Rep. Satur C. Ocampo (Bayan Muna) exchanges activist notes with Dagupan Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez during his visit to the city last Friday to induct officers of the student council of Dagupan City National High School. Fernandez, as acting city mayor, represented Mayor Benjamin S. Lim to the occasion. (PStar Photo by Butch F Uka)

By Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
PIA-Pangasinan

LINGAYEN – Pangasinan police led by Sr. Supt Alan LM Purisima, provincial police director, are reviewing anti-crime measures against gang robberies in the wake of at least two recent incidents in Urdaneta City that pointed to one and the same armed group behind it.

“We’re almost sure it’s one and the same gang” a senior police officer at the Provincial Police Office told the Pangasinan Star Thursday.

Supt. Ricardo Tamayo, police community relations officer, said last week’s failed holdup attempt on a cargo truck crew that had parked their trucks and rested by the roadside of the highway and last Wednesday’s noontime P500,000 holdup of an elderly couple in barangay Cabuloan, Urdaneta City, are strongly suspected to have been the work oof just one group of criminals.

The latest incident and previous attacks by armed holdupmen victimizing mostly bank clients who have just withdrawn huge sums of money and were probably tailed before being waylaid and held up has prompted the police to step up its community vigilance campaign among various sectors in order to secure quick and more accurate information on suspect descriptions and their possible escape routes from a more alert public.

In the truck crew’s failed holdup attempt where a truck helper was shot dead after he and his companions put up a fight, responding policemen did a hot pursuit of the fleeing culprits that took them all the way to Tarlac and Pampanga.

“It turned out to be a wild goose chase,” according to Tamayo, as the police only later learned the armed men had turned right towards barangay Lareg-laregin Malasiqui and did not escape towards Tarlac.

Tricycle drivers and other pedestrians belatedly told authorities that the fast-driving would-be robbers turned right off the main road just a few distance from where they assaulted the truck crew.

Last Wednesday’s holdup of old couple Francis Echalas, 78, a carpenter and his wife Lenila Asinit, 70, of barangay Cabuloan, Urdaneta, left Echalas wounded on the left arm after three men on a Honda TMX 155 motorcylce stopped them and fired at the vehicle when the occupants refused to open the door of their Expedition vehicle.

Frightened, the couple, together with their niece identified as Eva Mesalucha, opened the vehicle door and the men quickly grabbed the shoulder bag of Mrs. Echalas containing the money and sped off westward.

Police set up checkpoints immediately after the alarm was flashed to all possible routes of the holdupmen but the suspects eluded arrest.

OLD tricycle-for-hire franchise holders and new applicants can now transact with the City Legal Office (CLO) for the renewal and issuance of their Provisional Authority to Operate.

The CLO has released the application procedure for tricycle franchise applicants pursuant to City Ordinance No. 1849-2005 known as the Revised Tricycle Franchise of 2005.

Old franchise holders with pending application at the CLO should secure the following requirements: barangay clearance, fiscal’s clearance, insurance, professional driver’s license of authorized driver, police clearance, voter’s certification, latest mayor’s permit (for renewal only), court clearance and official receipt/certificate of registration of unit.

New applicants are also advised to prepare the said requirements.

“They must also coordinate with the accredited United Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (UTODA) to ensure proper compliance with all the requisites,” City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued said.

The sangguniang panlungsod passed Ordinance No. 1849-2005 to provide an effective measure for a systematic, balanced and disciplined transport system.

The new ordinance amended Ordinance No. 1411-92 entitled: “Prescribing the Rules, Regulations and Procedures Governing the Grant of Franchises for the Operation of Tricycles-for-Hire within the Territorial Jurisdiction of the City of Dagupan.”

The revised ordinance strictly implements the one-unit-per-operator policy in the issuance of new franchise or renewal of the same, even as the available slots, within the 3,800 units, shall be granted to applicants on first-come-first-served basis.

URDANETA – Farmers in Pangasinan have incurred some P100 million in unsettled irrigation fees, it was gathered Thursday.

The figures are even a staggering P6 billion nationwide, according to Adoracion Soriano of the National Irrigation Administration regional office based in this city.She said the unsettled fees have accumulated since 1975.

Many farmers, she said, do not religiously pay their dues, always claiming poor harvest.
A farmer with a hectare of irrigated riceland is bound to pay NIA three cavans of palay or its equivalent price for the dry cropping and two cavans during the wet cropping., she said.

On behalf of her office, she asked the Philippine National Police to help NIA collect the dues during a courtesy call she and other members of the Pangasinan Association of Government Information Officers (PAGIO) made on Provincial Police Director Alan Purisima last Thursday.

Purisima however noted that such a move requires a court action before the police can directly intercede. But he said the police may escort NIA personnel in areas or circumstances considered risky.

Soriano bared that some farmers get angry when NIA personnel try to collect their unsettled fees. “Hinahabol nga sila ng itak,” she related. (PIA/DOS)

By DANNY O. SAGUN
PIA-Pangasinan

LINGAYEN – After telephone cable wire and manhole cover, thieves have switched their target to transmission tower parts.

Apparently unable to fully guard transmission towers from thieves, the National Transmission Corporation has enlisted the help of the concerned barangays and the Philippine National Police

Transco officer Jessie Arenas and Alejandro Quitoles relayed their request to Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima, PNP provincial director Thursday during a break in the board meeting of the Pangasinan Association of Government Information Officer (PAGIO) at the PNP provincial office.

The agency will need the assistance of the PNP in their information dissemination sorties in barangays being traversed by the transmission towers.

Purisima said he will instruct the police chiefs in the concerned municipalities to coordinate with Transco once a request reaches his office.

Thieves reportedly use acetylene torches to cut the imported and highly priced galvanized steel.

The latest incident was the cutting of vital tower plants in barangay Hacienda, Bugallon, Arenas said.

The imported steel is resistant to rust. It is a very good material for making wheel mugs or vehicle chassis, he disclosed.

The Transco officials said when support frames are stolen, the tower is weakened and could collapse, resulting in power trip offs if not immediately checked.

Transco towers in Pangasinan run thru several towns starting from San Manuel in eastern Pangasinan up to Sual in the first district.

Purisima revealed that junkshops are now constantly monitored to discourage sale of stolen steel or iron bars like those used for manhole covers.

A junkshop based in Calasiao had already closed shop and the owner transferred his business somewhere after was caught doing fencing activities in the past involving cut railroad tracks, it was gathered.

The provincial police director however noted the difficulty in pinning down those caught violating the anti-fencing law which he described as “the weakest law” so far enacted in the country.

He asked the public works and highways department to put markings in the manhole cover for easier identification of stolen materials and prosecution of suspects.

By SHEILA H. AQUINO

THE advent of modern technology has greatly influenced the local legislative work in the city government of Dagupan.

The Sangguniang Panlungsod recently adopted Resolution No. 5109-2005 to allow its presiding officer, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, to preside over its sessions via cyberspace.

Fernandez, now acting city mayor in the absence of Mayor Benjamin S.; Lim who is abroad, bared this development during the weekly meeting of department heads. He announced that the controversial measure is probably a first in the Philippines.

“This means that I can preside over SP sessions even if I am not physically present at the session hall so long as I am in the Philippines,” he explained, adding that if he were outside Philippine territory, he will not be part of the quorum.

The acting mayor said he can call the sanggunian via its IP address and connect to the SP information technology system. Using Microsoft’s Netmeeting software, he can then see and hear all discussions in the SP session.

The city councilors, in turn, could see the vice mayor via an LCD projector screen and hear him preside clearly through its surround sound system as though he were there.

“There will only be a second’s delay in the transmission on both ends. This is why the SP will apply for a higher bandwidth to offset the delay and minimize it the best way possible,” Fernandez said.

The resolution, however, gives a condition that SP members be informed of the vice mayor’s presiding via cyberspace at least three days before the actual session date and there must be a minimum of eight councilors present to allow such a session to proceed.

Fernandez said Dagupan City is now leading the way in cyberspace Philippine local legislation, earning the distinction in the same way that Olongapo highlights its cleanliness program and San Fernando City, its waste management program.

He noted that in the September 2 visit of British Ambassador Peter Beckingham to dagupan City, the diplomat was impressed by the conduct of the SP session with the councilors using laptops, making the meeting virtually paperless.

LINGAYEN – Local government units in the entire country are now seeking the go-signal to mobilize their forces in order to neutralize the street protests of the opposition, civil society and militant groups calling for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

This was disclosed by Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico, Jr., president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, who said if the opposition can gather throngs of people in their anti-Arroyo rallies, the LGUs can gather much bigger crowds in support of the President.

Unfazed by reports that former President Corazon C. Aquino and actress Susan Roces are spearheading the rallies for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo, Guico believed these moves will not succeed because the people are now tired of people power.

“These rallies will only (compound) the economic problems of the country, fan chaos and confrontations which will not do good to the country and the people,” Guico said.

He said the opposition men must respect the decision of Congress that junked the complaint of impeachment against President Arroyo which they themselves participated in but failed to muster the magic number of 79 to send the complaint directly to the Senate for trial.

Unfortunately, they did not have the numbers, so the impeachment complaint failed to reach the senate, Guico said, adding that it would have been the other way around had the opposition succeeded in convincing some more endorsers, he said.

Guico is a second cousin of Mrs. Arroyo.

A SUSPECTED bomb placed in an ice box made of styrofoam and left at the city plaza here momentarily spawned a bomb scare in the area.

This happened at about the same time congressmen were holding a nominal voting on the report of the justice committee at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City on the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Not leaving anything to chance, members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team of the Dagupan Police blew up the ice box, after making sure it was wedged in with old car tires before 4 p.m. Tuesday. The SWAT used a C-4 bomb attached to a fuse and battery charger to blow up the suspect package.

The ice box however turned out to contain nothing but rubbish that may have been left hours before by park habitués and even picnickers.

Members of the SWAT, in full battle gear, arrived in the area after the police received a call from a plaza security guard who discovered the ice box near the left side portion of the plaza stage.

This was where a big number of school pupils and students, and members of a band were crowding at that time.

Approximately three kilos in weight, the ice box was lifted by SWAT men with the use of a long cord tied to the trunk of a tree and placed in the middle of the plaza where it was detonated at about 3:45 p.m.

At that time, no city official was aware of the unfolding event in the city plaza as they were too busy watching on television the impeachment proceedings against Mrs. Arroyo in the House of Representatives. (PNA)

THE Dagupan City Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) bagged once again the Best Fire Station of the Year award, besting all participants from the different class A cities throughout Region 1.

City Fire Marshall Jesus Orpilla received the plaque of recognition from BFP Regional Director, Senior Superintendent Rodrigo Abrazaldo, during the 14th BFP Anniversary recently at the Sea and Sky Hotel and Restaurant in San Fernando City, La Union.

The BFP Program on Awards and Incentives for Service Excellence (PRAISE) chaired by Regional BFP Senior Inspector Aurelio Giron was guided by the following criteria that best favored Dagupan City for the Best Fire Station of 2005 award. These include effective fire protection activities, cleanliness and orderliness, maintenance of fire fighting equipment and observance of norms of conduct to BFP personnel.

The Dagupan City BFP under Orpilla has always maintained its high standard of service and operational effectiveness to the public. Orpilla himself was named outstanding city fire marshall of 2002 and arson investigator of the year 2004.

“We work hard in maintaining our status by regularly lecturing on fire prevention, conducting fire drills and checking on our personnel’s courtesy to the public,” Orpilla said.

The Dagupan City BFP was a consistent Best Fire Station in Region 1 from 1996, 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2005. Listed as its other achievements and distinctions are: highest fire code fees collection 1996, cleanest fire station 1996 and best maintained fire truck 2004. (CIO/ Leziel T. Cayabyab)

LINGAYEN – The family planning program in Pangasinan will continue despite the announced pull out of commodity assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in two to three years.

Gov. Victor Agbayani however clarified that due to the shortage of funds, the provincial government can only provide the need for contraceptives of poor couples in the province. Pangasinan is second to Cebu in terms of population.

He told the Regional Development Council last Tuesday that the province will try to fill the gap to be left by the USAID which has been providing commodity assistance to the country’s family planning program since 1972.

USAID has announced that it is completely phasing out all its commodity donation to the country’s family planning program either in year 2007 or 2008.

The governor warned that if the local government units will not act fast, the pullout of commodity assistance of the USAID might leave the country’s population program in disarray, adding that for three long decades, the agency was supporting the Philippines in its family planning program.

He noted that the national government is not doing anything to rescue the country’s family planning program because its hands are tied, not only for lack of funds but also because of the strong opposition to the program by the Catholic church.

Statistics from the Provincial Population Office showed that over half of those who accessed family planning contraceptives from government health and family planning clinics were couples who can actually afford to buy these.