 2000. Pawassa was joined by Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim (fourth from right) and City Councilor Nick Aquino (left). The Pawassa delegation was composed of (L-R) city government consultant Ping Coquia, Lingayen Councilor Gilbert Mangapot, former Villasis Mayor Ramon Morden, Pawassa treasurer Armi Bangsal-Lorica, Councilor Mangapot's wife, Jean Leah, Inquirer correspondent Gobleth Moulic and businessman Mac Pagsolingan.

Pawassa in Seattle

2005-07-29T21:29:00.000+08:00

Members of the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) delegation visit the Pike Place Market in Seattle. In photo are (L-R) Dagupan City government consultant Ping Coquia, former Villasis Mayor Ramon Morden, Seattle-based Ada Castillo, businessman Mac Pagsolingan, Jean Leah and husband Lingayen Councilor Gilbert Mangapot, Pawassa treasurer Armi Bangsal-Lorica and Inquirer correspondent Gobleth Moulic.

Pawassa with Mayor Benjie Lim

2005-07-29T21:22:00.000+08:00

Members of the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) delegation attend a short course on recycling at the Filipino Community Center in Seattle during their trade and cultural mission last July 13-17, 2005. Joining the Pawassa was Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim (left, standing) and City Councilor Nick Aquino (fifth from right, standing). The Pawassa delegation was composed of city government consultant Ping Coquia, Lingayen Councilor Gilbert Mangapot, former Villasis Mayor Ramon Morden, Pawassa treasurer Armi Bangsal-Lorica, Councilor Mangapot's wife, Jean Leah, Inquirer correspondent Gobleth Moulic and businessman Mac Pagsolingan. The group was hosted by the Washington-Pangasinan Sister State Association (Wapssa) headed by Alma Kern (fourth from left).

Lapse in judgment

2005-07-29T05:46:00.000+08:00

When I learned that a state of calamity had been declared in Binalonan town because of the dreaded dengue fever, I worried. With 15 high school students downed by the disease in the town, and the subsequent suspension of classes at the Dona Eva Macaraeg National High School for three days to give way to fumigation, something may have gone very wrong.

But hearing Mayor Monching Guico say later on that he will veto the municipal council resolution when it reaches his desk, and that the dengue situation in the town is very manageable, I worried all the more.

Suddenly, I am hearing municipal officials who have discordant views about a situation that involves life and death of their constituents. It was either the mayor or the council that may have been misinformed about the town’s dengue situation or that one of them may have simply misjudged the situation.

I am sure that the municipal councilors had the best of intentions when they voted for the approval of a resolution declaring a state of calamity in the town. Without the mayor and the vice mayor in the town at that time, and with reports reaching them that a number of students had fallen ill from the fatal mosquito-borne disease, the councilors did what they thought was the right thing to do.

By declaring a state of calamity, the town can now spend its calamity fund for the purchase of necessary medicines for those afflicted as well as reagents for fumigation. The municipality can now also mobilize other government agencies to help in bringing back the town to normalcy.

But what was apparently missing in the state of calamity declaration was the assessment report from local health authorities. In other words, it lacked substance. The council should have at least summoned first the municipal health officer and asked him or her to report before the council the dengue situation in the town before passing the state of calamity declaration.

Had they done this, the councilors would have learned that there are certain parameters that health authorities have to follow before declaring a state of calamity and that to deal with the situation, a clean up campaign was better than fumigation. They would have also known that the reported number of victims, who come from different barangays, was not yet on an alarming level.

Pangasinan was worst hit by dengue in 1996, where scores died and hundreds of children were afflicted, but I do not recall any state of calamity being declared at that time.

Obviously, the municipal councilors, in this situation, relied only on what were informally reported to them by the people when they pushed the alarm button.

On the other hand, the municipal health officer should have taken the initiative in reporting the dengue situation to the council from the time the first dengue case was recorded in the town. In fact, he or she should have been submitting regular health situation reports to the council.

This regular reporting is a standard practice in the police, where daily incident reports are submitted to the mayor and the council, specifically, to the vice mayor and to the chairperson of the committee on peace and order and police matters.

Mayor Guico was right in deciding to switch off the alarm and in facing the dengue problem head on. At least, it averted what could have been a large-scale dengue scare not only in his town but in the whole province.

By the way, where was the mayor at that time? Just asking.

ENDNOTES: This corner sends its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of broadcaster Orly Navarrro’s wife, Ester, whose beloved Mamang in Binalonan town passed away last week. Don’t be sad now, kumare, because death, according to William Penn, is no more than our turn over from time to eternity… Mayor Benjie Lim and Councilor Nick Aquino are back from their three-week official trip to the US that took them to Honolulu, Seattle, Milpitas and the Bay Area, and Nevada. Let’s wait for their report... Finally, July 27 was the birthday of a dear friend who is now based in Roseville, CA -- Ms. Josie Tamondong. Ma’am Josie, as I fondly call her, and husband Ding were our tour guides in the state capital Sacramento when my wife and I were in California two years ago. Happy birthday, Ma’am Josie!

QUICK QUOTE: Don't sacrifice your life to work and ideals. The most important things in life are human relations. I found that out too late. -- Katharinde Susannah Prichard

The President in Dagupan

2005-07-25T13:38:00.000+08:00

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (third from left) inspects a fishpond in Barangay Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City during one of her visits to the place. With her are (from left) Speaker Jose de Venecia, Dagupan City Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez and the Speaker's wife, Gina de Venecia.

The NPA angle

2005-07-25T10:02:00.000+08:00

A day after the late Mapandan Vice Mayor Adolfo Aquino was laid to rest in his hometown, I was given a photocopy of a press statement, which supposedly came from the New People’s Army Lucio de Guzman Command based in Mindoro island and signed by one Victor Rivero, as spokesperson.

The letter, which owned the killing of the former vice mayor, was written in Filipino and was computer-printed in a letterhead. Vice Mayor Aquino’s supposed crimes, ranging from treasure hunting to his involvement in the textbook scam, were also enumerated there.

A quick check with the CPP/NPA’s official website (http://www.philippinerevolution.org/) would reveal that Victor Rivero is indeed the spokesperson of Bagong Hukbong Bayan Lucio de Guzman Command, Rehiyonal na Komite-Timog Katagalugan.

(How did I know that the website is an authentic CPP/NPA website? Well, just read the statements posted there and you’ll know these are unmistakably the Left’s.)

There are questions, however, that remained unanswered: Is the letter authentic? Why did it have to take five days after the killing before the NPA issues a statement?

From the website, the last statement issued by the Lucio de Guzman command was dated January 2004 yet. And it is very unlikely for them not to post the July 11, 2005 statement in their website, especially if they are announcing an accomplishment that the people should immediately know.

Also, from my experience as reporter, the Left normally immediately admits a killing just a few hours after it is done, especially on prominent personalities. And from their many statements I’ve read in the past, those meted out “revolutionary justice” usually have blood debts, or people who are extremely oppressive.

Then just last Thursday, DZRH-Dagupan interviewed CPP Founding Chairman Jose Ma. Sison from Utrecht, Netherlands, where he categorically stated that NPA’s from Mindoro could not have come to Mapandan town to assassinate Vice Mayor Aquino.

He told anchor Allan Sison during the 20-minute interview that the NPA follows an operational procedure that would make it impossible for NPA operatives in Mindoro to come here. The execution would have to be carried out by those in Pangasinan, the exiled professor said.

Lest I be misconstrued, may I make it clear that I am not defending the NPA here. It’s far from it. And if in the end it will be proven that it was really them who did the shooting, then the full force of the law should be applied on them.

My only point here is that the police should not swallow the statement hook, line and sinker, so to speak. Whoever thought of circulating the “NPA statement” may have done a big favor to those who really did the cowardly act. The Task Force Aquino, which still faces a blank wall, may only be misled and waste a lot of time and resources if it decides to pursue the “new angle” without validating it.

ENDNOTES: The 4th Trade and Cultural Mission of Pangasinan to Washington State on July 13 to 17 was a success. This was the report of Ms. Armi Bangsal-Lorica, who headed the delegation composed of members of the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa). The delegation was hosted by the Washington-Pangasinan Sister State Association headed by Ms. Alma Quintans-Kern, a full-blooded Pangasinense. Dagupan City Mayor Benjie Lim joined the delegation in Seattle last July 14. Let’s wait for Ate Armi’s full report when she comes back to Pangasinan next month.

QUICK QUOTE: Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you? – Henry James

Remembering the 1990 earthquake

2005-07-17T10:26:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday was the day 15 years ago when an intensity 7.7 earthquake brought Dagupan City down to its knees.

Anyone who saw the extent of the city’s devastation at that time would think that Dagupan will never stand up again. It was everyone’s worst nightmare: Many downtown buildings either leaned or sank; Magsaysay bridge fell; the roads were badly broken and most business people were already keen on moving their businesses to neighboring towns.

But in the face of the tragedy, Dagupeños did not give up. They held on and worked hard together to rebuild the city. And it was this sheer determination and tenacity to survive and to rise from the rubbles that saved Dagupan from becoming a ghost town to become the progressive city that it is today.

More than the destruction, what we remember from those trying times was the unprecedented unity and patience of Dagupeños that made it easier to rehabilitate the city.

Everybody understood then that everyone had to walk downtown because jeepneys should not be allowed in. Everybody understood then that everyone had to make do with whatever water available because the Dagupan City Water District had to make sure its pipes were not contaminated.

Everyone also understood why the city plaza had to be converted into a public market and why it took some time for some areas to have electricity.

The private sector then did its part very well. It was largely this group that boosted the morale of businesses by encouraging them to hold on and stay. It was the private sector that provided the necessary muscle to the overstretched government machinery to make sure that the city was heading towards full recovery.

Where government could not go, the private sector was there. They were simply too willing to share their time, talents and even resources that to ensure that the situation in the city was improving.

It was a tragedy turned into an opportunity.

As we remember that fateful day, we can only wish such show of unity had remained until today. We can only wish our people today still have with them same amount of patience they had then. We can only wish that the same spirit of volunteerism is evident today, even if there is no disaster.

The earthquake certainly taught us a valuable lesson: that we can only be strong if we are united. I can only hope we have learned this lesson well.

ENDNOTES: The 67th Induction Ceremonies of the Rotary Club of Dagupan led by its president, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, was a resounding success. There were more than 500 Rotarians and Rotari-anns from 44 clubs and four Inner Wheel Clubs in attendance… The League of Municipalities of the Philippines Pangasinan Chapter has affirmed its full and unequivocal support to President Arroyo. The LMP met in Urdaneta City, where 34 (out of 44) mayors attended and signed the manifesto of support for GMA.

QUICK QUOTE: To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. -- Donald Laird

A visit to the Archbishop’s residence

2005-07-10T10:29:00.000+08:00

Archbishop Oscar Cruz was in his usual high-spirited self when we –Yolly, Eva, Ding and I -- chanced on him at his official residence in the city last Tuesday.

We were actually very lucky to see him there at that time because ever since the Senate investigation on jueteng began, he has been spending most of his time in Manila, being the major jueteng whistle blower and the custodian of vital witnesses.

The archbishop let out a loud laugh when we asked him about Jaime Aquino. “Don’t hate him. Just forgive him,” he told us. Then he laughed again.

When we asked him for updates on the on-going Senate hearings, he said he also wants it to stop now, but not because Malacanang wants it but because it is the natural course that the hearing has to take. Malacanang should not dictate on the Senate, he says.

The archbishop could not hide his apprehension for the safety of his witnesses. The safehouse, where one of them was kept, was shot at, leaving ugly and terrifying bullet holes in its ceiling. The other witnesses, he says, continue to get death threats and pressures from all sides just to silence them.

He had wished all the pressures and death threats be directed to him instead. After all, he smiles, “I’m already old.”

But what saddens him is that despite the hearings, consequently stopping jueteng operations in the entire Luzon, the betting has not stopped. The archbishop says new varieties of the numbers game have emerged, such as EZ2, loteng and letreng.

EZ2, which he says is being run now in many Pangasinan towns, is supposedly legal, being operated by the Philippine Gaming Corporation. Loteng, of course, operates very much like jueteng; and letreng, a new one, uses the letters of the alphabet.

“This won’t stop,” he says of the numbers game. And he is right because Filipinos are said to be the most creative people. Like what leading commentator Orly Navarro observed, Filipinos can even play Lucky 9 using the pages of a book!

The archbishop’s only consolation now, if at all, is that he was able to show to the whole nation the evils of gambling “no matter how legal it is.”

As he had said: “Gambling foments greed for the money of others. It promotes indolence, it cultivates dependence on luck. It seeks quick fortune that never comes. It despises toil and industry that bring productivity.

“It deceives the many poor and ignorant—making them more miserable and desperate. It intervenes in the electoral process of the country—undermining free and honest elections. It corrupts governance—staining local officials and public servants.

“Jueteng equals money. Money equals power. Power makes jueteng lords invisible and untouchable. Their big and influential beneficiaries have to see to it that they remain unconfronted, unchallenged, unchained. Otherwise, the moment even but one of them talks—how much jueteng payolas go to whom—not a few of those in high offices and with lofty titles fall flat on their faces.

“It is time to put period to the history of jueteng in the country. The people have enough crosses to bear. The authorities have their hands full of social ills to resolve. Get jueteng out of the way—now!”

Amen.

ENDNOTES: Last Saturday, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez was inducted president of the Rotary Club of Dagupan at the Dagupan City astrodome… On the same day, Mayor Benjie Lim left for the US to promote city tourism and to invite Dagupenos there to this year’s Pawil Dagupan. He will be accompanied by Councilor Nick Aquino... Finally, on July 13, the 4th Pangasinan Trade and Cultural Mission to Washington State leaves for Seattle. The delegation will be headed by Armi Bangsal-Lorica.

QUICK QUOTE: Man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for? -- Robert Browning

Political teleserye

2005-07-03T10:31:00.000+08:00

Ms. Susan Roces has proved to be the award-winning actress that she is when she asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign last Wednesday.

It was theatrical: she delivered her lines very well and she properly executed the matching facial expressions in perfect timing.

She was an instant hit. She immediately captured the masa crowd, like what she had always done in her box-office movies in the past.

In contrast, President Arroyo’s “I’m Sorry” episode, while it may have had a wider reach because it was simulcast in several national radio and television stations, did not sell much. It was a dismal flop, with movie critics unanimously giving it a thumbs-down sign rating.

Her show spawned more demonstrations instead to ask her to step down.

If the President had failed to convince her audience in her public apology, it may have been because she had a bad script. Or, that she simply did not act her part well, being an amateur actress.

Or, it may have been simply because she had no originality, her show being a poor remake of a Bill Clinton international starrer in the late 1990s, when he figured in a White House sex scandal.

But as the country’s present political teleserye unfolds quite fast, the people are also entertained no end -- despite the economic difficulties that it has created – because of its several twists and turns and sub-plots, including the untimely insertion of a comedy trailer starring a clown named Jaime Aquino.

Who will prevail in the end depends on who will keep a better storyline and better actresses and actors.

In the Malacanang-produced segment, the latest is that First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and son, Mikey, a congressman and a movie actor, went on self-exile, leaving a “very sad President.” Even FGs lawyer had to emote when he read FGs statement.

On the other hand, supporters of the “griping widow” (as Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales had called Ms. Roces), are now consolidating their forces and gathering more support to take back the Presidency, which, they said, was robbed from them.

There is a guessing game now on how the show will end and when. A fortune teller says the President will in the end follow her husband in self-exile.

Another fortune teller says that Ms. Roces will be prevailed upon to shoot a full-length movie with most of its dialogues taken from the controversial Garci tapes.

But Mama Akong, my favorite balut vendor in Calasiao, told me that he is no longer interested to see how the teleserye will end because, he says, he and his family will remain poor anyway, whoever sits there as President.

Abangan ang pagpapatuloy ng teleserye.

ENDNOTES: Last Friday, the Rotary Club of Dagupan, led by its incoming president, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, launched its Patak Vitamin A Project at the West Central Elementary School. The project will benefit some 6,000 pre-school and Grade 1 pupils… On July 13, the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) will be sending a delegation to Washington State. The delegation will consist of provincial and municipal government officials, as well as business and media representatives. Pawassa and its counterpart Seattle-based Washington-Pangasinan Sister State Association (Wapssa) has been sending poor but deserving Pangasinan students to college, among other projects.

QUICK QUOTE: Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jaime’s cardinal sin

2005-06-26T10:35:00.000+08:00

I was at the National Press Club in Manila when I learned that Jaime Aquino held a press conference right at the headquarters of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, to announce, among others, that Archbishop Oscar Cruz is a gay and that he “sexually molested” him when he was 18.

At first, I could not believe that Jaime did it. But then, knowing the man, his stunt should not come to me as a surprise anymore: he has done it before; he did it now; he will do it again.

As a case in point, Laoac Mayor Gregorio Tabayoyong pointed to Jaime as the one who engineered the filing of rape charges against the poor mayor and six of his policemen at about this time last year. The woman, of course, turned out later to be non-existent.

Broadcasters Allan Sison and Rannie Manaois also point to Jaime as the mastermind in the filing of the hold-upping cases they are now facing in Villasis.

And who can forget Jaime for his story four years ago in a tabloid, where he listed the names of Pangasinan media practitioners (including this writer) who are supposed to be in the jueteng payola?

There may have been other people that Jaime had victimized. He used his paper, the Northern Star, for “demolition jobs” by publishing black propaganda using fictitious bylines. Of course, he made big money out of it and he may be the only Pangasinan newsman now with the most number of libel cases.

As I watched Jaime that day in a late night television newscast, he looked like a pathetic and a confused clown acting before an angry mob. And as he spoke about his supposed “romantic relations” with the archbishop, the more that he gave himself away, with his nose doing a Pinocchio.

Jaime’s show came to a drastic end when Archbishop Cruz suddenly appeared in the news conference and Jaime did not even recognize him!

Poor guy. He should have studied his script well. Or his director(s) should have rehearsed him many times over until he’s ready for the act. At least, by doing a perfect act, he could have convinced the whole nation that he was a credible clown.

ENDNOTES: The city government is now manned by high school students, as part of Dagupan City’s 58th anniversary celebration. This is the second year of the Ogogaw ya Malingkor program, where students are selected to assume as the city’s mayor, vice mayor, councilors and department heads. This experience should provide them good training on leadership… While in Manila, I had an opportunity to meet former Gov. Oscar Orbos. We were both so happy to see each other again and we updated each other on the country’s political situation. Well, he’s not returning to Pangasinan politics anymore.

QUICK QUOTE: True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is also always some reason in madness. -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Anda today

2005-06-19T10:37:00.000+08:00

It must have been at this time of the year 10 years ago when I last visited Anda aboard a Navy barge via the Kakiputan channel.

At that time, the bridge, which now connects Anda to Pangasinan mainland, was already nearing completion and in the barge, people were teary-eyed as they marveled at the unfolding structure that for many years may have only existed in their dreams.

To them, the bridge meant the end of their miseries, the end of their isolation. It was a bridge to their future.

And true enough. Only a few months after Anda was connected to the mainland, its economic landscape gradually changed for the better. It metamorphosed from depressed and neglected community into a progressive and vibrant one.

Rough roads have been paved, new public buildings have been erected, local businesses have flourished. People finally had access to opportunities.

What used to be a torturous ride from across the bridge in Barangay Mal-ong to the poblacion, is now fast and comfortable because of its well-paved road.

(I would learn later from Mayor Nestor Pulido that even the road to the island’s famous Tondol Beach has been cemented, attracting more tourists to the place.)

In the poblacion, what used to be a garrison-like public market has been replaced by an imposing modern structure. The poblacion is now fast taking shape as a town center.

Anda’s public schools are now also getting their share of new buildings and classrooms, making them more conducive to learning.

And because it’s now easier to transport their produce to major markets, such as Metro Manila, the town’s businessmen are now also making it big, increasing in turn the town’s revenues.

And all these because of the bridge. With it, Board Member Alice Pulido, who was the mayor then, also did her part very well.

Losing no time, Manang Alice talked then to congressmen and senators to ask them for a share of their countrywide development funds to finance the town’s roadlines, which was the top priority then.

She obviously got what she wanted within months and by the end of her three three-year terms, Anda’s major road network has been paved.

In my visit there last week, Manong Nestor said that his focus is to make the island greener.

In his farm, which is about 200 meters away from his residence, are hundreds of mahogany seedlings for distribution to Grade 1 pupils.

“We should start them young. We should tell them that by these planting trees, they are saving for their future,” he said.

He is now also propagating bougainvillea cuttings for planting in the roadsides. Then, he will also be distributing langka and kasoy seedlings.

“With more trees, hopefully, more water will also be retained in our island for drinking,” he said.

ENDNOTES: Last Tuesday, Immigration Commissioner Al Fernandez celebrated his 62nd birthday at the Inn Asia Hotel and Restaurant. The place was full of guests, mostly Dagupenos, whom he served for almost two decades as a councilor, vice mayor and mayor… On June 20, Dagupan marks its 58th anniversary as a city. The activity is chaired by Sangguniang Panlungsod Secretary Jorge Estrada.

QUICK QUOTE: How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become -- to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being. -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Same old problems

2005-06-12T10:39:00.000+08:00

With the opening of classes this week for the new schoolyear, our kids attending public schools were ushered in again by the same problems: lack of teachers, lack of books, lack of classrooms, etc. etc.

This situation may not be too evident in Dagupan City, but the problem exists. Only, we are better off than most barangay public schools in the province because our problems are not as glaring as what they have.

Until now, there are public schools in the province that hold some of their classes under the trees. Until now, there are still classes with more than 50 students. Until now, there are still classes where three students share one textbook.

As a result, the quality of our graduates suffers and the whole public school system takes the blame for this predicament.

We know that the government has been doing its best to improve the country’s public schools. In fact, the Department of Education has the lion’s share in the annual national budget. Even congressmen have joined the effort by allocating some of their so-called pork barrel to finance the construction of additional classrooms, purchase of books, etc. etc.

But despite all these, nothing seemed to have moved.

This may be because the task of rehabilitating our public schools is simply overwhelming that government effort is hardly felt. With a free elementary and high school education where no one may be refused admission, a public school is made to eat more than what it could chew, turning its problems from bad to worse.

While we recognize that public education is a right of every Filipino citizen, we believe that education authorities should now come up with a policy that would ensure quality education in every public school, without denying the right of an individual to education.

There has to be a policy that would effectively limit the number of students in each classroom to make it more conducive to learning. There has to be a policy that would send teachers to regular trainings. But most of all, corrupt education officials should now be weeded out of DepEd and sent to jail.

This move will be tough and difficult. But there has to be a solution somewhere. There has to be a solution that would benefit the students, the teachers, the school, and the country, in general.

We cannot go on producing graduates who are not ready to go to high school or to attend college. We cannot allow our public schools to deteriorate.

ENDNOTES: With the announcement that the rainy has officially begun, expect water-borne diseases to be here again. It was about at this time last year when hundreds of central Pangasinan residents were afflicted with gastro-intestinal ailments because they drank water from shallow wells. Health officials should now start sounding the alarm… Last Thursday, we had a new police provincial director: Supt. Allan Purisima, who took the helm from Supt. Mario San Diego, now the chief of staff at the Police Regional Office in Cagayan Valley.

QUICK QUOTE: The best things in life are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Card system

2005-06-05T20:05:00.000+08:00

With the way the so-called card system has been hotly debated in the Sanggunian floors during its two hearings last week, one immediately senses that the Public Order and Safety Office (Poso) will have a hard time convincing a “small but noisy” group of drivers and operators to give the traffic reduction scheme a chance.

While most of the jeepney associations (25 out of 29, Poso figure) had nothing but praises for the card system, downtown loop drivers did not like it because they said it has substantially reduced their daily earnings, encouraged drivers to gamble while waiting for their turns, and greatly inconvenienced their passengers.

Downtown’s position was valid: they are a loop service and their trips have no fixed beginnings and ends. Or as a driver had aptly put it, they are not vice-versa, no definite origins and destinations. Meaning, if you put them under a card system, where they are to ply the downtown loop by intervals, it would be to the great inconvenience and disadvantage of the commuters because they would be made to transfer everytime a downtown loop jeepney approaches its holding area and stops there to pass his card.

But the most telling during last week’s two committee hearings were the drivers’ complaints that under the card system, they are being made to pay P5 to P10 by their associations everytime they leave their holding areas, making some city councilors wonder where these money go. This fee is separate from the monthly dues that are collected from them.

One jeepney association president, obviously after summoning enough courage, explained --after a driver angrily raised the issue-- that they needed to collect fees to raise money for the salaries of dispatchers they have employed in their holding areas. Another one said the same. Others chose to be silent.

But by simple arithmetic, the money being collected everyday from the drivers is a lot more than what is needed for the daily salaries, prompting City Councilor Farah Decano to ask if the associations are renting their holding areas, or the excess money will be used as a provident fund to benefit their member-drivers.

There’s really nothing wrong with collecting fees as long as these are reasonable and there’s transparency on how these fees are spent. Certainly, any driver, who was properly consulted about the fees and who knows why these are being collected, would not raise a howl and make a big fuss about it.

While this is an internal problem among jeepney associations, authorities should now step in quick to settle it before it is blown out of proportions; before names are dragged to be benefiting from it.

We don’t want the card system to be called a “quick-buck scheme,” do we?

ENDNOTES: We are saddened with the death last week of Dr. Marcela T. Velasco, 78, mother of Mel, a comrade-in-arms in journalism and a dear friend. Please accept our deepest condolences, pare. Also last week, Benjie Villa of Tarlac City, a former colleague in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star, died at the age of 31. I first met Benjie during a PDI bureau conference in Munoz City in 1997, barely a year after his graduation from the Tarlac State University. I remember him as a chubby little young man who was soft-spoken but serious. We would again see each other later when both of us moved to the Star. To Benjie, goodbye, pare.

QUICK QUOTE: The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand. -- Robert Vallett

Dismantling illegal fishpens

2005-05-29T10:41:00.000+08:00

It looks like the city hall is not leaving the city’s rivers until after these waterways are cleared of all illegally-built fishpens and other fishing structures.

As we write this column (my first for this paper; thanks to Kuya Behn for the space), Mayor Benjie Lim himself and his army of demolition men and women were already on their eighth straight day in the operation, which commenced last May 18 in an unprecedented show of force that involved at least 150 personnel from the Waste Management Division, Public Order and Safety Office, Anti-Hawking Task Force and the City Agriculturist’s Office.

This time, no illegal fishing structure was spared, not even those owned by barangay officials and people perceived to be very close to the city hall. Surprised by the unannounced move, frantic fishpen owners and caretakers, who all rushed to the rivers, could only beg Mayor Lim to give them a little time to harvest, before the demolition operatives start pulling up their nets and uprooting their bamboo enclosures.

Even those whose fishpens were properly built in designated places but whose areas exceeded the fishery ordinance-prescribed 300-square-meter area were only given that day to resize their structures; otherwise, these too, were immediately dismantled.

From what we have gathered, the city hall operation was so massive that on its first day, at least 100 illegal fishing structures were removed from Pugaro’s waters alone.

Mayor Lim’s message here was very clear: the city government is compassionate, but it is also dead serious in seeing to it that the fishery ordinance is followed to the letter.

In fact, City Agriculturist Emma Molina said that since the ordinance was implemented last November, her office has only dismantled some 80 illegal fishing structures because the demolition had to be suspended every now and then after fishpen operators repeatedly appealed to the mayor to allow them to raise their bangus until these can be harvested.

But as difficult and as challenging now as the dismantling operations, is the task of keeping the rivers illegal-fishpen free. This is because the river system criss-crossing our city is not a place were law enforcers are visible, making it very easy for illegal fishpen operators to go back and build again.

The city hall should now seriously consider deploying floating assets to immediate stop any attempt to illegally put up a fishpen or any other fishing structure, nipping them in the bud, so to speak. These assets may also double as lookouts against those who indiscriminately dump garbage into our rivers.

With the decongestion of the city’s rivers, the city government can now begin to prove that with the regulation of fishing structures, there is minimal pollution; that the risk of fish kills is substantially reduced; that with increased bangus yields, the city has found a pot of gold.

ENDNOTES: What is this card system that has become the latest talk of the town? To the city government, it means decongested traffic. To most jeepney drivers, it is a waste of time. To the commuters, it means getting to the office late… This week, it will be back to the regular five-day work week in all government offices, including the city hall. Why did it take Malacañang two months to realize that this supposed energy-saving scheme achieved nothing but longer weekends to most government workers? Just asking.
QUICK QUOTE: Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away. -- Unknown

Drowning in Bonuan

2005-04-19T11:41:00.000+08:00

Every time somebody drowns in the waters off Bonuan Beach, I always hear people say that that beach takes lives every year, as if the sea water is a living monster that preys every so often on unsuspecting beachgoers.
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With the drowning last Saturday of four teenagers in Bonuan Beach, I heard that statement again not just from one but from many people. It suddenly dawned on me that with the frequency the statement has been repeated and told to several people, it has somehow acquired a semblance of truth that more and more people tend to believe in it now than simply ignore it.

I wondered if somebody has thought of building a database on the drowning incidents in the area and have it analyzed by experts. This is not, of course, to establish whether the beach is a monster or not, but to find out if there is a pattern that can be drawn from these incidents and come up with a scientific explanation on why the drowning happened.

Doing this will not only change people’s superstitious beliefs about the beach but it will also enable us to adopt measures to prevent drowning in the future.

For instance, if from the database we are able to pinpoint areas where these drowning incidents occurred, then we can mark the area to warn the swimmers to take the necessary precautions just like what we do in accident-prone areas of highways.

Also, by knowing the water behavior during the dates and times the incidents happened, we will be able to caution the beachgoers about it, effectively preventing them from possible death.

With the city government’s development of the Tondaligan to make it more attractive to tourists, part of it should be the deployment of trained and fully equipped lifeguards. These lifeguards will be there not just to react when somebody is drowning, but to constantly watch over beachgoers and swimmers and warn them if they are no longer within the designated swimming areas.

While this will entail additional expenses to the city government, the lifeguards’ presence will enhance the image of the Bonuan Beach as a safe area, luring more tourists to the city because of it and increasing economic activity in the process.

It may be worth the city government’s investment in the long run.

*****
The last time I entered the Saint Louis University campus in Baguio City was in June 1981, when I accompanied a cousin to enroll there. At that time, the campus was already impressive and imposing, standing tall to assert its superiority as the biggest university in Northern Luzon.

I was there last Friday and I found out that the campus has expanded with the addition of some buildings and the expansion of the others. I was particularly surprised to find out that the men’s dormitory, where I stayed for four years while I was a student there, has been literally annexed to the Sacred Heart Hospital beside it through an overhead walkway connecting the two buildings’ third floors.

Being one of the first residents of that dorm when it opened in 1976, seeing it being converted into a hospital made me somewhat nostalgic and sentimental and the memories of the days and nights I spent in that dorm immediately came to mind.

I had thought at first that the university administration has completely dropped the idea of running a men’s dorm. But to my surprise, it did not. It has instead built a new four-story building at Assumption Rd., just outside the hospital driveway -- a bigger dorm that can accommodate up to 250 residents, compared to the 200 residents that the old dorm housed.

I learned later that the same amenities were there – rooms roomy enough for four students, one locker and study table for each resident, a spacious bath and wash room in each floor, a mess hall and reception areas.

The house rules we dreaded are still there and they have been modified to plug loopholes and ensure that its residents achieve “academic excellence.” I remember that it was during our time when the open-door study period from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. began. This was imposed after the dorm masters discovered that many residents did not study their lessons and had failing grades at the end of the semester. During the study period, dorm masters would go from one room to another to see to it that its occupants are really studying.

To parents, this is instilling discipline and developing students to be responsible while they are away from their parents. This is also a reassurance that inside that dorm, the students are safe and secure.

QUICK QUOTE: Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest you. -- Mother Teresa

Four-day work week

2005-04-12T11:42:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, the city hall opened at 7:30 a.m. and closed at 6:30 p.m., longer than the usual 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. working hours. It was the first day of the implementation of the four-day work week this summer, based on a directive of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Although most city hall offices will now open Monday to Thursday (frontline services, such the Waste Management Division, police, etc. are exempted), each government employee will still be working 40 hours a week as mandated by law.

To the national government, the scheme means energy savings. Millions of pesos. To most government employees, it will be longer weekends this summer.

To the people, they can now transact with government offices earlier. Hopefully. That is, if government employees will really report on time. As radio commentator Orly Navarro rightly observes, even if offices open at 7:30 a.m., but its employees or department heads report at 9 a.m., the four-day work week will not mean anything.

If the national government really wants to save energy, then it has to think of measures more than just the four-day work week scheme. Although it has been relentlessly urging people to save energy in its radio and television ads, the message do not seem to sink in. Maybe, this is because the people do not see the government adopting energy-saving measures.

For instance, the use of government vehicles has not been very strict. Even on weekends, we see several red plates in malls, public markets, beaches, cockpit arenas – in places where they should not be. These vehicles consume gasoline paid for by the people’s money.

In offices, there have been lights-off and aircon-off times, but these were hardly observed. And what about the street lights and water faucets for public use? These are but small details that need the government’s attention.

In other words, if the government wants the people to save, then it should be the first one to do it for the people to see. Leadership by example.

By simply seeing to it that the lights are turned off at the proper time in government offices, leaking faucets are repaired and government vehicles are used properly, millions of pesos of energy would already be saved.

*****
It’s fiesta time. Any town you go this summer in Pangasinan, there’s a festive mood.

Just last week, Bayambang and Mapandan were celebrating. Bayambang had its fiesta in honor of its patron, St. Vincent Ferrer. Ten days of fun and celebration.

Mapandan had its Pandan Festival, a week long festivity. We were there last Wednesday to witness the inauguration of several buildings around the town square.

In Bayambang, when we saw Mayor Leo de Vera on the day the cycling race he sponsored was circling the third district, he was a picture of a happy man. His residence at Barangay Bical was a place everybody admired. Not so much for the imposing landscaping being completed but for its kitchen that doesn’t seem to run out of food.

Anyone who enters his compound eats. And in a day’s time, his staff may have fed thousands of people. For 10 days.

Whew!

ENDNOTES: Third district Rep. Gener Tulagan was in Mapandan with presidential son, Pampanga Rep. Mikey Arroyo, when the news about his ailing and aging mother’s death came through that Wednesday morning. He was very calm, as those who have learned about it condoled with him. Manong Gener, the strong and religious person that we know, may have long prepared for it and just left everything to God. He knows that in finally meeting her Creator, his mother is in now safe hands. Interment will be on Thursday, April 14.
QUICK QUOTE: The human heart feels things the eyes cannot see, and knows what the mind cannot understand. --Robert Vallett

On tourism

2005-04-05T11:46:00.000+08:00

When I was with the City Information Office, a Canadian backpacker was accompanied to my office one afternoon by a City Mayor’s Office receptionist. The Caucasian woman, who must have been in her mid-60s, was visibly mad.

And even before I could ask her what her problem was, she said, “I hope this time, I will get the right direction. Nobody in this city seems to give the right directions.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“Well, when I got off this bus, I took a tricycle and told the driver to take me to a pension house. You know where he took me?” she said.

“Where?” I asked.

“To some insurance company!” she said. (The poor lady was apparently taken to the Pension Plan Inc. office, I would learn later.)

I have actually shared this story over and over again to friends to drive home the point that Dagupan City has to do a lot of catching up in terms of putting in place tourism support structures if it wants to establish itself as a major tourist destination in Pangasinan.

Now that summer has begun, for instance, and tourists will be trooping once again to our beaches in Bonuan, there should be an office where these tourists can go to for assistance. If they want information about hotels and lodging houses, restaurants, Internet cafes and even about the details of the Bangus Festival in the city, someone authoritative should provide them the answers.

While it is true that the Tondaligan management office, now headed by a colleague, Dino Zabala, is in the area, it may not be the right office because it was created for a completely different task. It may not also be ready to provide all the “right directions” that tourists would want.

Except for the City Tourism Office, which, by the way, is based at the city hall, tourists visiting the city have no one else to turn to if they want access to tourism facilities and attractions that the city has to offer. Especially for first timers, finding the way to the Bonuan beaches, for instance, may be very frustrating and traumatic.

In short, it is now high time for the city to establish tourist information and assistance centers in strategic places of the city where visitors can go to get some assistance. Tourists usually feel safer and reassured if they get help from a government office or from a tourism organization (like the City Tourism Council) than, say, from a tricycle or jeepney driver. Tourists would feel, too, that they are being warmly welcomed to the city if they find it easy to get help.

Regular seminars for frontline sectors, such as transport groups and food servers, on their role in the tourism industry should also be conducted. This sector should be well-informed about the city’s attractions and its tourist facilities. Teaching them to be polite and hospitable will also help.

Then, of course, a website would be helpful. Today, people intending to visit a certain place would first surf the Internet for any information about it. It is usually in the websites where prospective tourists get telephone numbers of hotels and restaurants, suggested itinerary, and even roadmaps.

Unfortunately, Dagupan City’s website is still under construction.

ENDNOTES: In just a span of seven days, while he was acting city mayor, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez turned over some P300,000 worth of medicines, which he received as donations, to the City Health Office. The first shipment worth P200,000 of assorted medicines, came from Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman. The rest was from Sen. Mar Roxas.

QUICK QUOTE: We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop (~550 BC)

Graduation woes

2005-04-01T11:47:00.000+08:00

Every year, closing exercises, especially in public schools are hounded by controversies. If it’s not about graduation fees, it’s on the selection of honor students.

We cannot understand why these problems still crop out when the Department of Education had always made clear its policies, especially on the holding of graduation exercises.

For this year, for instance, Education Secretary Butch Abad issued DepEd Order No. 8, s. 2005 last February 28, which stipulates, among others, the following:

“No non-academic project shall be imposed as a requirement for graduation;

“Public schools are not allowed to collect any graduation fees or any kind of contribution for graduation rites;

“PTA/PTCAs may solicit voluntary contributions from their members for graduation ceremonies and celebrations. Teachers and principals should not be involved in the collection of these contributions. PTA/PTCA members should be informed about the use of any contribution for graduation;

“No extravagant special attire or extraordinary venue for the ceremonies should be required; and

“Contribution for the annual yearbook shall likewise be on a voluntary basis.”

From the order, it is clear that the kind of graduation ceremonies to be held – whether it’s simple, quite extravagant or simply festive -- is in the hands of the Parents-Teachers Association. But the problem is, although all parents of students enrolled in a school are automatic PTA members, not all of them attend its meetings. So, when an agreement has been reached on the kind of graduation ceremony to be held, as well the amount of contribution, complaints begin to mount.

Many parents want to see their children in a graduation ceremony that is solemn and memorable. After all, as one mother said, graduation is not a yearly exercise for her daughter and she would also want to make her daughter remember and enjoy it as her reward for completing her high school education.

But then again, even if other parents would want the same for their children, the economic factor sets in. In public schools, especially, many students patiently attend their classes, even if it means skipping some meals for them, just so that they can finish high school. Parents, too, despite their financial limitations, push their children to go to school, hoping that by finishing something, they would have better jobs in the future – maybe, better than scavenging or doing laundry work.

But many of them no longer attend the graduation program because they really cannot afford to buy even the barest necessities – like a pair of shoes, pants and shirt -- for the program. What about the toga rental and other incidentals?

But really, graduation programs need not be expensive. It should not burden those who really don’t have money to spare but who want to see their children march up the stage to receive their diplomas. DepEd think tanks should now sit down to come up with a standardized graduation exercises. Something simple yet memorable; festive yet solemn.

*****
Two of my young daughters attend a private school in Calasiao town. It’s called the Señor Tesoro Academy. (No, it’s not an expensive school; otherwise, I wouldn’t have enrolled them there.)

Aside from its competent faculty members, who are setting the high standard for the school, I am impressed at the way the Parents-Teachers and Community Association is run and managed. (Well, I don’t attend its meetings. With my workload, I can only find time for school activities where my two young ones are participants.)

I said it’s impressive because I have yet to hear a complaint from any parent about PTCA decisions, especially when it comes to school activities that require contributions.

Okay, I hear you -- parents there can afford to pay whatever contributions there are. But that’s completely beside the point because I have seen instances in other organizations where its members complain even if they have all the money in the world.

As I said, it is the way an organization is run that matters. Even if my wife and I do not attend its meetings, we are notified about it and we are told of the agenda that will be discussed. The notices have been in fact so detailed and polite that even if you did not attend a particular meeting, you would know what had transpired.

I guess this makes the big difference. And this sets apart the Señor Tesoro Academy PTCA above other PTCAs that I know. Properly informing the parents about school activities really makes the difference.

Oh, by the way, its president, I was told, is Simone de Vera.

ENDNOTES: Tomorrow, Bayambang begins celebrating its nine-day fiesta, in honor of its patron saint, St. Vincent Ferrer. With Mayor Leo de Vera himself as hermano mayor, this year’s celebration introduces new events, which will all be a good treat to every Bayambang resident. The Binasuan Night, for instance, revives a traditional folkdance that originated from the towns many, many years ago. Likewise, this year’s Miss Bayambang Beauty Pageant chaired by Vice Mayor Boy Ramos, promises to be a delightful show for everyone with its new choreography and presentation concepts. On the religious aspect of the fiesta, Libot na Saray Sasanto will be held for the first time, featuring all the patron saints of the towns 77 barangays.

QUOTE: Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. -- Sir Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

A time to reflect

2005-03-22T11:53:00.000+08:00

The Holy Week is the last week of Lent, or the week that immediately precedes Easter Sunday. To us Christians, this is a time to commemorate and enact the Passion and death of Jesus Christ through various observances and services of worship.

To enable us to have more time for spiritual reflection during these important Christian holidays, Malacanang has announced that Holy Wednesday and Black Saturday are non-working holidays, giving government personnel a five-day vacation that will culminate on Easter Sunday.

Unfortunately, to many, the Holy Week is just another long vacation. As early as this afternoon, for sure, long queues of vehicles, including government-owned, would be rushing to Baguio City or to the beaches of Pangasinan and La Union.

In most towns in the country, the Holy Week, like Christmas, is a time for reunions because it is usually at this time of the year when family members and friends working in faraway places come home for vacation.

But even while the faithful take time out to pray and meditate, with this prevailing scenario, the essence of the Holy Week is hardly felt. Hardly will anyone remember anymore its spiritual dimension. Hardly will anyone remember that the Holy Week is the commemoration of Christ’s death and suffering.

According to the Christian Resource Institute (CRI), a global and ecumenical ministry dedicated to providing biblical and theological resources for growing Christians, Holy Week commemorations call us “to move behind the joyful celebrations of Palm Sunday and Easter, and focus on the suffering, humiliation, and death that is part of Holy Week.”

“It is important to place the hope of the Resurrection, the promise of newness and life, against the background of death and endings,” the CRI said.

“It is only in walking through the shadows and darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, only in realizing the horror and magnitude of sin and its consequences in the world incarnated in the dying Jesus on the cross, only in contemplating the ending and despair that the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, that we can truly understand the light and hope of Sunday morning!” it added.

*****

Officials of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) and Digital Telecommunications Inc. (Digitel) could not hide their displeasure over the continuing pilferage of their lines, causing millions of pesos worth of lost opportunities during power shutdowns and Internet downtimes.

These thieves simply climb the poles, cut the wires and sell these to junkshops for a fast buck.

These thieves must be very brave. They know that transmission lines have high voltage and it could cost their lives at the slightest mistake. The same is true with Digitel distribution lines, which are installed in high poles.

But what is making these pilferers bolder and more daring is the fact that they can easily run away with their crime because they have yet to see a wire thief sentenced and sent to jail. Or junkshop owners for that matter, who patronize the stolen items.

Maybe, we now should look at wire pilferage in terms of its economic implications. When a Digitel line is cut, think of the millions of pesos worth of opportunities lost, the phone and online transactions that are stopped. When a Transco transmission line is stolen, think of the power outage and its immediate impact on the economy of affected areas.

But coupled with stiffer penalties, there should also be citizens’ awareness and participation in this endeavor. The people should be made to understand it is not Transco or Digitel that is losing to wire pilferers but the country, and consequently, they, as its citizens, who are the big losers.

This way, maybe, they become more concerned and aware of their responsibilities and protective of these precious wires.

ENDNOTES: With people flocking to the Bonuan Beach this Holy Week, concerned city authorities should stop some unscrupulous beach shed owners from imposing exorbitant rental fees to beachgoers and to ensure that prices of softdrinks and other commodities are not grossly overpriced. Finally, let us tell our visitors to bring home with them their trash. Maybe we can encourage this by distributing to them free trash bags.
QUOTE: Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. -- W.W. Ziege

Against all dams

2005-03-15T11:54:00.000+08:00

When then President Ramos announced the construction of the San Roque Dam in the boundary of Pangasinan and Benguet provinces in 1994, Ibaloi families living near the project site began to brace for the worst. They knew that once construction work began, they would be driven out of their homes and ancestral lands.

True enough, when the site preparation began in 1997, some 300 Ibaloi families in Itogon, Benguet had no choice but to transfer to a resettlement site that the government had set aside for them.

It was not the first time that this had happened to them. Together with other indigenous groups-- collectively referred to as Igorot (mountain folk)-- in the Cordillera mountains, the Ibaloi people have been victims of what is now known as “development aggression.”

The Igorot’s misery began in 1946, when then President Roxas commissioned Westinghouse International to survey potential new sources of energy in the country. Westinghouse later identified the Agno River, which originates from the southern slopes of Mount Data in Mountain Province and flows mightily southward through eastern Benguet before disgorging into the Lingayen Gulf in Pangasinan, as an ideal major energy source.

Thus, when the first Philippine Power Program was drafted on the basis of the survey team’s findings, the development of hydropower facilities in the Agno River basin became one of its major features.

In 1952, the construction of what would be the biggest dams in Asia at that time– the Ambuklao and Binga dams-- commenced. As sacrificial lambs, hundreds of helpless Ibaloi families were displaced from these two dam sites to homestead areas in the neighboring Conwap Valley of Nueva Vizcaya, the Conner area of Apayao, and in far away Palawan.

To the relocated Ibaloi families, it was back to square one. Being unfamiliar not only with the terrain there, but also with the new socio-economic situation they found themselves in, they were not able to resettle in these areas successfully. Many of them later died of starvation and sickness.

When then President Ferdinand Marcos announced that six more dams would be built along the Agno River, the Ibaloi people summoned enough courage to oppose the projects, having learned a sad lesson from the Ambuklao and Binga experience. They succeeded in preventing the construction of the dams.

In the mid-1970s, Ibaloi resistance inspired the Kalinga and Bontok communities to oppose the Chico River Basin Development Project, which called for the building of four dams that would have been far larger than those planned for the Agno. The Kalinga and Bontoc fought and successfully stopped the construction of the Chico dams.

The story of the success of the Chico struggle spread far and wide and inspired other indigenous groups in their own struggles against development aggression in their areas.

In Apayao in 1984, the Isneg people confiscated construction materials and burned equipment to stop the construction of the Gened dam in Flora town. They, too, succeeded as the Ibaloi, the Kalinga and the Bontoc did.

In Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya in 1985, affected communities successfully aborted the building of the Matuno dam in Banti town.

The indigenous people’s consistent effort to thwart development projects in their areas may be viewed as simply their natural reaction to preserve themselves and to assert their right to self-determination.

As Victoria Tauli Corpuz of the Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Center pointed out, the Cordillera area is where indigenous people have been living for ages.

“Communities have residential areas with rice fields, and then they have the forest, which is communally owned by the tribe. Those are their hunting grounds, those are where their sacred trees are, those are the areas where the water comes from,” she said.

“These forests are very much protected by the people. They know the forest is where their life comes from, where their water comes from, where the fertility of the soil comes from and where their wood and wild food comes from. So it’s a very integral part of the daily life of the people,” she added.

The San Roque Multi-Purpose dam project pushed through, all right, but opposition against it continues to grow because it also continues to threaten the survival not only of the remaining indigenous communities in its vicinity but also the people in the lowlands once it opens its spillway gates in the future.

According to the Cordillera People’s Alliance, a non-government organization, more and more people, including policy makers, are now realizing that “dam projects usually promise more than they could actually deliver, and at a cost that is too high socially, environmentally, as well as economically.”

As the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism has rightly observed, “Heavy siltation has also taken its toll on the lifespan of the two dams (Ambuklao and Binga), both of which were originally meant to function for 50 years. Today, the 75-megawatt Ambuklao has been reduced to a single generator operating at less than 20 megawatts. Binga continues to operate at its 100-megawatt capacity but at the high cost of dredging operations to rehabilitate its reservoir.”

The San Roque Multi-Purpose dam promises in its website to “reduce the perennial flooding of the Agno River affecting at least 16 Pangasinan and Tarlac towns… for floods up to a 50-year event—that is, one so large as to recur only once in 50 years, peak outflows from the spillway are at least one third (1/3) less than peak inflows to the reservoir.”

In short, with the San Roque dam in place, flooding would be a thing of the past in Pangasinan. But as President Arroyo formally inaugurated the San Roque Multipurpose Dam Project at the Ceremonial Hall in Malacañang on May 29, 2003, at least 23 Pangasinan towns were under the flood waters the dam was supposed to prevent.

ENDNOTES: Former President Fidel V. Ramos was warmly welcomed in the city during his visit last Friday. He played golf, spoke before the city’s five Rotary Clubs, and witnessed the graduation of the Lyceum Northwestern University College of Nursing.

QUOTE: It is not only for what we do that we are responsible, but also for what we do not do. – Moliere (French playwright and actor)

Dagupan can’t vote in provincial elections

2005-03-11T11:56:00.000+08:00

Now, it’s settled: Dagupan City cannot participate in provincial elections. This is clearly written in Sec. 2 of R.A. 2259 or An Act Making Elective the Offices of Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilors in Chartered Cities, Regulating Election in Such Cities and Fixing the Salaries and Tenure of Such Offices, which was approved in June 19, 1959.

R.A. 2259 states that the “Mayor, Vice Mayor and Councilors shall be elected at large by the qualified voters of the city on the date of the elections for provincial and municipal officials in conformity with the provisions of the Revised Election Code: Provided, however, That the qualified voters of cities shall vote or shall not vote for provincial officials as their respective charters provide, except in the cities of Iloilo and Dagupan where the said voters shall not vote for provincial officials.”

This law amended the Dagupan City Charter (R.A. 170) and its subsequent amendments -- such as RA 484, which was approved on June 10, 1950 and which allowed the city to vote in provincial elections-- as decided by the Supreme Court on June 1, 1966 (G.R. No. L-23964, Gaerlan vs. Catubig).

In that landmark case, the High Tribunal said, "… (T)he question whether or not a special law has been repealed or amended by one or more subsequent general laws is dependent mainly upon the intent of Congress in enacting the latter. The discussions on the floor of Congress show beyond doubt that its members intended to amend or repeal all provisions of special laws inconsistent with the provisions of Republic Act No. 2259, except those which are expressly excluded from the operation thereof.”

And this “intent of Congress” is also clearly reflected in Sec. 9 of R.A. 2259, which provides for the repeal of “all acts or parts of acts, executive orders, rules and regulations inconsistent with the provisions of this act.”

This explains now why in the 1959 provincial elections, when Dr. Francisco Duque ran and won in the gubernatorial race, Dagupeños no longer voted in the election. This was supposed to be the first provincial elections that Dagupan did not participate in.

This should also serve now as a take off point for those who want to push for the enfranchisement of Dagupan City starting in the 2007 elections.

Now, if Dagupan City is not a component city and obviously not highly urbanized to make it independent from the province, then what is it?

The Local Government Code has the answer: “A city may either be component or highly urbanized… Independent component cities are those component cities whose charters prohibit their voters from voting for provincial elective officials. Independent component cities shall be independent of the province (Book III, Title III, Chapter 1, Sec. 451).”

In other words, like Urdaneta, Alaminos and San Carlos, Dagupan is a component city. But unlike them, Dagupan is independent.

*****

Until I read R.A. 9287 yesterday, I never realized that penalties for those involved in illegal numbers game, such as jueteng, have been increased.

The law, which was approved on April 2, 2004, provides for different degrees of penalties -- ranging from 30 days to 20 years -- to bettors, personnel of the illegal numbers game operation, collectors, coordinators, controllers or supervisors, maintainers, managers or operators, financiers or capitalists, and coddlers or protectors.

But what caught my attention was Sec. 5 of the law, which defines the liability of government employees and/or public officials involved in illegal numbers game.

The section reads: “If the collector, agent, coordinator, controller, supervisor, maintainer, manager, operator, financier or capitalist of any illegal numbers game is a government employee and/or public official, whether elected or appointed shall suffer the penalty of twelve (12) years and one (1) day to twenty (20) years and a fine ranging from Three million pesos (P3,000,000.00) to Five million pesos (P5,000,000.00) and perpetual absolute disqualification from public office.”

In addition, it says, the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office “shall be imposed upon any local government official who, having knowledge of the existence of the operation of any illegal numbers game in his/her jurisdiction, fails to abate or to take action, or tolerates the same in connection therewith.”

Then, law enforcers who fail to apprehend perpetrators of any illegal numbers game may be suspended or dismissed.

Whew!

ENDNOTES: March is an election month for various local officials’ organizations. First, it was the National Movement of Young Legislators, an organization of vice governors, board members and city and municipal vice mayors and councilors, who are 35 years old and below. Just last Tuesday, it was the Philippine Councilors’ League’s turn to hold a national convention and election. And next week, the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP) will have its national convention at the Century Park Hotel, where Dagupan City Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, VMLP Pangasinan chapter president and incumbent national vice president for finance, will run as executive vice president. From what we gathered, Alvin will be running unopposed.
QUOTE: Do not follow where the path leads. Rather go where there is no path, and leave a trail. -- David Perkins

The third district race

2005-03-09T11:57:00.000+08:00

Now that Congressman Gener Tulagan is in his third and last term, talks on who will be his successor in 2007 have begun to circulate in the district’s political circles.

Early on, those considered serious contenders for the congressional seat were San Carlos City Mayor Jolly Resuello, Bayambang Mayor Leo de Vera, Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino and Board Member Angel Baniqued.

But the unfolding political scenario at present is gradually changing. And it seems that the only possible candidates are Mayor Leo and Board Member Baniqued. Last January, Mayor Jolly issued a statement that although he’s now in his last term, he is not gunning for the congressional position. What he is going to do next is everybody’s guess but we can only surmise that he would rather ensure the election of his son, Vice Mayor Ayoy, as his successor in San Carlos.

He has thrown his full support to Mayor Leo’s congressional bid.

Vice Governor Lambino, on the other hand, may just opt to run for governor or just go back to Malasiqui as mayor. Although, knowing him, he can still make his options open until the 11th hour.

This leaves Board Member Baniqued and Mayor Leo possibly slugging it out one-on-one in the congressional race.

Easily, with this scenario in 2007, we are seeing a very lopsided race. First, in the 2004 elections, Mayor Leo has virtually begun to campaign for 2007 with the consistent announcement of Congressman Gener in his political rallies and meetings that Mayor Leo will be the district’s next congressman.

In turn, despite pressures, Mayor Leo stuck it out with Congressman Gener to the last minute of his electoral fight against former Gen. Orly Soriano, preventing what could have been a mass defection to the Soriano camp of political leaders in the district. And Congressman Gener knows this. As a result, Congressman Gener’s victory was historic: he won by landslide in all the five towns and San Carlos City.

Mayor Leo can also rely on Bayambang’s solid vote, although Board Member Baniqued has consistently won in Bayambang in the past, including in his congressional bid in 2001. But with Mayor Leo as the town’s first possible congressman, there is no doubt that his townmates will rally around him and deliver the hometown votes.

As far as San Carlos is concerned, with the support of both Mayor Jolly and Congressman Gener, Mayor Leo is assured of a big share of the votes in the city, although it is Board Member Baniqued’s hometown.

What will also boost Mayor Leo’s congressional bid is the support of Biskeg na Pangasinan. It is no secret now that one of the closest persons to Biskeg founder, former Sto. Tomas mayor and now DOTC assistant secretary, Bebot Villar is Mayor Leo.

Their closeness is in keeping with the relationship of their old men during their stints as public servants. When Asec Villar’s father, the late Congressman Tonieng Villar was vice governor, Mayor Leo’s old man, who was then concessionaire of the Mangabul Lake, was one of his aides and political leaders.

Mayor Leo’s friendship with Asec Villar has transcended time and politics and each of them has always been ready to help one another through thick and thin.

The 2007 elections may still be two and a half years away. But with this outpouring of support to Mayor Leo, it looks like his congressional bid is unstoppable.

ENDNOTES: The recently concluded Jobs Fair 2005 at the Dagupan City astrodome was a success. Roger Chua of trabaho.com said that at least 30 companies participated, attracting about 5,000 job applicants from the different parts of the province… At 2:00 pm on Saturday, March 12, the Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) is holding a free orientation seminar for teachers who want to apply for teaching jobs in the United States at the Loreto Bangsal Boardroom of the YMCA in Dagupan City.
QUOTE: When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! I will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through tunnel underneath, or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine -- with God's help! -- Found in a book by Robert Schuller

Those pesky tricycles

2005-03-01T11:58:00.000+08:00

To me, the most breath-taking among the natural attractions of Pangasinan is the Hundred Islands. Everytime I go there, I am always enthralled by its splendor and mystery, and its unique ambience that soothes and relaxes a weary mind. It’s a perfect weekend getaway.

But unlike the other natural tourist attractions in the country, a trip to the Hundred Islands should offer more than the beaches of its islands and the calm waters surrounding them. For instance, in Puerto Princesa City, a trip to its famous underground river becomes very memorable because a trained guide accompanies every group of visitors, making their visit very educational and making them realize the benefits of taking care of the environment.

This is also true when one visits the Subic Free Port. A guide is assigned to accompany visitors, making the visit very organized and educational.

Why this scheme is not being done by the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA), the agency which has jurisdiction over these islands, we don’t know. Maybe, they have tried it in the past, did not make it work, got tired of it and simply forgot about it. Or maybe, they did not try it at all.

But as we race against time to preserve the Hundred Islands from further physical degradation and keep it as the province’s premier tourist destination, Alaminos City Mayor Nani Braganza should no longer wait on the PTA to make its move. He should act now. And fast.

With former tourism regional director Jinggoy Malay as city administrator, there is no reason why the Hundred Islands could not be repackaged to keep tourists coming back for it, at the same time, creating higher awareness on the need to protect and preserve it.

This means that we should go beyond the idea of deploying floating souvenir and food shops on the waters near the islands. More than this, tourists must be educated on the islands’ legend, their history, their names, their attractions, their contributions to ecology, the need to preserve them and the people’s and government efforts to maintain them. This way, tourists will better appreciate the islands and make them develop a sense of attachment and responsibility to make them feel that they, too, are co-owners and stakeholders that they are obliged to take care of them.

A tall order? I guess not. It’s simple management. And a little imagination.

*****

The greatest obstacles to a smooth traffic flow in Dagupan City are still the tricycles. And their drivers are the most undisciplined bunch. This makes me wonder if at all, these drivers are given actual driving tests by the Land Transportation Office before they are issued their licenses.

This is why defensive driving around Dagupan City is a must. Otherwise, you end up sideswiping or being sideswiped by tricycles that suddenly appear in front of you during traffic stops. If you are following a tricycle on a road, better have a sharp eye. Chances are these vehicles do not have signal and stop lights and they usually make a left or right turn using their hands, feet and worse, their snouts.

They also overtake you on the right and many times, you see them coming using the wrong side of the road. They also have this bad habit of stopping in the middle of the road to pick up passengers. They simply do not care that they delaying other motorists.

But what makes these tricycle drivers bold and daring in violating traffic rules is the fact that many of them do not get traffic citation tickets for these “minor” infractions. Or if they do, the penalty is very affordable.

The city government has succeeded in giving a day off to all tricycles in Dagupan City. It should now start considering their gradual phase-out as a public transportation.

And this could be done by imposing heavier penalties, including cancellation of franchise, to recalcitrant tricycle drivers. And as franchises are cancelled, issuance of new ones should be stopped.

At least, this way, if we do not succeed in totally phasing out the tricycles, we will have safer streets with more disciplined drivers.

ENDNOTES: Congratulations to former Dagupan City administrator Joven Maramba, for his election as president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Pangasinan Chapter last Saturday. Also to his runningmate, my buloy, Jing Viray of Asingan town, for winning as vice president… The Pangasinan-Washington Sister State Association (Pawassa) has been appointed by a US-based agency as its agent in Pangasinan in the recruitment of teachers for US schools. Interested applicants should attend the Jobs Fair at the Dagupan City Library on March 3 and 4.

QUOTE: Well, it was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together... and I knew it. I knew it the very first time I touched her. It was like coming home... only to no home I'd ever known... I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car and I knew. It was like... magic. – Tom Hanks, as Sam Baldwin in the movie Sleepless in Seattle, when asked what was special about his departed wife.

Remembering EDSA

2005-02-25T12:00:00.000+08:00

THE HOLDING OF the Bangus Festival has significantly enhanced the people’s livelihood in the city, according to a study I read two years ago.

Conducted by an independent research firm, whose name I could no longer remember (I don’t even have a copy of that study now), the study found that after the holding of the Bangus Festival in 2002, local fish vendors enjoyed a 30-40 percent increase in revenue by selling Dagupan bangus.

The volume of bangus production in Dagupan also increased significantly. From 1999 to 2001, the production of bangus stayed dormant at 2,325 metric tons a year. After holding of the first festival in 2002, the total bangus production went up to 2,635 metric tons or a 13 percent increase.

According to the City Agriculture Office, bangus production in 2003 reached 2,830 metric tons or 22 percent increase from year 2001. These figures only show the production of fishpond operators. Fish pen operators have no current record but normally they produce three times more than the fishponds.

The tourism industry in Dagupan was also boosted due the local, national and international publicity that the festival generated and never experienced by the city in the past.

In terms of its environmental impact, the festival created a higher awareness level for the protection of our river system; intensified mangrove re-vegetation projects and continuous implementation of clean-up campaign in the entire city.

As Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez had said during his talk in Tokyo in 2003, the Bangus Festival was an innovative international marketing strategy because it heightened global awareness of the city’s main produce, the bangus.

This year, the city government will replicate this feat, not so much to get a space in the Guinness Book of World Records but for the world to know that Dagupan City is still growing the tasty bangus.
*****

TODAY, we remember the day 19 years ago when then strongman Ferdinand Marcos left Malacanang for a self-exile in Hawaii.

There was street dancing and celebration not only in Metro Manila but in most cities nationwide as soon as Radio Veritas then announced Marcos’ flight. Suddenly, Marcos was gone. Suddenly, democracy was restored and people began to hope for a new day.

That was 19 years ago.

But 19 years hence -- 19 years of freedom from the clutches of dictatorship – a great number of our people still wallow in abject poverty. Those who have barely enough continue to hold on tightly to a thin strand of rope, hoping they would be able to get out of the economic quagmire they are in.

Clearly, for 19 years, we have not succeeded in creating more livelihood opportunities for our people. We have not liberated our people from poverty and make them live less deprived lives.

Likewise, we have not been able to stabilize politically. Coup attempts and other destabilization plots continue to hound our government.

Finally, the level of corruption has continued to increase and has become more daring. It has also crept from the highest echelon of government down to the lowest level. There is now too much distrust on the government and in it’s capability to improve people’s lives.

Overreacting? I’m not.

Unless President Arroyo makes a more decisive move in the anti-graft campaign by sparing no one -- including her closest political allies -- we will still be in the same pathetic situation 19 years from now.

ENDNOTES: Oops! I have wrongly written in Tuesday’s column that Windows will run Mondays and Fridays. It should have been Tuesdays and Fridays… Bayambang Mayor Leo de Vera is now in the thick of preparations for their town fiesta this year in honor of its patron, St. Vincent Ferrer. The fiesta, among other activities, will highlight a Binasuan Night. Many Pangasinenses may not know it, but Binasuan, a colorful folk dance where a dancer balances three glasses filled with rice wine, originated in Bayambang.

QUOTE: Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.-- Buddha

Province’s loss, city’s gain

2005-02-21T12:00:00.000+08:00

AFTER MORE than a year of hibernation, I’m resuming this column. And I hope to be able to deliver this to you regularly (Mondays and Thursdays), as I have promised our editor.

It was simply because I was too preoccupied with other tasks in the past months, especially during the months immediately preceding the 2004 elections, that I temporarily stopped writing. I had my hands full of equally pressing work then that everytime I attempted to write Windows, I couldn’t collect my thoughts and I ended up with bad copies. I thought it best to rest my keyboard for a while.

After the elections was completely a different story. After the euphoria brought about by some friends’ election victory, I went back to the academe to teach Journalism after a semester’s leave of absence. But while I was doing this and my usual office work at the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan City, I stumbled into an online journalism course offered by the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism of the Ateneo de Manila University. And from September to November last year, I completed two courses, both through grants.

These were what have kept me very busy. Anyway, my workload these days has not changed so much. Everyday remains a busy day for me. But I have promised our editor that never again will this column disappear from this paper, no matter where I am and whatever other tasks I’m attending to.

And to our dear readers who kept asking what has happened to this column, thank you for your support. I hope you will warmly welcome me back.

*****
It certainly was heartwarming to see Dindin Baniqued report to work at the Dagupan City hall last week as the city’s new legal officer.

She has just emerged from Mayor Benjie Lim’s office when we saw her. She was all smiles as she ushered us – city information chief Butch Velasco, veteran radioman Tito Tamayo and I -- into an office assigned to her just outside Mayor Lim’s office.

No, she did not say anything about her sudden resignation from the provincial government, which kept Pangasinenses speculating that “something very wrong and unacceptable” could have pushed Dindin out of the Urduja House after serving as Gov. Victor Agbayani’s provincial attorney in the last six and a half years.

Strangely, the Urduja House kept mum about her resignation and instead chose to work silently to control the damage that her resignation may have created. From radio commentaries and listeners’ reactions in the days that followed, Dindin’s resignation was met with sadness, most especially by ordinary people and lowly barangay official she was able to help in the past. To these people, Dindin was Urduja House’s saving grace. Some listeners even hinted that Dindin was a victim of a power play.

What happened between her and the governor, or the governor’s coterie of advisers and consultants for that matter, generated an outpouring of support to her, being the victim. Realizing this, and before Dindin could open her mouth, we were informed that provincial administrator Boy Solis was asked to cut short his US trip and rush home to talk to Dindin. Board Member Angel Baniqued is said to have been given the same assignment.

What they have talked about is only known to them. But certainly, those meetings were not intended to massage damaged pride or hurt egos to convince Dindin to go back to her position. She had said loud and clear that her resignation was “irrevocable” and the Urduja House had no choice but to let go.

Dindin was certainly the province’s loss, but Dagupan’s gain.

ENDNOTES: Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez’s directive to police chief Dits Quijardo for an increased police visibility to minimize street crime in Dagupan City is now producing good results. Fewer people are complaining now about snatched celfones, bags or wallets. Alvin issued the directive when he was Acting City Mayor last week. If this is sustained, we might not see any snatcher or pickpocket in the city anymore… On March 3 and 4 -- that’s next week – the Computer Manufacturers, Dealers and Distributors Association of the Philippines (Comddap) will be holding its national convention at the Dagupan City People’s Astrodome. As this happens, a Jobs Fair will also be conducted at the City Library, courtesy of Comddap, Bitstop Computers, trabaho.com and the City Government of Dagupan… Again, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez was the moving force to make this event happen.

QUOTE: Dream is not a revelation. If a dream affords the dreamer some light on himself, it is not the person with closed eyes who makes the discovery but the person with open eyes lucid enough to fit thoughts together. Dream -- a scintillating mirage surrounded by shadows -- is essentially poetry. -- Michel Leiris

Blast fishing

2003-09-30T13:19:00.000+08:00

Blast fishing remains rampant in the Lingayen Gulf. We even heard that even within the Hundred Islands National Park, this illegal and destructive fishing method is taking place and that explosions could be heard by tourists visiting the islands.

As it is, the Lingayen Gulf is already an environmentally-critical area. It has been found to be heavily silted and over-fished and no less than former President Fidel Ramos declared it through an executive order. In fact, the Lingayen Gulf Coastal Area Management Commission, which was primarily tasked to protect the gulf, was even created. LGCAMC, of course, was abolished when ousted President Joseph Estrada assumed office.

We do not understand why dynamite fishing could still happen despite the presence of the Maritime Police, Coast Guard and the Navy along our provincial coastline. Volunteer groups, such as Bantay Dagat, have also been organized and mobilized to help stop blast fishing.

In the past, whenever these water-borne troops were asked why they have not caught any dynamite fisher, their excuse was that these illegal fishers were heavily armed at that they had more superior boats than what our troops used.

I do hope they do not use the same reasons now. If they do, then we cannot continue to hope that this blatant destruction of the sea will ever stop. We will just have to watch helplessly the death of the Lingayen Gulf sooner than expected.

But if we believe we can still do something about it, and I believe we can, then we should now start reassessing our anti-blast fishing campaign. Here, we should not forget to involve our people, especially in coastal communities, to give them a share of responsibility in protecting the sea.

The apprehension by the police in the past few days of “dynamited” fish in different checkpoints in the province would not do much to stop blast fishing if there is no similar effort by the authorities in the open seas.

We hope we start those concerned should start moving now, before it’s too late.

*****

Aside from the Kris-Joey separation, what caught the attention of coffee shop habitués in Dagupan City last week was the launching of the Freedom for Peace and Justice or FPJ in San Carlos City. From the initials alone, it is obvious that the group is the prime mover in launching the presidential bid of action star Fernando Poe Jr.

Among the prominent personalities in the movement were businessman Manny Roy, lawyer Pol Tulagan, former Bugallon Mayor Johnny Jose and other former municipal officials.

Last Sunday, leading newspapers reported that Da King himself is launching his presidential candidacy in the first week of October in San Carlos City, hometown of Da King. This, of course, remains to be seen.

From what we have gathered, people close to Da King, were saying the Da King does not know of the scheduled launching, nor he really intends to run.

Showbiz? Maybe. Or maybe there’s a new action movie that Da King will shoot in San Carlos and those who launched FPJ will be there as extra.

ENDNOTES: The Samahan ng mga Kawani ng Pamahalaang Lungsod ng Dagupan successfully held its induction ceremonies at the Pinkie’s Restaurant last Saturday. Congratulations to Engr. Ogie Ventenilla, president… Last Sunday was Family Day for city government employees. Everybody enjoyed that activity, which was attended by Mayor Benjie Lim and Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez.

QUOTE: “Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.” -- James Bryant Conant

Mark and Tim

2003-09-19T13:18:00.000+08:00

The reported teaming up of fifth district Rep. Mark Cojuangco and Tim Orbos in next year’s gubernatorial race seems to be gaining support from local political leaders in the province. From what we have gathered, a group of incumbent politicians are already pushing for the support of the tandem by beginning to organize in the grassroots to ensure their victory against Gov. Victor Agbayani and Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino, who will also probably team up to defend their bid for their third and final term.

But even with this development, speculations that Mark will not run for governor still persist. Many, especially politicians, are of the opinion that Mark will not run for governor because Victor has already openly declared his support to the presidential bid of Mark’s father, business tycoon Danding Cojuangco. And so did all the mayors in the province.

But then again, this is politics, and as they say, in politics, there are “no permanent friends, only permanent interests.”

Objectively, I believe that Mark and Tim will make a good team because they come from the east and the west. They are also easy to sell to the people, considering that they are both from big political families, who have proven track record in public service. They are both young and self-driven and certainly, they can make things happen for a better Pangasinan.

I have been informed that the Urduja House is unfazed by this political development. An insider told me that Victor believes that he is invincible, that anybody who will dare face him will surely lose, like what happened to his opponents in his past gubernatorial fights. Besides, Victor is now reportedly more prepared to run in an election because he has apparently been able to put up an election arsenal, where he can easily muster “enough cash at any given time” for his last gubernatorial bid.

Then, of course, we were also informed that his PR office, the Provincial Information Office, has already prepared advertorials guaranteed to project Victor’s visions and actions in the last six years and we will be hearing and seeing all these in the next few days in local radio and television.

There is only one problem: news reports have mentioned Victor’s provincial information officer, Ruel Camba, as a “jueteng bagman” and that these jueteng money are regularly distributed to some members of the local media to buy their silence in the unabated proliferation of the illegal numbers game in the province and most likely, to shield the provincial government from negative publicity.

We can only wonder why Kuya Ruel has chosen to be silent about the issue until now.

*****

It is a sweet victory for Nestor Pulido, whose victory as board member in the province’s first district has been affirmed by the Commission on Elections en banc last September 11. He won by only 73 votes.

I am happy for Manong Nestor. Certainly, when he finally sits in the provincial board, he will make a big difference. Manong Nestor and I share many experiences and interests. He is a journalist, just like us and a street parliamentarian detained by Marcos when Martial Law was declared.

Congratulations, Manong.

ENDNOTES: In Windows last Sunday, I inadvertently missed the name of former Board Member Alfonso Bince as among the local prime movers in the presidential bid of former Sen. Raul Roco. I sincerely apologize for it. I hope this will disabuse the minds of those who may have perceived that I have “conveniently and intentionally” deleted his name from among the local political leaders supportive of Roco’s bid.

QUOTE: “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” --Seneca

Dead phones

2003-08-29T13:17:00.000+08:00

Last Tuesday morning, we woke up with a dead phone. Maybe, a passing cargo truck has pulled down our telephone cable again, I thought. This has happened to us many times in the past and I have always told Digitel to install their lines higher than the standard to avoid these accidents.

When I arrived home from the office that same day, I learned that even our neighbors had no dial tones. The next day, I called a friend at the Digitel and found that some 500 other subscribers in Calasiao had dead phones because a 10-meter cable crossing a bridge right at the town center was cut and stolen.

The thieves were daring, I would say. I remember that on that Monday night, floodwaters still submerged low-lying barangays of Calasiao and cars and other vehicles crowded both sides of the bridge. I even saw some people keeping watch over their possessions that night when I passed by. This is why I could not believe that a cable could have been stolen from that area.

I just hope that the incident was a learning experience not only for Digitel but for other utilities serving the province. In the past, transmission lines of the defunct National Power Corporation were pilfered in isolated areas in western Pangasinan, causing power outages in many areas for a while. I think this has remained unabated to date.

These utilities should start installing devices that would secure their lines. What we are trying to avoid here is a situation like what recently happened in New York and contiguous states when electric power went out.

Having a dead phone is bad enough. Learning that it was because of a stolen cable makes us wonder if in the next power failure, the whole of Luzon was plunged into darkness.

*****

I had a short chat with Rep. Gener Tulagan over the weekend. It was an accidental meeting and he was all smiles when he saw me because it has been quite a while that we did not see each other.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, I asked him how he felt about the forthcoming congressional race in his district next year. He just smiled and asked, “What do you think?”

I told him that honestly, he would run unopposed. And that if there are other contenders for the seat, these will just be token candidates, assuring him of a last his term in Congress. And who will dare fight him?

There were two names being floated in the past, maybe to test the waters. The first one was San Carlos City Mayor Julian Resuello, whose supporters were flaunting that he was sure winner. Of course, Mayor Resuello has already backtracked.

The other one was Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino, who had said that he will “cross the bridge when he gets to it.” He was simply saying that his options were open. But from what we have gathered, he has already set his sights on his reelection bid for his last term. Who knows he might just be the next governor of Pangasinan after Gov. Victor Agbayani?

ENDNOTES: Traveling to Manila these days is very inconvenient. This is because the North Luzon Expressway is being widened and some portions of the road have been closed. There is even a very long stretch of two-way traffic on a double lane. What irked us, however, are the big potholes that slow down vehicles, making the trip to Manila an hour longer. Well, we just have to live with the inconvenience for a while.

QUOTE: “One of the things I keep learning is that the secret of being happy is doing things for other people.” -- Dick Gregory

Ninoy

2003-08-22T13:16:00.000+08:00

Twenty years ago yesterday, Ninoy Aquino was shot dead at the tarmac of what was known then as the Manila International Airport. His death, even before he could set foot in his own country, was what we least expected then to happen to him.

But it happened. And as we watched in shock the TV footages of a man in white being loaded into a van on the tarmac, we wondered silently if at all, his death would mean the start of a bloody civil war to oust then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Of course, the rest is history. There was no civil war, but instead, we had a bloodless People Power revolution that eventually forced Marcos to abandon Malacanang. Ninoy’s death has proved to be the single most important event that pushed the whole Filipino nation to rise and demand for political change.

As a student then, we remember that 1983 was the 11th year of Martial Law. (Marcos announced the “lifting” of Martial Law in 1981 but nobody believed him.) It was also the 2nd year of his “New Republic” which was as oppressive as ever. At that time, warrantless arrests were still being done on leaders of student, peasant, professional and labor groups and there were countless cases of so-called “involuntary disappearances” all over the country.

In Pangasinan then, the initial reaction on Ninoy’s death was silent grief. We thought this was but natural, considering that a good number of Marcos’ cabinet members and known loyal political leaders were from this province.

But in a matter of days, Pangasinenses, led by anti-Marcos activists and political figures organized and mobilized a mammoth protest march around the city. Students, professional, labor groups – everybody was there. There were yellow shirts and yellow ribbons and there were even floats depicting the martyrdom of Ninoy.

We all know, of course, that it still took three years after the death of Ninoy before Marcos was finally toppled. Between 1983 and 1986, many freedom loving Pangasinenses still lost their lives in the continuing struggle. Some were even arrested and jailed.

For instance, there was heavy militarization in western Pangasinan at that time. Many farmer leaders were killed in supposed encounters and were later tagged as members of the New People’s Army.

In Dagupan City, seven persons were arrested and after one week of disappearance, the government announced their capture and they were tagged as “high ranking” members of the Communist Party of the Philippines. They were eventually known then as Pangasinan 7.

The seven were my friends. In fact, I still see three of them today. Tia Adeling, who was 54 years old during her arrest, is now into a small sari-sari store business in Barangay Pugaro. She would come to my office every now and then. The other one is JV, who is now employed at the city hall. Then, of course, I still see Mike, who is into agricultural supply business and bonsai growing.

There were also two other friends who were “desaparecidos.” Vic Labasbas was picked up shortly after he emerged out of the Jade Theatre building along AB Fernandez Ave. one afternoon. It was in one room of that building then where the office of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan was located. There was Larry Ines, a student leader of the Luzon Colleges, who was arrested inside a Pantranco bus, while he was on his way home to Bayambang.

Nobody heard of the two since then. Their families did not even see their remains.

We remember these friends as we remember Ninoy because they, too, were part of the whole struggle for freedom. Like Ninoy, they, too, gave their lives. And there are many more nameless and faceless individuals all over the country who fought fiercely against the enemies of freedom.

*****
As we write, we are hearing over the radio that four police chiefs have been relieved by Supt. Mario San Diego for their zero accomplishment in the campaign against illegal drugs. We are also hearing Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino heaping praises on San Diego’s move.

We are apprehensive about this development, especially if San Diego is adopting this as a policy. We agree that kicking the butts of the police to run after drug pushers and users would significantly deny big time drug traffickers of their market and thus, minimize, if not completely eliminate drug abuse in the province.

But what we are worried about is when the police will just collar anybody on the street and “plant” illegal drugs on the poor guy, just for them to have an accomplishment. This policy may also be used by policemen against their personal enemies or the political enemies of their political lords.

While we do not totally disagree to San Diego’s strategy, we suggest that safety valves should be put in place to protect the innocent and punish the real culprits. The strategy should be made to work effectively but not at the expense of innocent people.

There should be harsh punishment against those who will fabricate their accomplishments and those who victimized innocent people.

ENDNOTES: For the past week, Windows temporarily closed because of some pressing commitments. I would like to sincerely thank all those who called me to express their concern. There were simply circumstances beyond my control during the past few days that did not give me the luxury of time to write. Anyway, in the future, I would already know what to do, so that this column will always be here and will not leave our dear readers wondering what happened to us.
QUOTE: Becoming a star may not be in your destiny, but being the best that you can be is a goal you can set for yourselves. -- Bryan Lindsay

The night I almost died

2003-08-12T13:14:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday night, I had the scare of my life. While driving from Manila on the stretch of the national highway in Barangay Bacag in Villasis town, the owner-type jeep I was following sideswiped a tricycle on the left side of the road after the tricycle attempted to overtake a vehicle in front of it.

On impact, the tricycle tumbled and rolled. Seeing the collision and hearing the crashing sound of steel, I instinctively swerved to the road shoulder and reduced my speed. But in the process, the tumbling tricycle still hit my van, just behind the driver’s seat and crushed its sliding glass windows.

I was shaking when I realized we were hit and I could only think of my two boys, who had hitchhiked for a sight-seeing trip to Manila. But as it turned out, both of them were alright.

I thought I was even seeing things as I tried to evade the collision. What appeared in front of me was a flying tire, probably the spare tire of the owner-type jeep, and I had braced myself for its impact on the van’s windshield. Fortunately, it hit the ground quickly, just a few inches away from us.

At the Villasis Police Station later that night, I learned that the owner-type jeep I was following lost control on impact and crashed into a bus following the tricycle. The jeep driver and his baby son, died. The tricycle driver died, too.

I have not actually recovered yet from that frightening experience. Everytime it comes to mind, I shudder. And I can only thank God that we were spared.

*****

On our way home from the grocery store one weekend, I was surprised to hear my three-year-old daughter singing what sounded like a Chinese song.

I knew she understood not even one word of what she was singing but she was enjoying it anyway and she was singing it with feeling.

It was then that I learned that she has been watching a Taiwanese soap opera, which to my surprise, has been aired on television for many months now. I also found out that even her older siblings have been “addicted” to that show that they have never missed a single episode of it.

As a child, I watched cartoons and Batibot, an educational TV show that eventually stopped airing for lack of funding. There was also Sesame Street, but the Tagalog-speaking puppets appealed to me more than Big Bird and Ernie.

For a while, I thought my younger children were hooked on Barney and my teenagers, on MTV. Now, they have all seemed to have “graduated” from these shows and prefer instead to watch these Taiwanese soap operas, just like everybody else in the whole country.

Maybe, it is the soundtrack of these shows. Or maybe, the story. I remember that in the mid-1970’s, a Japanese cartoon, Voltes V, was a big hit that then President Marcos had to prohibit its airing apparently because the show had adverse influence on children.

The cartoon’s Japanese soundtrack, however, eventually became a big hit, making it as No. 1 song for many weeks in the American Top 40 charts at that time.

Perhaps, there is really something in us Filipinos that easily makes us attracted to foreign soap operas, cartoons and movies. (Remember Marimar? It was a Mexican tele-novela that everyone loved to watch.)

But whatever this something is, I do not know. Maybe, it is an effect of our 300 years of Spanish domination. Or a product of American influence on our country.

Honestly, I really do not know.

ENDNOTES:
QUOTE: "If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced."-- Vincent Van Gogh

Nature’s wrath

2003-08-08T13:13:00.000+08:00

As we write this column, it has been raining for three straight days in Pangasinan and several residents from low-lying areas in the province have already complained of flash floods.

In nearby Calasiao town, for instance, a river has already overflowed and submerged parts of barangays Lasip and Talibaew.

Frankly, we are no longer surprised by these reports and we should not blame nature for unleashing its wrath on us. We only have ourselves to blame.

Consider this: There is not much left of our forest covers, especially on the mountain ranges surrounding Pangasinan, and illegal and legal logging operations continue to denude our remaining forests. As a result, our river systems, our first line of defense from floods, are now heavily silted because of soil erosion. Add to this the tailings from the open pit mines in the Cordilleras.

In town and urban centers, the natural channels of floodwaters have been closed or blocked, intentionally or unintentionally, as commercial buildings and subdivisions are built. And as more houses rise in a locality due to increasing population, the water outlets vanish.

Our best example here would be Urdaneta City. This year, it experienced the worst flood ever. Everybody was surprised that the floodwaters rose rapidly, not giving enough time to many residents to leave their homes and evacuate. Is this the price of development?

What scares us is that the national government is very much aware of this problem. Yet, it does little or nothing at all to solve this. Or has the problem come to a point where it is already irreversible? In Metro Manila, for instance, no matter how the authorities have cleared the esteros and waterways of garbage and squatters, the flooding problem is still the same.

The effort to prevent the flooding in Pangasinan from getting worse is a serious problem that needs a more intensive planning. It is not just tree planting now. Or dredging. Or building of more dikes.

It should be a community working closely together, fully aware that it has to fight for its survival.

*****

The swift and decisive action of Calasiao Mayor Roy Macanlalay to close down all eateries fronting the Calasiao Comprehensive National High School saved thousands of students from the dreaded typhoid fever. He has proved to be a good crisis manager.

There are now more than 40 students downed by the disease, which was initially thought of to be dengue fever, when it first manifested last week. This was the reason CCNHS principal Lourdes Servito immediately ordered all students to wear long pants to avoid being bitten by dengue mosquitoes.

But after the school premises were fumigated, it was found that an eatery outside the school has been serving contaminated drinking water.

I am sure that this incident has become a valuable learning experience for the municipal government of Calasiao, especially in liberally allowing food vendors to sell their products without the necessary clearance from the Bureau of Food and Drugs or from the local Municipal Health Office.

Knowing Mayor Roy, I am sure that he has tasked the MHO to draw up guidelines that would govern small kakanin and palamig vendors in selling their products to ensure the safety of consumers, especially students.

Mayor Roy should also include an accreditation process for all vendors and a regular seminar on food handling. It is very important for the municipal government to know who are selling just as it is important for these vendors to be educated on food handling.

ENDNOTES: Urdaneta City, under the leadership of Mayor Amadito Perez, recently placed 2nd in the League of Cities of the Philippines’ 2nd Best Practices Award for its “Tulungan sa Purok” Program, a pro-poor project of the city government. Dagupan City was 7th in the same competition for its “Bangus Festival”…
QUOTE: My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. -- Maya Angelou

Earning a degree without really finishing college

2003-08-03T13:12:00.001+08:00

Barely three and a half months as director of the Region 1 Medical Center, Dr. Jess Canto has already done so much to improve the services of that government hospital.

True to what he had been all along telling us before his assumption, Dr. Canto transformed the R1MC into a people-friendly hospital, in glaring contrast to what it was before, when hospital personnel did not seem to have any sense of urgency and concern to sick people being brought there for treatment.

To describe the hospital’s patients then, our favorite line came from the song Mona Lisa: “they just lie there, and they die there.”

Yesterday, when we went to the hospital to see a friend, I was surprised to see a medical complex that now exudes a different aura. Every medical worker seemed to be on the move and you can feel a friendlier atmosphere than it was last year.

What surprised me more was when I saw Dr. Canto himself posing as a patient in that early morning, for him to personally see if his personnel were polite in receiving patients. (It must have been only about 7 a.m.) He was also there to find out if the “fast lane” he has established for senior citizens is serving its purpose.

My friend told me that Dr. Canto actually makes his presence very much felt in the hospital, making everyone up and about. And for having restored the hazard pay for all hospital workers, he continues to inspire everyone.

I remember him telling me during one of the early morning talks we had at Dagupeña that given the chance to head the R1MC, he will give himself totally to it, just to give the people the best medical service that they deserve.

“You know, with all the blessings that God has given me, it’s now time for me to pay Him back by unselfishly helping the less fortunate among our people,” Dr. Canto said.

*****

I have been privileged to be part of what looked liked a press conference to announce that the University of Pangasinan is conferring a Mass Communication degree to Danny Maramba, without really finishing college, but on the basis of his experience as media practitioner.

We were there – veteran journalists Jun Velasco and Ding Micua -- as assessors and members of the panel of the Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (Eteeap), an educational assessment scheme embodied in Executive Order No. 330 of then President Fidel Ramos on May 13, 1996.

Honestly, I have not heard of that program until I was invited last year to sit as a “faculty expert” in the panel at UPang, which is among the higher education institutions in the country deputized by the Commission on Higher Education as Center of Excellence and is, therefore, authorized to implement the Eteeap.

On that appointed day, the three of us, along with Mass Comm faculty member Anabelle Sim and UPang Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Ofelia Rayos, convened at the Graduate School conference room to be face-to-face with Danny. We would learn later that it was the first time that a media practitioner was being assessed under the Eteeap, although Dr. Rayos said that the program has produced several nurses and other professionals in other fields.

It was the first time I met Danny. Manong Ding, however, seemed to know him very well and was very familiar with Danny’s work, as both of them were under the defunct Department of Public Information, although they did not really work together under one office. Manong Jun, who came in later with Sunday Punch editor Gerry Garcia in tow, had nothing but praises for Danny, who was his buddy when they were both young reporters.

Danny, of course, is a full-blooded Dagupeño.

With Danny’s vast and rich experience in media and public relations work, I could not agree less with the others in the panel that he should be conferred the degree, without any other additional academic requirements, such as taking up additional subjects or doing a paper. To me, Danny’s achievements are exceptional that not even a Ph.D. graduate in his field could have equaled his feat.

Congratulations, Danny.

ENDNOTES: On Tuesday, Sophos, the largest computer anti-virus vendor in Europe, will announce the appointment of Bitstop Computers as its partner in Northern Luzon during a press conference at Baguio Country Club in Baguio City. Bitstop president Wilson Chua, Pangasinan’s pioneer in computer technology, proudly shared to us this development.

QUOTE: Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Swift justice

2003-08-01T13:10:00.000+08:00

Last Tuesday morning, I received an e-mail from a friend entitled, “Liham kay Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV.” Trillanes, as you all know, was one of the leaders of the failed military rebellion in Makati last Sunday.

The letter, written in Filipino and circulated in the e-mail a day after the failed coup, used a language of a colegiala. But on the whole, it was an expression of disgust on the futility of introducing meaningful reforms in the government.

Here is an excerpt from the letter:

”Mahal kong Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV,
“Magandang umaga. Nawa'y maigi ang iyong kalagayan d'yan sa stockade. Magpahinga ka muna bago ka humarap sa court martial. Hindi bale nang litisin ka, nakapag-stay sa naman sa Oakwood, samantalang kami, pinaasa mong walang pasok ngayon. KJ ka talaga.”Sinulat ko ang liham na ito para puriin ka sa iyong kagitingan na ipaalam sa buong sambayanang Pilipino ang kabulukang nangyayari sa ating gobyerno. Mabuhay ka.”Ang problema nga lang, alam na namin lahat iyon, Kapitan Trillanes.”Hindi na ninyo kailangan pang magtanim ng bomba at magpapogi sa inyong mga fatigues para lang ipaalam sa buong madla na may mga katiwalian sa gobyerno.”Hindi tuloy ako nakapanood ng Terminator 3, eh, malapit nang mawala sa sine 'yon. Okay sana kung nagbakbakan kayo ng mga sundalo ng gobyerno. Mala-The Rock saka Die Hard sana ang nangyari. Kaso, nagsisisigaw lamang kayo sa lobby ng Oakwood. Para ano pa ang inyong mga armband?”Sabagay pwede na kayong magtayo ng boutique na ang brand name ay Magdalo. Pwede kayong magtinda ng mga armbands, fatigue-inspired pants, caps at shades. Ipwesto nyo dyan sa Oakwood para strategic ang location at may sentimental value pa. Bebenta kayo, promise.”Sa launch ng inyong boutique, pwede kayong maglagay ng mga bomba sa parking lot tapos magpaparty kayo doon. Masaya di ba?”
*****

To date, five persons have been found to be victims of “salvaging” or summary execution in the city. Based on police files, these persons are supposed to be drug pushers, thieves, snatchers and “perpetrators of other crimes.”

Who could have done these killings? Is there a vigilante group in Dagupan City? These are the questions that everybody, including the police, wants to be answered.

Nobody has so far owned the killings. From what we have seen in the past, if a vigilante group did it, they would immediately issue a press statement or they will leave a “signature” on their victims. The same is true with the New People’s Army.

I just hope that this situation does not go out of hand. Supt. Noli Talino should get to the bottom of this to stop these killings. We should not condone people who are putting the law in their hands. Even is the victims are criminals and we want swift justice, killing them does not justify it.

What we are afraid of, really, is when this unknown liquidation squad grows into a monster and begins executing even innocent people.

ENDNOTES: Two weeks after typhoon Harurot dumped heavy rains in Dagupan City and flooded its low-lying areas, floodwaters have not left a stretch of the road in Barangay Tapuac, to the inconvenience of students, employees and everyday commuters. What’s wrong here? … Local Government Secretary Joey Lina was in Lingayen last Wednesday to induct into office barangays tanods from all over the province. Let’s see how he can convert it into votes when he runs for senator next year.

QUOTE: To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

The failed putsch

2003-07-29T13:09:00.000+08:00

the failed military rebellion in Makati last Sunday was an event waiting to happen. Corruption in the military (and even in the police) organization is public knowledge and the demoralization of young officers and enlisted personnel in these organizations is also widely felt. That these wrong doing had to be confirmed by the young and idealistic military officers by staging a rebellion is very unfortunate.

The organizers of the failed putsch knew all along that what they did was bound to fail. Perhaps, they did not really aim to topple the present administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. What they really wanted to do was simply to shout to the whole world that there was something very wrong in the military organization where they all belong. And they did. Successfully.

Why they aired their grievances that way is a question only they can answer. As somebody had suggested during the standoff, these young military officers could have just gone to the media or to their immediate superiors to air their grievances.

But maybe these young officers also knew that if they complain the conventional way their grievances will just fall on deaf ears and will simply be dismissed as fabricated charges. Worse, they could even be charged of politicking.

By staging the rebellion, everybody was all ears to everything they had to say. At the end of the crisis Sunday night, the government had committed to look into all the issues the young officers had raised.

Let us hope that the government will honor its commitment to these young military officers and not just belittle what they have aired. There has to be results and reforms. And fast. The people can no longer be left waiting in the cold until another rebellion will take place in the near future with the same issues.

*****

While waiting for my wife and the kids at the atrium of CSI The City Mall last Sunday afternoon, I chanced upon former Binmaley Mayor Joe Fabia, who was also president of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation after his brief mayoralty stint.

Over a cup of brewed coffee, I learned that he now heads a consultancy firm doing studies and strategic plans for various government, non-government and private organizations and agencies in the country.

I do not really know Mayor Fabia that much. I first met him when I was a correspondent of a national daily and I remember that one running story I wrote was his denunciation of a treasure-hunting in his town being done by police officers. I was castigated in a press conference by the provincial police director at that time for my stories.

Anyway, my impression about Mayor Fabia has not changed a bit. I still see him as a straight and righteous man, who will have no qualms about giving his all, just to be able to serve the people. This is the reason why he is well-loved in his hometown and people would always look back to his administration, as the best so far.

He was candid enough in telling me that he has no plans to join Binmaley politics next year. Mayor Lan Domalanta is now in his last term and the emerging mayoralty contenders are incumbent Vice Mayor Jose Carrera Jr. and my friend, Sammy Rosario. I can almost see an exciting electoral fight if Mayor Fabia joins the fray.

And if he becomes mayor again, I can almost see Binmaley as the fastest growing town in the province.

ENDNOTES: Last Sunday, DZRH-Dagupan finally moved to its new studio in Galvan St. as scheduled. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, who was supposed to be the guest, understandably did not make it to the planned celebration, which was cancelled last-minute by DZRH-Dagupan manager Nolan Sison due to the crisis at the Ayala Center in Makati. With its new location, DZRH-Dagupan is now more accessible to the public than where it was in the past 12 months.

QUOTE: When one door closes, another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which have opened for us. – Alexander Graham Bell

Reward and punishment system

2003-07-27T13:08:00.000+08:00

Only into his second day as Acting City Mayor last Tuesday, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez suddenly finds himself worrying for the city as typhoon Harurot sped across Northern Luzon and made its destructive presence felt all over Dagupan City.

It was the first time for him to experience a calamity while at the helm of the city government and he wanted to make sure that Dagupeños would also feel the city government’s presence, especially when they have no one else to turn to.

As a hands-on manager, Alvin personally talked to Bonuan-based local weathermen and directed his Sangguniang Panlungsod staff to closely monitor the typhoon’s movements in the Internet and provide him regular updates.

By Tuesday afternoon, Alvin was already presiding over the meeting of the City Disaster Coordinating Council, effectively marshaling the city government’s resources in preparation for any eventuality.

When the expected floodwaters came to the low-lying barangays of the city, the city government’s response was almost automatic as everything was already in place.

When the floodwaters finally receded last Friday, Alvin was all smiles, realizing that all his efforts were not wasted.

*****

Nowadays, whenever a police chief is relieved from his post, it may be because of any of the following: (a) the police chief has been there for two years, (b) he has to undergo training or schooling to qualify for promotion, (c) he was not able to stop jueteng in his area of jurisdiction, (d) he had zero accomplishment in the anti-illegal drugs campaign, or (e) all of the above.

But whatever reasons there may be, the people no longer care to know. What people are interested in these days is whether they are safe where they are; whether they are assured of police protection when the need arises.

After all, no police chief has ever been dismissed or even just suspended for failing to keep peace and order in his or her area of jurisdiction. Some of them even get promoted, sinipa pataas, so to speak. Others are just put on “floating status” until such time that the people (or their superiors) have forgotten their misdeeds.

I remember that in the recent past, the Philippine National Police national leadership warned police chiefs in Luzon that those who will not be able to stop jueteng will be “thrown” to Mindanao. And there were a few from Pangasinan who were actually sacked and deployed there. But after a couple of years, they came back with higher ranks, as if nothing happened.

There was also a time when a provincial police director, in his effort to stop jueteng, announced that towns where jueteng still persists would be posted on the provincial command’s bulletin board and the police chief of that town will be given demerits. In the beginning it was working, making one feel that jueteng days in the province were numbered. But then again, no one was punished.

This is when I began to ask, “Is there any punishment and reward system in the police?” I later found out that this same question has long been lingering in the minds of the ordinary citizens.

Now, I am hearing that police chiefs with zero accomplishment in the campaign against illegal drugs will be relieved. In fact, some of them have already been relieved and assigned somewhere else.

I hope that this time, this is for real. Maybe, relieving a police chief from his or her post for failing to minimize if not stop trafficking of illegal drugs in his or her area may not be enough. How about filing an administrative case against them at the same time?

ENDNOTES: Today, DZRH-Dagupan moves to its new studio at Galvan St. as it celebrates its first year anniversary. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and Presidential Adviser of Media Affairs Dodie Limcaoco will grace the today’s occasion. For one year, DZRH-Dagupan broadcast from its transmitter room in Barangay Lucao. Congratulations to its station manager, Mr. Nolan Sison, and its hardworking staff.

QUOTE: I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail. – Woodrow Wilson

Damning the dams for the flood

2003-07-25T13:07:00.000+08:00

Despite the pounding of strong winds and heavy rains stirred by typhoon Harurot in Pangasinan last Tuesday, the “listening tour” of business tycoon and prospective presidential wannabe Danding Cojuangco in Urdaneta City was well attended by various political leaders of the province.

Except for first district Rep. Arthur Celeste and Speaker Jose de Venecia, who was reportedly in Indonesia for a speaking engagement at that time, all of the province’s congressmen were there. Gov. Victor Agbayani, Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino, provincial board members and almost all of the mayors in the province were there, too.

The Urdaneta Cultural Center, where the miting-de-avance-like consultation took place, was bursting to the seams as delegation after delegation walked in to give Boss Danding a warm welcome. As journalist-friend Eva Visperas wrote in the Philippine Star, Boss Danding took Pangasinan by storm.

With the province’s political leaders’ presence in that consultation and the outpouring of their all-out support to Boss Danding’s presidential bid, no one from among Boss Danding’s prospective opponents in next year’s presidential race will have any chance in Pangasinan anymore. Not even Ping Lacson, who is “Manugang na Pangasinan” or FPJ, who is from Barangay Caoayan Kiling in San Carlos City.

But, what is interesting to see is when GMA finally changes her mind and decides to run. Well, this is just a passing thought.

*****

As of this writing, typhoon Harurot is already unleashing its fury in southern China after leaving at least six persons dead and destroying crops and properties in several towns and cities in the country, Pangasinan included.

But just when everybody thought that the typhoon is gone and that the skies have cleared, rampaging floodwaters submerged Dagupan City and nearby towns and surprised everyone.

As usual, everybody is asking, “Why?” or “Where did the water come from?”

In the past, it was convenient to blame the defunct National Power Corp., which operates the Ambuklao and Binga hydroelectric dams in Benguet province. Everytime the NPC announces then that it has opened the spillway gates of these dams, flooding in central Pangasinan is almost automatic in just a matter of hours.

But with the construction of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam in San Manuel town, it is no longer easy to blame the dams for the floods. (By the way, with the signing into law of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the NPC has been abolished and new organizations, such as the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. and the National Transmission Corp., have been created. I am not sure what agency is in-charge of the San Roque dam, which is an independent power producer.)

This is because the San Roque dam, which is located downstream, is supposed to serve as a catch-basin for all the excess water released by the two dams upstream. This was what our officials were repeatedly telling us when opposition to the San Roque dam project was gathering strength – that with the San Roque dam, flooding is gone.

Ironically, when the San Roque dam was commissioned last June by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, there was severe flooding in the province that the ceremonies had to be held in Malacanang. That flooding would occur again today.

Over the local airwaves, the nagging question is, “Did San Roque release excess water?”

We cannot expect San Roque dam officials to admit it at this point. Maybe, it is really true that no excess water has been released. Even Gov. Victor Agbayani said that based on reports received by his office, the dam’s water level was still far from the spilling level.

What is interesting to note, however, is that the people are finding it hard to believe what our officials are saying. To them, San Roque dam was built to stop flooding in Pangasinan. But this does not seem so today.

Sadly, the country borrowed US$1.1 billion for that dam. And the people, instead of benefiting from it, suddenly find themselves as victims.

ENDNOTES: On Sunday, July 27, a dear friend, Josie Tamondong, who is now based in the US, will celebrate her birthday. She wrote, “I will be 60, Ging. I feel I have covered the different phases of my life - the high and the low, I have tried. I soared then plummeted, but then I got up and have remained steady, just hanging on to dear life and now, a new love.”

QUOTE: Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. -- Michael Jordan

A friendly advice to Decorp

2003-07-22T13:06:00.000+08:00

But for Archbishop Oscar Cruz, nobody seems to give a damn anymore about the operation of the illegal numbers game jueteng, which remains to be very much alive and kicking in Pangasinan. Even those who were traditionally noisy against it in the past cannot be heard anymore. Has everybody given up the fight and conceded that jueteng cannot be eradicated in this lifetime?

Really, there is a deafening silence. We still have to hear a mayor announce his or her initiative to stop it. And we still have to hear the police taking bolder steps to run after jueteng lords.

What continues to amaze us, especially in the province, is that the police have not changed its dialogue everytime it is confronted with this issue. You will hear the same lines: “It’s a guerilla- type operation; draws are held inside moving vans or in provincial tri-boundaries; we don’t have enough personnel; the people are patronizing it,” etcetera, etcetera.

As we have always pointed out in the past, if jueteng thrives in a community, it because local government officials allow it. Some of these officials have even publicly admitted that their shares from jueteng go to their social obligations, also known as KBL – kasal, binyag, libing.

Well… The Archbishop was very correct in describing jueteng as a “corrupt and corrupting illegal activity. “It is a slimy syndicate whose ‘god’ is money, whose real name is ‘corruption,’ whose mere strength is the apathy of millions of people of goodwill.”

Amen.

*****

About two Mondays ago, officials of the Dagupan Electric Corporation were invited to the Sangguniang Panlungsod session hall to shed light on the frequent brownouts that the city experienced last June.

Through a Power Point presentation, Engr. Augusto Sarmiento, Decorp operations manager, patiently enumerated the situations when Decorp has to cut off power or has to “isolate an area.” These situations include natural calamities, such as floods, typhoons, etc. Sarmiento said that by cutting off power in affected areas, accidents are avoided and consumers are protected.

Somebody later asked him why is it that during power failures, Decorp telephone lines are difficult to contact. I even thought at that time that these phones are deliberately left unanswered or hung up for Decorp personnel to avoid angry and complaining callers during these situations.

Sarmiento explained that they have personnel to answer those phone calls. Callers get busy tones because other callers may already be talking to their personnel or they have dialed at the same time with other consumers. Decorp has about 59,000 households as clients in Dagupan City, Calasiao, San Fabian, and other towns.

“If a hundred of these clients dial at the same time, it will really be difficult for them to get through,” Sarmiento said.

Just an unsolicited but friendly advice: With the advancement in communication technology, Decorp should now consider establishing text messaging lines, so that the public may be able to easily report to them not only the outages in their respective areas, but also potential dangers, such as dangling live wires, collapsed electric posts, etc.

Aside from this, Decorp should also consider installing an incoming call cueing system and friendly voice recordings in their telephones that would inform a caller that a customer representative would attend to him or her soon. This way, customers would know that the lines are open and would not have to speculate anymore.

Finally, it would also help Decorp if everytime there is an outage, scheduled or unscheduled and even on a very limited scale, one of their personnel would call every radio station in the city to explain on-air what happened and announce regular updates afterwards. This way you will have a wider reach and maybe, just maybe, you will also be able to substantially reduce the number of angry and complaining callers to your office.

ENDNOTES: Congratulations to the Lyceum Northwestern University for being an awardee of the Consumers Union of the Philippines. LNU president Gonz Duque was in South Korea when the award was given… Belated happy birthday to Mr. Roland Hidalgo, hard-hitting commentator of DWPR Aksyon Radyo. Mr. Hidalgo celebrated his birthday last Saturday.

QUOTE: Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed. -- Buddha

Butch’s new job

2003-07-20T13:05:00.000+08:00

Next week, Boss Danding will be in Urdaneta City. The week after, Ping Lacson will be in Dagupan City. Next month, FPJ will be in San Carlos City.

I will not be surprised if by now, Raul Roco, Gringo Honasan and other presidentiables, are also already scheduled to be in Pangasinan in the next few weeks. After all, we comprise 60 percent of Ilocos Region’s voting population.

This is not the first time Boss Danding will be here. If he has frequented the province in the past it is of course because he considers Pangasinan his home province. His son, Mark, is the province’s fifth district representative to the House and he owns a cement plant in Sison town..

Ping Lacson, on the other hand, is a Pangasinense by affinity. His wife, Alice De Perio, is from Bolinao town. Isn’t it that his campaign line in the 2001 senatorial election was his declaration that he “Manugang na Pangasinan”?

Then, of course, everybody now knows that Da King is from San Carlos City, and he has proudly proclaimed this when he was guest during the coronation night of the city fiesta in 2000. There are now talks that FPJ will be celebrating his birthday in that city on Aug. 22, when he is also supposed to launch his presidential bid.

Exciting, isn’t it?

*****

The city government’s Public Order and Safety Office has assumed last week an additional task: to run after litterbugs. This job used to be with the Market Division of the City Treasurer’s Office. But the group became infamous and controversial when complaints mounted against them, especially during those times when they had to be ruthless in confiscating items being sold in illegal stalls and by ambulant vendors in the downtown area.

Butch Gutierrez, POSO traffic supervisor and now head of this anti-littering group, says that he has already conducted a series of meetings with the 11 members of the group. Tomorrow, they will have an information dissemination campaign in the public market to familiarize market goers and vendors with the different environmental ordinances of the city, before they will start apprehending violators.

This is quite a tall order for Butch and we can only wish him good luck.

Let me just share some observations and insights in the implementation of campaigns like these. The most difficult stage is usually in educating the people about the ordinance. There is always that tendency to look at the campaign as a ningas cogon no matter how sincerely you are enforcing it.

Then, of course, there is also that notion among the people that when they are apprehended, they can run away from it anyway because they can easily find a ninong somewhere to bail them out.

Simply put, campaigns like these involve changing people’s attitude, which cannot be done overnight. There is therefore a tremendous amount of patience and consistency that is needed here.

But with what the POSO has shown in successfully enforcing the city’s comprehensive traffic ordinance, especially in its “no-mercy, no-friend” attitude for traffic violators, there should not be any reason at all why Butch cannot also succeed in the anti-littering campaign.

*****

Dagupan City police chief, Supt. Noli Taliño, has reported that his campaign against illegal drugs continues to gain ground. From January to July this year, 50 persons have been arrested and some 128.03 grams of shabu worth P153,636 have been seized.

With President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s order for a more vigorous campaign against illegal drugs in the country, I will not be surprised if one day, Noli calls for a press conference to announce that a shabu laboratory has been discovered in Dagupan City.

The street level trafficking of shabu in the city may not be that extensive yet, largely and maybe because illegal drug pushers know that the city is under Noli and his men’s watchful eyes. But who knows if in one room in one of the structures in the city’s downtown and residential areas, somebody is manufacturing shabu?

Often, it is in least expected places where these illegal activities thrive. Remember the country’s biggest shabu bust two years ago? Who would have imagined that a shabu shipment worth almost P1 billion would land in the pristine beaches of Infanta town?

ENDNOTES: The Pederasyon ng Sangguniang Kabataan of Dagupan City will hold “Jog and Walk For A Cause Laban Sa Droga” on July 26 at 7 a.m. The assembly point will be at the city plaza… The Department of Foreign Affairs regional consular office will be at the Dagupan City People’s Astrodome on July 26 & 27 as part of its mobile passport program. Passport applications will be processed on the first day and released the next day.

QUOTE: Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong. -- Ella Fitzgerald

Putting a good man down

2003-07-18T13:03:00.000+08:00

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

It feels good to be back here again

2003-07-15T13:01:00.000+08:00

FINALLY, I MADE it to this page. I am supposed to have started this column about three months ago, when Sun.Star editor Fred Macaraeg suggested during one of my rare visits to his office that I resume my column. But I procrastinated, for some personal and official concerns.

Like many of my media colleagues now know, I went into a self-imposed journalistic inactivity shortly after the 2001 elections for reasons I would rather keep to myself. I was then correspondent of The Manila Times and one morning, I simply felt I did not have the drive to write anymore. I decided to concentrate my energy in my job then as Information Officer of Mayor Benjie Lim.

In fact, I did not want to be identified as a mediaman for some time, until I realized the futility of it all because one cannot really run away from a profession that he has been associated with for a long time.

I said I am resuming this column because this has been here in 1997, when then Sun. Star editor Abe Belena prodded me to write one; and then again in 1999, during my short stint as managing editor of this paper.

And let me say at the outset that I have no agenda in coming back. I do not intend to promote or to hit a specific person or group. I do not also intend to run for any elective position next year. That is farthest in my mind. This is just journalism: to inform our people and to provide them with objective analyses of day-to-day issues confronting the city and the province.

It feels good to be back here again.

*****

I had a short conversation with Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino about two weeks ago at his residence in Malasiqui town. Manong Oca was quick in saying that he will “ cross the bridge when he gets to it,” when asked if, as reported, he is really running in the 2004 elections against incumbent Rep. Gener Tulagan, who is seeking his third term.

Manong Oca was all smiles as I interviewed him, feeling flattered, perhaps, that he was being considered for the position and at the same time wondering who floated his name.

He was absolutely right in his observation that if he seeks reelection (also for his third term), it is already “in the bag.” This is because at the moment, there are no serious contenders yet in the vice gubernatorial race and Manong Oca may just be running unopposed like he did when he sought his second term. And even if somebody decides to run against him in the vice gubernatorial race, he will surely end up run away winner, considering his track record as three-term Malasiqui mayor and incumbent presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

No doubt, Manong Oca will also make a good congressman in the third district and he will give Manong Gener a good fight.

But in fairness to Manong Gener, if there is a strong clamor that he seeks reelection, it is because he continues to enjoy the confidence of his constituents in the district because of his accomplishments, especially in infrastructure, during the last six years.

It was he who built the Malasiqui-Bayambang road, which for many years was called an “abortion road” because of the large potholes that littered the whole stretch of the roadline. He also built the Malasiqui-Villasis road, the San Carlos-Urbiztondo road and many other major roadlines and bridges in his district.

These projects literary and figuratively united all six third district towns by providing them easier and more convenient accessibility to one another. Aside from the travel comfort that everybody in the district now experiences, these projects have surely helped immensely in the improvement of the people’s living conditions because they can now easily market their produce, effectively eliminating lost opportunities caused by slower travel time.

Simply put, anybody who wants to slug it out with Manong Gener next year must be able to show that he or she has done better than the Congressman.

*****

ENDNOTES: Congratulations to Councilor Robert Conrad A. Matias, for being the newest member of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan City. Robert replaced his father, Manong Condring, who died last year . . . Yesterday, the SP finally convened at its newly-renovated session hall at the third floor of the city hall after several Mondays of holding their sessions at the SP Secretariat.

QUOTE: Kailangan lamang maging masaya; huwag mo nang itanong kung papaano. -- Anonymous