LINGAYEN – The provincial board of Pangasinan has thrown its support behind the proposed US$503-million North Luzon Railways (Northrail) project.

In a resolution sponsored by the board majority floorleader John Agerico Rosario, the body urged the national government to resolve the issues raised against the implementation of the project as soon as possible.

Rosario said it is lamentable that despite the completion of plans and designs, availability of financing, and its patent acceptability to all concerned sectors, the prosecution of the project is being derailed by allegations that there were improprieties in the bidding.

If completed, the improved railway system will be a big boon to the riding public north of Manila and eventually the province of Pangasinan, Rosario said.

He said the country needs an alternative but efficient transport system that would be faster and environmental-friendly.

The resolution said the Northrail will boost trade and commerce to and from the provinces north of Manila, thus accelerating the progress of the nation.

Initial phases of the project cover the stretch from Manila to Malolos City in Bulacan and from Malolos to Clark in Pampanga. Eventually, under the plans, the rail will extend to Pangasinan and La Union in the north.

The project will be financed jointly by US$395.22 million loan from the China Import and Export Bank and the Bases Conversion Development Authority. (PNA)

PHILIPPINE National Police Director General Arturo Lomibao reiterated the government policy that there should be no more jueteng in the country during a whirlwind visit to Pangasinan Wednesday primarily to check on police investigation into the killing of regional trial court Judge Estrelita Paas of Natividad.

In a talk to newsmen here, Lomibao said that as far as the PNP is concerned, jueteng should now be a thing of the past.

At the same time however, he complained that he could not understand Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen Dagupan archdiocese because, according to him, the prelate says one day that there is no more jueteng and on the next day, he says otherwise, and on the third day is again saying a different thing.

Lomibao again warned all PNP personnel that those violating the policy should be punished adding that if they were police commanders, they should be relieved and if they are local officials, they should be investigated.

At the same time, although the EZ-2 game in lotto is legal, he ordered the police to arrest the collectors and it is up for him to explain that his activity is legal.

The move, he said is intended to erase the suspicion that the police have relaxed their guard on what the people perceive to be jueteng, in the guise of the legal EZ-2 game.

By Venus May H. Sarmiento

MANAGERS and officers of the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) –North Luzon Office were treated to an overview of the media industry in a Media Handling Seminar-Workshop conducted by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), in cooperation with the Pangasinan Tri-Media Association (PATRIMA), on September 22-23, at the TransCo Mexico sub-station in Pampanga.

TransCo sought a re-engineering of its media approaches thru the seminar as it moved to pursue improved dissemination of information and consequently enhance its corporate image in the region. The seminar also aimed to equip their communicators as well as other frontline personnel, who are usually bombarded with calls during unannounced power interruptions, with necessary skills in dealing with media practitioners.

North Luzon assistant vice president Fernando Abesamis led the two batches of TransCo people in the media handling seminar comprising of department managers, division managers, corporate communications officers, right-of-way officers and security officers.

PIA-Pangasinan InfoCenter manager Behn Fer Hortaleza, Jr., who spearheaded the seminar, gave an overview of the dynamics of the community press and the government media together with DWRS-Radyo ng Bayan station manager Bernie Errasquin.

For the private media perspective, veteran writer-announcer Rhee Fer Hortaleza and Sky Cable-Pangasinan operations manager Rommel Partosa discussed the overview of the broadcast medium-radio and cable TV. Partosa’s team included Sky Cable’s regional airtime manager Migs Velarde and news director Marlon Marvil.

Transco’s North Luzon Office is divided into six districts, which includes the provinces of Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija and Aurora.

THE Dagupan City Schools Division is set to screen outstanding high school students from among nominees of various schools for the U.S. study exchange program sometime in May 2006.

The program will enable Dagupeño high school students to explore the culture and educational system of Milpitas City in California.

The cultural and student exchange between Milpitas and Dagupan is an initial focus area embodied in the memorandum of understanding between the two cities. City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim signed the MOU with Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteves to extend the sisterhood pact of the two cities last July 21 during his two-week official visit to the U.S.

Lim said the program will help Dagupeño high school students become well-rounded and highly responsible persons

“This will also make the students in the city globally competitive in all areas of knowledge, especially in the field of information and communication technology,” the mayor added.

Aside from the opportunity for cultural exchange, according to the mayor, the program will also allow the students to experience the public or private educational system of Milpitas.

Each participating secondary school will select five student nominees based on criteria set by the City’s Student Exchange Coordinating Committee not later than October 7, Schools Division officer-in-charge Aurora Domingo said.

“After an evaluation, the field narrows down to three who will be later endorsed to the mayor from among whom he will choose the official participants for the US student exchange,” she said.

The criteria require a candidate to be at least 14 years old; has a general weighted average of 85 percent or above (30%); has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities (20%); has excellent oral and written communication skills in English (20%); has demonstrated good manners and right conduct (20%); and has actively taken part in extra-curricular activities (10%).

Esteves reiterated that visiting students will be hosted by families from various Dagupeño associations in Milpitas even as the students will be given a one-week break to stay with their relatives in the U.S.

In turn, Milpitas students would also soon visit Dagupan. (Sunshine D. Robles)

UNTIL recently, members of the city council here had to laboriously sift through a thick file of documents neatly fastened on a folder everytime they held their sessions.

These papers contained the agenda, minutes, proposed resolutions and ordinances and official communications received by the Sangguniang Panlungsod that had to be furnished the 13 members of the legislative body.

Today, these stacks of documents are gone. On the city councilors’ desks instead are laptop computers, where digital copies of the documents have been stored for the councilors to easily access.

“We now hold paperless sessions and information technology has made all these possible,” said Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, who vigorously pushed for the electronic session (e-session) project, the first of its kind in Pangasinan and maybe, even in the whole country.

The system

The project required the installation of 13 laptop computers in the session hall, one each for the 12 councilors and the presiding officer.

These laptops are run by a customized user-friendly program that allows the councilors to immediately access everything they need during sessions, such as the agenda, transcripts of minutes of past sessions, committee hearings and committee reports, draft resolutions, draft ordinances, communications, memorandum, informative materials, and other electronic documents.

An archive of past resolutions and ordinances since 1950 has also been digitized and uploaded into the city council’s computers.

“All we have to do now is click the mouse,” Fernandez said.

Through an LCD projector, electronic copies of documents being taken up during sessions may be beamed to an interactive white board set up inside the session hall for the public and the media to see.

The city councilors can also submit proposed resolutions and ordinances, communicate with one another through instant messaging, and access the Internet through their laptops.

Cyber-session

The Internet access actually crystallized the idea of holding cyber-sessions.

And in a pioneering piece of legislation, the city council allowed Fernandez to preside over city council sessions via cyberspace, making him perhaps the only vice mayor in the country today to have such privilege.

But as a condition, Fernandez must be in the Philippines and the city councilors should be properly informed at least three days before a cyber-session.

“We now have the technology and we might as well make use of it to save precious time and resources,” Fernandez said.

From any point in the country where there is an Internet presence, the vice mayor simply calls the city council’s IP (Internet protocol) address through his laptop and connect it to the SP information technology system.

Using Microsoft’s Net Meeting software, which is hooked to a camera in the city council’s central computer server, he is then able to see and hear all discussions in the SP session.

The city councilors, in turn, would see the vice mayor on a projection screen through a webcam attached to his laptop and hear him preside clearly through its “surround” sound system, as though the vice mayor were personally present in the session.

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

Website

In addition to the cyber-session, the city council will soon launch its own fully interactive website (http://www.citycouncil.dagupan.gov.ph).

Fernandez said that the website will provide Dagupeños, including those outside the city, the opportunity to democratically participate in the governance of the city.

“The website features downloadable ordinances, agenda, forums, news, as well as streaming video of past sessions,” he said.

Through its forums section, the people may post suggestions, report violations of ordinances, or air their concerns on vital local legislations.

Fernandez said that the website will also provide updated news on the city council, especially on the status of pending ordinances that directly affect the people’s day-to-day lives.

As he waits for the launching of the website, the vice mayor in the meantime maintains a blog (http://vmalvinfernandez.blogspot.com), where he regularly posts his daily activities and views on various issues.

Cost saving

Fernandez said that despite spending almost P850,000 for the project, the amount is still insignificant compared to the savings that the city council will generate in the future.

Before the computerization project was set in place, the P uses at least five reams of copy paper every week just for the agenda, transcripts of minutes of the sessions, committee hearings and committee reports, draft resolutions, draft ordinances, communications, memorandum, informative materials, and other documents.

“How about the (cost of the) folders, the drum kits for the photocopiers, the computer ink, the gasoline for the distribution of the agenda?” Fernandez asked.

He said the photocopying machines often break down because of the volume of documents that are reproduced every week. “And having these equipment repaired is expensive,” Fernandez added.

Fernandez also noted that with paperless sessions, the council is in effect helping in the waste reduction program of the city government.

“Although paper is a recyclable material, it is still far better if we use just a little of it,” he said.

“Hopefully, the new system will dramatically reduce the volume of paper and other supplies used in the city council. As it is now, it is already a big help in the electronic storage and filing of documents for each of the city councilor, making it easier for them to review past discussions on local legislations,” Fernandez said.

SAYAN INDIO
Mario F. Karateka

MAPAGALARAY kakaaro tayon abogados tan ingen pati saray galgalangen iran mahistradoy korte odino saray huwes. Ni, mantomba met larayan disipulos na ley tan oksoy ed sosyedad. Say singa mensahed saya et anggapolay antakot daray managpatey – pati mismon ley et itotopay-topay dala, palpaltogen dala.

Nen manbaktar iray peryodista odino saray walad medya, say singa ibabagay arom et lapu konod masyadon abusado laray Medya. Kanian igu-gud dara. Nilooban datan ya trabaho, di alageyan da, kuandaray kritikod Medya. Diad sakey a dapag, tua met iman. No agmo sarag so petang ed kusina, arawika, ekal ka.

Nen walamay tiempon saray meyors odino opisyales na baley so kitongilang lapud bala diad Pangasinan, walaramay totoon mangibabagan inani da labat kono so duknal ya ginagawa dad saray kabaleyan da. Sinmabilay bales, kuay arom

Balet natan ta saray kabalyeros na ley mismo – abogados tan huwes –so napapaonong, medyo namamawmawan iray totoo. Aliwa laya, kuanda, laotla ed say impamatey nen imbeneg a simba ed si biin Huwes Estrellita Paas na Pasay City Ridyonal Trayal Kort.

Makapasinagem a tuloy. Wadmanla kalamor ed arawin baley na Natividad si Huwes Paas, mamabakasyon, onong ed say riport na polis, diman ni tinigway so bilay to ed loob na abong to.

Peligro, maatap lan maong so panaon. Tan lalon onkakasil so linawa daray maoges-walnan totoo – on, saray kriminal o bayaran ya managpatey – ed kada kason ag nasolb na Pilipin Nasyonal Polis (PNP). Siyempre no samay kriminal et ag narel, librela lamet a mangawat na onsoblay a kontratan pamatey na anggan siopaman.

Kaskasian metlayay Hepe na PNP, si Direktor-Heneral Arturo Lomibao, a kabaleyan tayo (taga Mangaldan) ya puro pilalamay lad saray ompapatey ya medya, abogados tan huwes so gaween to legan na administrasyon to.

Kasian yopay boss yo, PNP, tan solb yolaratay kaskasodtan.

Magmamaliw la laingen a propesyonal a milalamay (professional mourner) lay Hepe Arturo. Maong labat ta tinondaan tolay kakatugyop na samay paboriton ton “task force” no kada walay natigway a bilay ed Medya.

*****

Amasyar lamet sanen karoman (Sabado) si Nana Gloria dimad paborito ton “grotto” o dasalan ed Rosales. “Low-key” odino anggapoy dakel ya preparasyon – anggapo ingen so pakabat ed Medya – ta onong ed Malakanyang pribado man ya biyahe to.

Ditan met lagi manga-alay kasil to ya onarap ed krisis so Presidenta.

Dengel ko balet a siansian impilit na saray kaalyados to diad Pangasinan ya mitoyaw ed si GMA diman anggan pigpigay oras labat so imbayag to antis ya amawil ed obong to dimad Palasyo. Dimad “farm” nen Kongrisman Gener Tulagan ginaway impamaugto. Awey labat no akapangan si Nana Gloria… ta arawid samay paborito ton akanan a salanti say Matutina’s ditad Bonuan.

DON’T look now but there’s gold in that sugarcane.

Other than just being literally sweet, that crop, produced in abundance in Negros, Bulacan, Pampanga and other places (Pangasinan now hardly figures), is the wave of the future, in terms of the current nationwide search for alternative sources of energy.

Yes, we’re talking ethanol, the much-talked about additive to gasoline which comes from sugarcane.

A report from Negros says some alcohol refineries in that place are now buying standing sugarcane at an equivalent of P920 to P930 per 1 kg. A Bukidnon congressman, who grew up in sugar farming, admits with open envy for the present growers that he “never enjoyed that price for the sugar I produced (back then.)”

If this tells anything to us here in the Ilocos, who hardly plant the upright crop, it is that maybe it’s time – since the oil crisis will be with us for a long, long, long period – that we see the much brighter prospects of sugarcane as an alternative crop (to rice, that is). And start putting up those alcohol refineries now where ethanol can be produced to serve as a government -encouraged mix for the gasoline we put in our vehicles.

With world oil reserves being pumped out double time to meet the rising demand, sources may dry up faster than what has been originally anticipated. The wiser way for the Philippines to go therefore is finding alternative sources of energy before the dreaded depletion of oil supply happens and developing countries like us are left in the lurch.

As the slogan of sugar producers now goes, in reference to the energy crunch: “If we can’t dig for oil, we plant them.”

We couldn’t agree more.

AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.

HEALTH Sec. Pingcoy Duque had all the reasons to feel indignant. Avian or bird flu is popping up in our neighbor Asian neighbors’ yards, and we still don’t have any supply of the primary antiviral drug known to combat the disease, oseltamivir (brand name: Tamiflu) in our pharmacy counters.

Duque actually termed it “zero stockpile” of the drug in the Philippines. As in zilch, nada, nothing.

That means we’re standing naked while the H5N1 deadly strain of the bird flu is creeping up on us – or, more like it, flying down on us, courtesy of those “carrier” migratory birds that usually move to tropical countries around this time, October to January, to escape the cold season in the other part of the globe.

Only one drug company, according to our health czar, has the sole authority to manufacture the antiviral drug, the Swiss-based Roche. What’s infuriating to Pinoys who have just known it from Doc Pingcoy’s perorations, is that the Roche supplies are “heavily concentrated in the First World even as the disease is ravaging bird and poultry (and, dreadfully, soon humans too) populations in Southeast Asia, particularly Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia.” As unfair as unfair can be. As inhuman as inhuman can be.

To think that the World Health Organization WHO) resident representative here has been urging Asian countries to prepare for a bird flu pandemic and yet his organization does not seem to move a muscle to urge, demand or coerce Roche to also spare the Third World some of its drug production.

“Why are the more vulnerable nations (being) deprived?” DOH Sec. Duque fumed after noting that the country has yet to receive a single capsule to date from Roche despite the DOH’s having placed an order for P10 million worth of oseltamivir as early as last year.

We hate to say this but we guess Big Brother out there has expanded the old term “Guinea pig” now to “Pinoy pig.” He wants to watch first how fast and how many of us keel over from the disease to see its actual potency before sending those antivirals to cure the rest of us who may, despite everything, survive the scourge.

The Pen Speaks
Danny O. Sagun

WE just received info at presstime that Mayor Benjie Lim has directed all offices at City Hall to surrender their office-purchased TV sets and refs in line with the energy conservation program of the government borne out by the continuing rise in prices of oil in the world market.

Good and correct move, Mayor! What’s the use of those appliances anyway but only to serve the personal interests of the office’s personnel?

There are offices in government agencies and business establishments, like banks, that maintain TV sets for their clients and customers. The objective is obvious —- to lessen the boredom on the part of the clients waiting for their turn.

It’s different however if the TV set serves only the office workers who spend their time watching TV program during office hours, instead of concentrating on their work.

We wonder however if Benjie’s move would cover the sangguniang panlungsod, which falls under the supervision of the vice-mayor, who by law, is independent of the executive branch. We’ll just see once we take a peep at the sanggunian session one time these coming days.

*****

Tita Llarenas, sangguniang bayan secretary of Alcala town, urged us to see for ourselves the façade of the town hall when we covered the town’s 130th foundation day celebration two Tuesdays ago. Why she bid us to do so was in connection with our column several years back about the town hall being made an instant marketplace. All kinds of merchandise were then being displayed right at the building’s doorsteps!

We obliged and we saw a different scene. No more RTWs hanging by the building’s sides, potteries displayed at the steps and makeshift stalls adjoining the town hall.

Tita and the budget officer (sorry we forgot her name) during lunch, after the awarding ceremony for the outstanding sons an daughters and the awarding of land titles to some 17 claimants to the controversial Pindangan Estate at the gym, said that our column sort of jarred the officials’ senses. It was an eye-opener, the budget officer told us.

We were delighted to note that the town officials took our criticism in stride and did the right thing.

Mabuhay kayo on your 130th year! More power to the properly sensitive officials of that town. May your tribe increase!

WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza

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 (b?´´?-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 Panlungsod 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

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