BOODLE FIGHT, in Army language, but simply lunch or meal taken in an open area or outdoors to civilians. That’s what reservists of the Philippine Navy including Philhealth Regional Manager Ernesto Beltran (foreground, at right, in combat fatigues) are “attacking” during a break in their Disaster Response and Rescue Training held at the University of Pangasinan last week. Dr. Ofelia C. Rayos, University of Pangasinan vice president for academic affairs and dean of the College of Liberal Arts, is lady at left.

THE Department of Health has withheld the identities of 12 doctors listed in a supposed ‘blue book’ taken from two women distributors of counterfeit medicines who were arrested by combined elements of the police and National Bureau of Investigation last Friday.

Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, chief of the Standards and Regulations Division of the Department of Health regional office, said the supposed ‘blue book’ was among those seized from Glenda Verzosa, 30, and Alma Domingo, 28, when they were arrested aboard a tricycle at a road intersection in Calasiao town.

The list included 10 prominent doctors in Pangasinan and two others from Ilocos Sur, one of whom is a local government official there.

These doctors, including a drugstore, the name of which was also withheld, were believed conduits of a big-time syndicate engaged in the manufacture, transport, distribution and sale of counterfeit drugs.

Lawmen however said this is yet to be verified saying that inclusion in a supposed ‘blue book’ does not mean anything, unless substantiated.

Jacinto witnessed the filing of the complaints against the two women suspects last Saturday before the City Prosecutors Office. Verzosa and Domingo could post bail of P60,000 each for their provisional liberty.

Verzosa and Domingo refused to reveal where they obtained the counterfeit drugs found in their possession, all of which were valued at some P600,000.

Some reports however stated that they sourced out the counterfeit medicines from a still unidentified Pakistani national whom they met in a still undisclosed place in Pangasinan.

Jacinto said about 80 percent of the medicines seized form the two women had Arabic wordings that indicated they were smuggled in from an Arab country, possibly Pakistan.

LAWMEN are now on the trail of a big-time syndicate involved in the manufacture, sale and distribution of counterfeit medicines following the arrest of two women suspected as distributors last Friday in an entrapment operation in Calasiao town.

The suspects arrested by agents of the police and the National Bureau of Investigation were identified as Glenda Verzosa, 30, and Alma Domingo, 28, who were charged Saturday before the City Prosecutors Office in Dagupan City for violation of Republic Act No. 8203.

Both women were arrested Friday afternoon, in possession of several boxes of counterfeit medicines, consisting of tablets, capsules and vials of at least 54 assorted medicines, all worth P600,000.

They were recommended to post P60,000 bail each for their provisional liberty.

They could be in further trouble however as among the medicines they had in their possessions were several valium tablets, a prescription medicine and one of the prohibited drugs.

The two were aboard a tricycle parked near a road intersection in barangay Nalsian in Calasiao, waiting for somebody to whom they would pass the counterfeit medicines when they were accosted by elements of the Calasiao police with the help of NBI agents.

Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, chief of the Standard and Regulations Division of the Department of Health, hailed the arrest of the two as they could give further information regarding the manufacture, distribution and sale of counterfeit medicines.

He said an inspection showed that from 80 to 85 percent of the counterfeit medicines seized from the two women had Arabic markings indicating these were smuggled from abroad.

The arrest of the two confirmed previous suspicion that Pangasinan is one of the dumping grounds for counterfeit medicines that are originating in Central Luzon and Metro Manila.

SIX persons have died and 234 others downed by dengue fever in Pangasinan in July alone, according to a report of the provincial office of the Department of Health.

Dr. Jesus Soriano of the DOH said 154 of these were treated at the Region I Medical Center in Dagupan and 80 others at the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital in San Carlos City and various district hospitals all over the province.

Of the six fatalities, five were from Sison, near the La Uniion border, and one in Dagupan City.

The list did not include those admitted to various private hospitals.

A report said that 54 of those downed by dengue came from Binalonan, the first town in Pangasinan to declare a state of calamity which declaration was however vetoed by their municipal mayor, Ramon Guico, Jr., contending that this had no basis and that the threat of dengue in the town was not as grave.

The number of dengue cases is expected to rise further this month of August as the rainy season continues. These will however taper off starting September, healthmen report.
Soriano said fogging operations are now going on in Sison, Binalonan, Malasiqui, Bayambang, Bautista, Lingayen, Calasiao and Dagupan to drive away the aedes Aegypti mosquito that causes dengue.

He admitted however, that fogging operation is not as effective as environmental sanitation in preventing the disease.

Gov. Victor Agbayani has ordered massive fogging operations and enjoined all local officials and school heads to adopt the four o-clock habit by simultaneously cleaning their work places.

Meanwhile, in Dagupan City, only eight cases have so far been recorded from August 1 to 6, the city health office said. Last year, 33 cases were reported in August.

MAPANDAN – More than a month after the vice mayor of this town was shot dead in cold blood, his widow and daughter have yet to receive a report on how far the police investigation of the case has gone.

Mrs. Eden Aquino, widow of slain Mapandan Vice Mayor Adolfo Aquino, said as far as they are concerned, nothing has so far come out of the investigation spearheaded by ‘Task Force Aquino’ personally created by PNP chief and Director General Arturo Lomibao.

Mrs. Aquino and her daughter, Sheila, aired their growing impatience over the slow-pace investigation on the killing of her husband and his driver, Victor Villanueva on July 6 this year.

Mrs. Aquino, a cashier of the Department of Education Region 4 office, belied a press statement purportedly issued by the Rehiyonal Komite, Timog Katagalugan of the New People’s Army dated July 11, 2005 and signed by one Victor Rivero that the vice mayor was executed by elements of the Lucio de Guzman Command in Mindoro.

This was purportedly due to the refusal of the vice mayor to pay his obligation to the people in Mindoro whom he reportedly tapped to work in his alleged treasure hunting activities.

Mrs. Aquino flatly denied that her late husband or their family was involved in any treasure hunting activity, much less in Mindoro.

She said the purported letter of the rebels owning up to the slaying of her husband could be a ploy by certain people to mislead investigators from finding out the true motive for the crime.

The couple’s only daughter, Sheila, 28, said they want to verify a news report of an alleged denial by no less than Communist Party of the Philippines chairman Jose Ma. Sison of the involvement of the NPA aired in one cable television station.

The Aquino mother and daughter noted with dismay that the head of the “Task Force Aquino”, Police Deputy Provincial Director Edgar Basbas, has now been named as new chief of police of Dagupan City effective last Monday. (PNA)

By SHEILA HORTALEZA-AQUINO

THE Dagupan City Police Station (DCPS) has a brand new police chief.

P/Supt. Edgar Basbas was named to replace Police Supt. Noli Taliño during a formal turnover of command held August 9 at the police station

City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim and Pangasinan Police Provincial Director Alan Purisima led the program, each expressing support to the new police chief.

Taliño, who was officer-in-charge of the DCPS for only 34 days, will be taking over as chief of the intelligence and investigation branch of the Police Provincial Office.

“The great challenge is for the police to earn the respect of the community and eventually, receive their support in the campaign for peace and order,” Lim said.

In terms of support from the local government unit, the mayor said more than enough has been given to the city police to make it function effectively.

Lim later bared a plan to transfer the DCPS to a bigger, long unoccupied building fronting the station. He sought the help of Purisima to allocate funds to improve the building and provide equipment, computers, cars, ammunitions and protective gear.

The Philippine National Police is reportedly allocating P2 million to P3 million for the construction of a new building for the DCPS, according to the mayor, which can be channeled instead to providing equipment and facilities for the city police since there is now a ready building for occupancy.

Lim later challenged Basbas to perform his task better while declaring his admiration to men in uniform because they follow order of turnover of posts without any resistance “or the need for impeachment.”

Basbas expressed full awareness of the DCPS being a consistent regional and national awardee of the PNP. He said he will do his best to maintain such achievement.

He called for community cooperation in the fight against criminality.

Purisima later gave a clearer perspective on the turnover of command among police officers. “This is a way to help them improve their careers and experience as police officers so that it will be easier for them to get a promotion,” Purisima said as he called on the city policemen to perform their task well.

HOPING to stem the tide of voluntary closures among stallowners at the Malimgas Public Market who have decried poor sales in their stalls, the city council here has called for more outdoor advertisements as well as radio and television plugs to attract more buyers at the market.

Forty-eight stalls have closed so far, many of these for dry goods located in the second floor of the office where there are noticeably “more sellers than buyers.”

The first floor of the edifice, designated as wet market, is the only one earning yet because it is where the people are buying all their necessities.

The third floor of the market that is designed for car parking is not earning anything.
City Administrator Rafael Baraan argued that stallowners who have closed shops were old market stallholders who were given first priority to move to the new market without any precondition.

He considers many of these as mere speculators who have no plan to do business in the new market, thinking that they can sub-lease their stalls like what they did in the old market.

He is optimistic that business will be a little bit faster in the new market soon with the voluntary departure of the “speculators.”

THE City Health Office conducted a blood letting/blood donation activity among city government employees on August 5 at the City Museum in coordination with the Philippine National Red Cross Dagupan Chapter and the Philippine Association of Medical Technologies, Pangasinan Chapter.

Some 30 bags of blood were collected from volunteers.

“This is in preparation for the full implementation of a voluntary blood donation services project in the 31 barangays in the city called ‘Blood Saves Lives’,” the city health officer said. The participants were given health cards that entitles them priority assistance in case they request for blood donation.

The activity not only augmented and replenished the existing inventory of blood at the Red Cross, but also established a registry of voluntary blood donors among city government employees and a record of their blood type. (Sheila H. Aquino)

PANGASINAN Governor Victor Agbayani hailed the decision of Mirant Philippines to finally settle its tax obligations to the province saying that with the new money collected, the province could now pursue construction of classrooms to ease the schoolbuilding backlog in the province.

Provincial Administrator and concurrent Provincial Legal Officer Virgilio Solis, Jr. said payment of this huge tax obligation amounting to P196,479,023.26 was the culmination of a two-year legal battle between the provincial government and Mirant, one of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the Philippines.

Mirant operates the 1,200 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sual town.
The provincial government went to court when Mirant stopped its payment of real property tax in the second quarter of 2003, contending that it is tax-exempt as the Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant is a build-operate-transfer project to be eventually owned by the National Power Corporation after 25 years.

The amount paid by Mirant, he said, will be shared by the provincial government, the municipality of Sual and barangay Pangascasan where the Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant is located.

Based on Tax Ordinance No. 1, series of 1992 of Pangasinan province, one half of the real property tax collection or P98,239,511 million will go to the Special Education Fund to be divided between the provincial school board of Pangasinan, and the municipal school board of Sual.

The other half of the basic tax will be divided among the province which will get 35 percent or P34,383,829 million, the municipal government of Sual, 40 percent or P39,295,804 million; and barangay Pangascasan, 25 percent or P24,559,877 million.

Solis said that Pangasinan’s share of P34,383,829 million from the basic tax will go to the general fund to be appropriated for projects thru a supplemental budget to be enacted by the provincial board.

ALCALA – A park on the dike.

The engaging eco-tourism prospects of such an idea is now being seriously studied by Vice Mayor Clemente Arboleda, Jr. of this town in his desire to breath life to an otherwise drab earthdike of the Agno river in sitio Patalan, barangay San Pedro Ili here.

Arboleda, who owns several farms in the area, said he has made initial talks with Engr. Fidel Ginez, regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Region 1 and project manager of the Agno Flood Control System for the construction of a public park at the dike.

While Ginez is initially unreceptive to the idea, saying that a dike is “first and foremost a flood control structure,” the DPWH chief supposedly believes some other better practical uses can be made of the earthdike, given enough and thorough studies in cooperation with barangay and town officials.

Arboleda said he is not giving up easily however as he cited the Dipalo river in San Quintin that crosses into a national park The park was declared thru a bill sponsored by then Senator Loren Legarda. The park is now known far and wide and visited by picnickers and various outdoor-lovers who wish to enjoy rustic sceneries while swimming,eating or having fun as a group.

“Such a sprawling area as that earthdike in San Pedro Ili should not be confined to being a road and dike,” Arboleda said. “I really believe in turning the area into a theme park , or even a promenade area , even only in the summer.

Other local officials said people who have visited the earthdike commonly comment on its tourism potential , saying it affords a view all around “that calms the senses and nerves.”