This flooding of the highway and bridge in Poblacion, Sta Barbara and neighboring barangays but the cause is eerily similar – storm-induced floodwaters that breached two dikes in the town. Tropical storm Labuyo may not have directly hit Pangasinan but the rains it spawned caused rivers around Sta. Barbara to swell and the dikes at Sinocalan to give way. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation agents, acting on a tip, swooped down Thursday on an agricultural store supply in Calasiao town and seized 335 bags of ammonium nitrate, several pieces of blasting caps and detonating cords.

Lawyer Diosdado Araos, leader of the NBI raiding team, said all of the items came from the Mapanao Agricultural Supply store in Poblacion, Calasiao owned by Rolando Mapanao who was arrested and detained at the NBI detention cell in Dagupan City.

The raid was conducted a week after the NBI received a tip from a friend of Mapanao who squealed on the latter’s illegal operation of selling the banned ingredients needed for the manufacture of bombs and explosives.

“We verified the information and applied the necessary search warrant after that,” Araos said, adding that nobody suspected the store to be selling ammonium nitrate because the crystalline materials were neatly concealed in bags of fish feeds at 25 kilos per bag.

A report said that this was the second time Mapanao was arrested for selling bags of ammonium nitrate. The first was when the branch of his agricultural store in Mangaldan town was raided by agents of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division of the police a few years ago.

A case for violation of Presidential Decree 1866 as amended by Republic Act 8296 or the act punishing illegal possession of firearms, ammunitions and explosives is now being prepared against Mapanao and his cohorts.

Araos admitted that ammonium nitrate is really a sensitive ingredient for the manufacture of bombs, especially with the presence of blasting caps and detonating cords inside Mapanao’s store.

It is different from ammonium sulfate, a commercial salt manufactured from ammoniac liquor produced in the manufacture of gas and used as nitrogenous fertilizer.

Possession and sale of ammonium nitrate is punishable by law unless the person owning or selling this has a license from the Philippine National Police.

The ammonium nitrate seized from Mapanao were however believed not intended for terrorist activities but for illegal fishing activities. Many fishermen from various coastal towns of Pangasinan were frequenting the agricultural supply, it was learned.

Officials said this could explain why blast fishing continues unabated in the municipal waters of the Lingayen Gulf, near Dagupan City, San Fabian and Damortis, Sto. Tomas, La Union.

LINGAYEN – Gov. Victor E. Agbayani said Tuesday that the provincial government is working out a formula with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) for the province to undertake the repair of dilapidated irrigation facilities and later turn the facilities over to the farmers for their use and supervision.

Agbayani said several groups of farmers have complained to him that they are asked by NIA to pay monthly amortization for the use of irrigation facilities that are however no longer functioning effectively.

Most of the irrigation systems were built by NIA some thirty years ago. It was learned that the service fees being collected by the agency are mainly used to pay salaries of employees and hardly any sum is allotted for the repair and maintenance of the irrigation facilities.

The understanding was for NIA to build the irrigation dams and farmers will pay service fees. Through the years however, many of the facilities have been rendered ineffective due to lack of maintenance work.

“Many of the farmers find it difficult to pay the service fees due to poor harvest,” Agbayani said.

The governor proposed that the province will rehabilitate the dilapidated NIA irrigation facilities on condition that part of the service fees to be paid by the farmers would be retained for maintenance.

NIA personnel who try to collect, the dues at present are either flatly rejected by farmers or worse, chased out of the barangays, according to the agency’s information officer.

The province has been constructing communal irrigation system and small water impounding projects which are now serving over 10,000 hectares of farmland in the province.

ONE more drugstore in Pangasinan was padlocked by the Department of Health last week after it was found selling fake 100 milligram Viagra tablets and for having an expired license to operate as a pharmacy.

Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, chief of the enforcement and regulation division of the DOH regional office, said personnel of his office inspected the drugstore.

He warned people buying Viagra tablets to be more careful as owners of drugstores may take advantage of them by giving them the fake product instead of the genuine.

This was the second drugstore close by DOH so far. The first was last month in Alaminos City where lawmen, spearheaded by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) seized P600,000 worth of counterfeit medicines and prescription drug called valium.

The owner of the drugstore was the sixth suspect so far arrested and charged since the intensified campaign against counterfeit and fake medicines started.

Jacinto vowed there is no let-up in their operations against counterfeit and or fake medicines in the province which is being tagged as the favorite dumping ground for these banned commodities.

The operations were joined not only by the PDEA but also the National Bureau of Investigation and the police.

The counterfeit and or fake medicines were said to be coming from Region III and Metro Manila. The counterfeit products were labeled to make it appear these came from the United States, Canada, China, Thailand, India and Pakistan.

Only the distributors and retailers of these products have so far been arrested by lawmen. The brains behind the syndicate are yet to be unmasked.

Jacinto earlier said that lawmen now have names of doctors in the provinces of Pangasinan and Ilocos Sur to whom the counterfeit medicines were being sold at exceptionally low prices but DOH-BFAD has refused to reveal their names.

CALASIAO – A doctor died a few hours after he and his wife were ambushed by a lone gunman near a road intersection here at past 7 a.m. last Tuesday shortly after coming out from a local hotel.

The victim was identified as Dr. Cerdan Lopez, 49, of Galang street in San Carlos City. He was shot through the windshield of the black brand new Ford Escape he was driving just as the car slowed down while approaching the road intersection.

The gunman approached the front right side of the vehicle and opened fire on Lopez, through the windshield. His wife Amy, 49, also a doctor, who was sitting beside him, was unscathed.

Dr. Vivencio Villaflor, owner of the Villaflor Doctors Hospital in Dagupan City, reported at about 12 noon last Tuesday that Lopez was in critical condition. A few minutes later, another report from the hospital stated that the victim was dead.

Inspector Antonio Malicdan, deputy chief of police of Calasiao, said the gunman might have fired eight shots based on the empty shells of Cal. 45 pistol found near the crime scene and another inside the victim’s vehicle.

Eight of the bullets found their marks in the victim’s abdomen. He was already in serious condition when he was wheeled into the hospital’s operating room.

Malicdan said the Lopez couple had just come out from the Regency Hotel a few meters away when the incident happened. They were believed either going home to San Carlos City or proceeding to Urdaneta City.

The gunman and a companion must have waited for the Lopezes in front of Chowking Restaurant were vehicles usually slow down upon reaching the road intersection.

A bystander who was called by Mrs. Lopez to drive them to the hospital said he saw two youths fleeing from the crime scene aboard a motorcycle, taking the Jose R. de Venecia Sr. road towards barangay Lucao in Dagupan City to the west.

Dr. Lopez used to be a staff of the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital in San Carlos City till he resigned to devote himself full-time to private practice. Motive for the slaying was still unknown at presstime.

COUNCILOR Michael Fernandez will be exchanging views with the country’s top young legislators when he joins the 3rd National Council Assembly of the National Movement of Young Legislators (NMYL) in Baguio City this weekend.

Fernandez, who was designated acting vice mayor since last week, is NMYL President for Region 1 and concurrently a member of the National Board.

“The NYML has always been mindful of the country’s socio-political situation. And as advocate of new politics, we will be discussing current issues, such as the Charter Change, electoral reforms and federalism during the National Board meeting,” Fernandez said, outlining the coming conference‘s agenda.

He said that as young legislators who play vital roles in local governance, a discussion of these issues will guide them in setting the policy directions of their respective local government units, vis-à-vis the various initiatives of the national government.

Among the leading young leaders with who will be attending the conference are NMYL National President Julian Coseteng of Quezon City together with vice governors, board members, vice mayors and councilors from different parts of the country.

Last week, Fernandez was in Puerto Princesa City after he was selected as member of the Philippine delegation to the 2nd Asian Cities Against Drugs (ASCAD) Conference. Only five city councilors were chosen nationwide.

“The conference’s primary objective was to identify and develop a framework for a comprehensive, coordinated and effective approach to combat the drug scourge in Asian cities,” Fernandez said.

Presentors during the plenary sessions attended by some 200 participants were Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other Asian countries.

LINGAYEN – The cashier, security guard and the driver of an ambulance of the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital from whom P798,000 in payroll money was taken by three armed men Tuesday afternoon in Binmaley town are facing two parallel investigations as a result of the incident.

Ruel Camba, provincial information officer of Pangasinan, said the provincial government has decided to conduct its own investigation on the incident, separate from the investigation now being conducted by the police.

Under investigation for possible negligence are cashier Ruben Manangan, security guard Gilbert dela Cruz and their driver whose name was not immediately known.

Camba said the provincial government has jurisdiction on the three personnel because they are with the Provincial Health Office assigned with the PPH being operated by the province.

He said the money taken by the holdup men were the equivalent of two checks picked up by Manangan from the office of the provincial treasurer, which he encashed with the Land Bank of the Philippines branch in Lingayen.

Officials were puzzled because the checks could have been encashed by him at the Land Bank branch in San Carlos City, which is only about 2.5 kilometers away from barangay Bolingit in San Carlos City where the PPH is located.

Lingayen is some 15 kilometers away from Bolingit in San Carlos. But on the morning of that day, Manangan attended a meeting at the provincial capitol, Camba said

In the past, it was always at the Land Bank branch in San Carlos City where Manangan would encashed checks to cover their 15-day payroll at the PPH.

The Binmaley police also certified that the incident was reported to them more than one hour after the commission of the crime as Manangan and his companions did not go straight to the police station.

Instead, they drove to the PPH to report the matter to their superior before going back to Binmaley to have the incident recorded in the police blotter. The suspects were riding tandem on motorcycle without a plate number and made a clean gateway. (PNA)

VILLASIS – Highway robbers struck again last Tuesday in two separate incidents in open defiance of an intensified government crackdown on criminal syndicates operating in the province.

The latest incident happened in Poblacion Zone II of this town where three motorcycle-riding suspects carted away the victim’s clutch bag containing cash of some P212,000, a check worth P25,000, RCBC passbook, and his cellphone.

The victim, Reynan Aguilar, 24, married, of barangay Don Montano in Umingan, told police that before the incident he had encashed two checks worth P212,000 from RCBC bank Carmen branch. While driving northward in a BMW car with plate No. TWD 176 registered under the name of Herminio Rabang, the suspects on a Honda TMX 155, abruptly overtook and blocked his way.

Two robbers fled southward.

On the same day, a softdrinks sales agent claimed to have been held up in Sta. Maria town by unidentified motorcycle-riding men as he and two helpers stopped to answer the call of nature.

Taken from the victim was his sales for the day amounting to some P36,000.
About two weeks earlier, an elderly couple from barangay Cabuloan in Urdaneta City were robbed of some P500,000 they had just withdrawn from a Metrobank branch in that city. Several daring daytime holdups were also staged in Dagupan for the last three months.

The police are looking into the possibility that the hold-up incidents are done by a single criminal group because of the similar pattern used in staging these crimes.

Most victims were bank clients who had just withdrawn their money.

Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima ordered police chiefs to assign policemen in strategic areas like the business district and schools.

In Dagupan City, two policemen in tandem are placed to constantly patrol a specific area. (DOS/PIA)

VIGAN CITY – Brian Viloria, the Filipino-American boxer who stunned the world by scoring a sensational first-round knock out against World Boxing Council junior flyweight champion Eric Ortiz in Staples Center, Los Angeles City, U.S.A. on September 18, will be given a hero’s welcome here when he comes home in a few days.

A provincial board resolution approved Friday congratulated Viloria, now living in Hawaii although a son of Ilocos Sur, for snatching the world boxing crown and for being an inspiration to legions of boxing, fans all over the Philippines and the world.

Vice Gov. Victor Savellano, presiding officer of the provincial board, said Viloria is a pure-bred Ilocano, his father being from barangay San Jose, Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, and his mother from Sta. Maria, Ilocos Sur.

Viloria is expected in Ilocos Sur in a few days to visit his ailing grandfather who is now confined in one of the hospitals in the province, an opportunity for him to also see his other relatives who he had not seen for a long time.

The Vilorias now live in Hawaii where Brian was born. But when he was six months old, he was brought by his Hawaii-based parents to Narvacan. It was only when he was already six years old that he was brought back to Hawaii where he lives until now.

Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Chavit Singson earlier joined President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in congratulating not only Viloria but also Rey ‘Boom Boom’ Bautista and Filipino boxing superhero Manny Paquiao for their respective victories in the boxing promotion dubbed as ‘Double-Trouble’ at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

In a privilege speech, Provincial Board Member Suriel Zaragoza, a son of the Narvacan mayor, said Viloria is the first Filipino world boxing champion from the northern part of the country since time immemorial. Most top-rated pugilists are from the Visayas and Mindanao.

SAN CARLOS CITY – The most wanted man in this city who has been involved in cattle rustling, carnaping, holdup and other crimes, along with his two cohorts, accidentally fell into a dragnet set up by police last Tuesday night while the latter were enforcing the ‘no plate, no travel’ policy.

Arrested was Rey Quitaleg of Balite Sur in San Carlos City, tagged by the police as the leader of a group of dreaded criminal elements operating in San Carlos City and other parts of central Pangasinan.

When brought to the city prosecutor’s office for inquest, along with two other suspects, Daniel Evangelito, 24, and Ramon Bacani, 34, Quitaleg introduced himself by another name, prompting prosecutors to suspect something amiss about him.

Evangelito was driving the motorcycle while Bacani and Quitaleg were the back riders. Bacani had a bolo placed in scabbard, a knife, two pliers and a disposable lighter placed in a bag.

Had Quitaleg not tried to conceal his identity, they could have already been released as one of them had a document to support ownership of the motorcycle they were riding on.
Sensing something doubtful about him, the prosecutors immediately called Supt. and Police Chief Geronimo Reside who sent in his warrant officer and who promptly identified Quitaleg as having standing warrants of arrest for carnapping and cattle rustling.

Reside said the Quitaleg group usually moves as a foursome and wondered what may have happened to their other companion.

The group could be the remnants of the dreaded Quitaleg gang of Urbiztondo town that was involved in the kidnapping of a rich matron from Carmen, Rosales, Pangasinan a few years ago.

Some of the members of this group, including their leader, were however later killed in a shoot-out somewhere in Tarlac with agents of the Presidential Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER) team.

Reside said the group of Rey Quitaleg was positively identified as the one responsible for the holdup of a family in San Carlos City in the early morning of June 22 this year where they carted away cash and jewelry estimated at some P500,000.

A case of robbery in band has just been filed against the suspects.