VICE President Noli de Castro (right), who chairs the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), looks over the plans and designs for the province’s resettlement projects in Lingayen with Alvin Bigay (center), chief of the Pangasinan Housing and Urban Development Office (PHUDCO) providing backgrounders during the vice president’s brief stopover at the Urduja House last Thursday. Governor Victor E. Agbayani (third from left, partly hidden) confers with other national housing officials in background. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

“IPAGDASAL natin na walang mangyari sa Pangulo.”

Vice-President Noli de Castro made this comment when asked if he was ready and capable to assume the presidency in case President Macapagal-Arroyo steps down from office or is removed thru constitutional or extra-constitutional means.

De Castro, who visited the province Thursday to lead the inauguration of the provincial housing project in Lingayen, however stressed that he would play his role as successor in any eventuality, as embodied in the Constitution.

He said that when he ran for vice-president, he was well aware that he would be succeeding the President in case something happens to her.

At this time however, he clarified he was not thinking of that even as he urged the people to pray in behalf of Arroyo for her to continue in office and finish her term.

Media comments monitored after the visit appeared to still cast doubts however on De Castro’s leadership qualifications as these generally noted he was used by the administration during the elections because of his popularity and vote-getting prowess, he having been number one senator in his first attempt for the Senate seat.

De Castro, chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), said his office in coordination with non-government organizations and other people’s organizations is making headway in providing homes for squatter families.

By Danny O. Sagun

THE number of tricycle units allowed in Dagupan City is now up at 3,800 from the previous 2,500, courtesy of the city legal office and the sangguniang panlungsod.
City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued said that the sangguniang panlungsod last Monday approved a recommendation by her office to increase the number of tricycle franchises for the city “to once and for all clean our records.”

She said that a study conducted on the matter showed that more than 3,500 units are already plying the city streets today although a previous city ordinance allowed only 2,500 units.

Baniqued noted that some owners maintain more than two units attached to their franchise.

The new measure, she said, is intended to do away with colorum and multiple units under a single franchise even as it will give a chance to operators who bought their tricycles thru installment plans to finally own them.

“We have to balance both sides,” she said referring to the measure regulating the number of units and the livelihood opportunities for the operators.

Told that the measure could only encourage owners to buy more units, she advised would-be buyers to inquire first with City Hall if there are still available franchises.

She bared that by 2007, the city will be enforcing the gradual phaseout or retirement of old and dilapidated units. She admitted that some tricycles plying the city are already unfit as public transportation because these are too dilapidated.

VILLASIS – A truck driver was killed and his two helpers wounded when they were assaulted by four persons who attempted to rob them or hijack their vehicle along the national highway in the village of Bacag here at 5 a.m. last Wedneday.

Police Inspector Brandon Palisoc, newly assumed chief of police of Villasis, identified the fatality as Johnny Espina of Macatling in Sta. Rosa, Laguna who died on the spot from several bullet wounds.

Wounded and still unconscious while being treated in a local hospital were Victor Amodia and Rommel Yago, both helpers, who allegedly fought the attackers and were also shot in different parts of their bodies.

Investigation showed the 10-wheeler truck of the victim was parked along the roadside where they spent the night when a van, allegedly an Isuzu Crosswind, stopped at the back of their vehicle. Three men alighted from the van with drawn handguns and announced a holdup, said Palisoc.

Both Amodia and Yago fought back however prompting the armed men to open fire on them.

Palisoc said it appeared that the suspects were not able to get anything from the victims. They sped away towards the direction of Manila.

He said that based on the bullets fired by the suspects, it is possible that two or more firearms were used in the shooting.

Palisoc and his men chased the suspects till Dau in Mabalacat, Pampanga but their efforts proved futile.

LINGAYEN – Even as dengue cases are still rising, gastro enteritis struck in Pangasinan, downing 236 people in San Jacinto alone as of the second week of August.

This was disclosed by Dr. Clarita Sabido, Medical Specialist III and chief of the Technical Services of the Provincial Health Office, who said most of the victims of gastroenteritis in San Jacinto were students, pupils and children. The number of cases listed was based on the number of patients registered in the town since May this year, Sabido clarified.

Municipal health officials however said there was no cause for alarm as only mild cases of gastroenteritis were noted in the town and those afflicted did not need hospitalization anymore.

Sabido said her office sent health teams to San Jacinto to conduct health education campaign among the people, especially food handlers, who may be serving contaminated food to their customers.

A report indicated that some, if not most, of those afflicted with gastroenteritis may have contracted the disease by eating contaminated food and water peddled by food shops inside and or outside schools.

Last year, gastroenteritis peaked in the province. Some 9,000 cases were recorded, at least 464 of these confirmed to be cholera.

On dengue fever cases, the PHO reported that there were 240 cases already recorded, at least 181 of which were confirmed to be dengue. Fifty-nine others were listed as suspected dengue cases.

Three persons were reported by the PHO to have died from dengue although separate reports by the Department of Health already listed seven deaths.

Sabido released statistics showing that most of the victims of dengue were aged 10 to 17 years old but she added that the disease had affected persons of all ages.

Top towns in number of dengue cases are Binalonan, 26; Sison, 15; Laoac, 11; Calasiao, 21; Malasiqui, 10; Mangaldan, 10; Mangaldan, 14; and Agno, 8.

She said, however, it is still too early to consider the situation an outbreak of dengue because the number of cases registered has not surpassed the more than 600 cases listed last year. (PNA)

LINGAYEN – Some 4,000 young athletes from the elementary and high schools in four regions of the country will see action in the 8th Milo Little Olympics for Luzon on Aug. 20, 21, 27 and 28.

Tess Bernardino, Milo sports organizer for Regions I, II, III and the Cordillera Administrative Region, said the opening ceremony for this sporting event was held here Friday with Rep. Amado Espino, Jr. leading the torch lighting along with Department of Education Assistant Secretary Teodoro Catindig and Pat Goc Ong, Milo sports executive.
She said the athletes will go for medals in 11 sporting events, namely athletics, badminton, chess, football, gymnastics, lawn tennis, sepak takraw, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball.

The athletes will come from the Ilocos, Central Luzon, Cagayan Valley and Cordilleras.
All the events will be held at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen except for gymnastics which will be held at the CSI The City Mall in Dagupan City, football at the provincial headquarters of the Philippine National Police, and table tennis either at St. Columban College or at the Pangasinan School of Arts and Trade (PSAT).

Bernardo said the yearly sporting event is a project of Nestle Philippines, Inc., maker of Milo chocolate drink, in cooperation with the province of Pangasinan, the Philippine Olympics Committee, and the Department of Education offices from all participating regions. (PNA)

VICE President Noli De Castro, on a whirlwind visit to Pangasinan Thursday, claimed complete innocence on the raid conducted by lawmen in a subdivision in San Mateo, Rizal where they seized 32 election returns (ERs) and other election paraphernalia last Wednesday.

The room raided by government agents was being rented by Segundo Tabayoyong, a former document analyst of the National Bureau of Investigation, whom former vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda claimed was her primary witness in her election protest filed against de Castro.

Tabayoyong is from Laoac and Manaoag, Pangasinan. He is a nephew of Laoac Mayor Gregorio Tabayoyong who had worked in the NBI since Marcos’ time.

“I don’t know that (raid). I only read that in the newspapers when I was on board a helicopter on my way to Pangasinan,” de Castro told newsmen who interviewed him in Dagupan.

Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) are under fire from opposition leaders for the raid that did not seem to have enough justification.

De Castro also said he was unaware that Tabayoyong is Legarda’s prime witness in her electoral protest against him, telling newsmen here to just ask Legarda for confirmation.”
He said he does not know anything about certificates of canvass (COCs) because as far as he is concerned, he left all these to his lawyers.

In his talk to newsmen after meeting for some 30 minutes with Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese, he said he is not at all bothered by his detractors because even as a former broadcaster, he had too many of these within the industry.

De Castro called on Archbishop Cruz at 2 p.m. last Thursday but he said they did not discuss anything controversial

De Castro explained this was just a normal call on the archbishop as a side trip since he was in the province anyway to distribute certificates of lot entitlement to housing beneficiaries in Bugallon and Lingayen.

Cruz, chairman of the Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng” (Crusade for Jueteng-free Philippines), gained national fame when he spurred the Senate to conduct an investigation on jueteng.

De Castro admitted this was the first time since after the election that he had a talk with the archbishop, pointing out that before the polls, he was only among only two national candidate who signed a covenant supporting the crusade against jueteng.

Asked what they talked about in their more than 30-minute meeting, the vice president said they discussed religion, jueteng, exercise and little politics.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not know of his visit to the archbishop, de Castro explained.

The top-performing Dagupan City National High School Cheering Squad performs a fast and leggy number at the opening of the 8th Milo Little Olympics 2005 at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen. Set to compete with other cheering squads from four regions as the defending champion in the last staging of the sports event, the DCNHS cheerers found no challenger coming up and thus had to just perform an exhibition number, to the delight of the NRSCC audience. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

SAN JACINTO — Residents of barangays Awai and Lobong here are wary and not readily swallowing moves by the city government of Dagupan to project its intention of turning a 30-hectare land the city purchased in hilly Awai into a watershed and reforestation area only.

Four years ago, after Dagupan bought the lot, residents here mounted massive protests on learning that the city planned to develop the area into a big sanitary landfill for its garbage.

The deep resentment and suspicion of the barangayfolk was revived two weeks ago when City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim, accompanied by their mayor, Rodolfo Columbres visited the place to plant tree seedlings preparatory to a massive tree planting by city employees in order to create a watershed and forest park in Awai.

Maria Banda, barangay chief of Lobong, next-door to Awai, said her constituents believe the tree-planting could only be a smokescreen for the ultimate plan to push through with the landfill project in the area to accommodate Dagupan’s overflowing garbage.

Banda cited as basis for their suspicion the fact that barangay officials were brought to San Fernando City, La Union last July 21 to visit the sanitary landfill project there to gently persuade them to give up their opposition to the Dagupan project.

“We were not impressed with what we saw because even before we reached the place, we already smelled the garbage,” she said, adding that their people will never allow Awai to be the dumping ground of garbage from Dagupan.

Explaining why Lobong seems to be very much against it when it is in neighboring Awai where the lot is located, Banda pointed out that garbage coming from Dagupan enroute to Awai will be pasing thru their barangay.

The barangay residents also fear that garbage lecheate from decaying matters might flow to Lobong and pollute their groundwater.

LINGAYEN – Fresh from its successful negotiated settlement of its real property tax case against Mirant Philippines, where it earned a whooping P196 million in arrears and current levies from the multinational company, the provincial government of Pangasinan may just push its luck and resume efforts to go after delinquent telecommunication companies and electric cooperatives doing business in Pangasinan.

A top provincial department official told The Pangasinan Star that with the Mirant tax case out of the way, the long pending legal suit against Digitel, the telecommunications company, would be “followed up” in due time by finance and legal officers of the province.

It was learned that the tax case against Digitel already had a “final” decision a few years back .Just when the provincial government was awaiting execution of the court order however, yet another decision came, leaving the province confused as to which “final resolution” was to be implemented.

“There was apparently a legal maneuver by some influential people upstairs to correct the first final decision,” a Capitol source said.

The Pangasinan Star source also said the province is planning a more positive effort at collecting tax dues from electric cooperatives who have been banking on the exemptions granted by the Cooperatives Law to avoid paying up.

A check with the Cooperatives Development Authority (CDA) has confirmed that these electric cooperatives are not registered as such entities with that office, making their claim at exemption from local taxes “questionable at the very least,” he added.

The provincial legal office is reportedly preparing arguments for a “test case” on the electric cooperatives’ tax exemption claims, the source said.

Meanwhile, Provincial Treasurer Ramon Crisostomo said similar precedent cases in power plants of Mirant in Pagbilao, Quezon and elsewhere, where the plaintiff local governments won their tax appeal cases against the power plant operator, could have prompted Mirant to go the way of a settlement with Pangasinan.

Crisostomo, who was part of the team that pursued the case against Mirant, however said the province itself had to forego with the compounded interests on the tax dues being sought as part of the condition of Mirant to “settle.” Otherwise, he said, the case could have dragged on for more years as Mirant officials were inclined, if their “condition” was not granted, to fight it out in court.

In the end, he said, the provincial team that apprised Governor Victor E. Agbayani, of the options, decided it was in the better interest of the province to accept the settlement terms “so (that) many provincial projects can already move or resume” for the larger benefit of Pangasinenses.

The P196 million received by the provincial government two weeks ago has been duly divided, based on the set percentages of sharing, between the provincial government, the municipal government of Sual and barangay Pangascasan, the host village of the Sual Coal-Fired Power Plant of Mirant.