By FREDDIE G. LAZARO

VIGAN CITY – The people of Ilocos Sur commemorated last Wednesday the 115th birth anniversary of the late President Elpidio Quirino in a short program at the provincial capitol here.

Vice Gov. Deogracias Victor Savellano and Cory Quirino, granddaughter of the late President, led city and local officials, heads of different agencies and students from different schools in floral offerings at the late President’s bust.

The late President Quirino was born on Nov. 16, 1890 at the provincial jail in Vigan, Ilocos Sur to his parents Mariano Quirino of Ilocos Sur and Gregoria Rivera of Agoo, La Union.

Provincial Board Member Jeremias Singson, who represented Gov. Luis Chavit Singson, extolled the late President Quirino as an illustrious son of Ilocos Sur, a teacher, a lawyer, legislator, economist, diplomat, statesman and an exemplary public official.

He said Quirino was a legendary leader in the 20th century, a man of patriotism, and a man who alleviated the plight of the “common tao.”

For her part, Mrs. Cory Quirino thanked local officials for their initiative in the yearly commemoration of the birth anniversary of her grandfather.

The celebration also saw the awarding by descendants of the Quirino family of the President Elpidio Quirino medals to 22 Ilocos Sur residents who excelled in their respective fields. Former Ilocos Sur Gov. Carmeling Crisologo led the medalists this year.

In her message, Ms. Quirino cited humility as the stepping stones of his grandfather, Elpidio, in reaching his greatness as the second president of the Philippine Republic and the first Ilocano president.

There is a need to practice the spirit of humility for the sake of the country and people in the light of the present political crisis being experienced by the country today, she said.

In 1934, Qurino was a member of the Philippine Independent mission to Washington D.C. headed by Manuel Quezon that secured the passage in the United States Congress of the Tydings-Mac Duffie Act that set the date for Philippine independence in 1945.

After the war, he served as secretary of state and vice president to Manuel Roxas, the first president of the independence Republic of the Philippines. When Roxas died on April 15, 1948, Quirino assumed the presidency and subsequently won his election as president for four years. He died on Feb. 20 1956.

AFTER lying at a hospital morgue unclaimed by any relative after his death, a non-Pangasinense former newspaper editor was finally buried by media colleagues here who tapped resources to give him a decent final farewell.

Dominic “Dong” Villafuerte, 60, former editor of the tabloid newspaper “Headline Balita” published by Victor Corpuz, a namesake of retired Army General Victor Corpuz, was already clinically dead when he was brought to the R1MC at 11 p.m. Wednesday after suffering an apparent heart attack.

Villafuerte, a native of Camarines Sur but migrated to the province of Pangasinan since the 80s, was the third journalist from Pangasinan who died due to natural causes in a span of only seven days.

The others were Professor Napoleon “Nap” Donato, 58, of Dagupan City; and Maximo “Max” Mendiguarin, 82, of Binmaley town, both columnists of the local newsweekly “Sunday Punch”.

Drs. Mayeen Fernandez and Rochelle Taaca, attending physicians, said Villafuerte was already clinically dead when brought to the hospital by a male person who did not introduce his relations with the deceased.

They said although Villafuerte was already cyanotic or ashen-colored when he was brought in, they still did everything to revive him but to no avail.

Villafuerte, who once worked with the government-owned Philippine Broadcasting System from the 70s up to the 80s, has no relatives in Pangasinan. Hospital records showed his address was Guilig street in barangay Pogo Chico in Dagupan City where he rented a space alone.

Months after leaving “Headline Balita”, he was arrested and jailed in Dagupan aftr he failed to post the bailbond of P9,000 for a case of libel filed against him.

Hearing about Villafuerte’s predicament Bayambang Mayor Leocadio de Vera posted the bailbond for the latter.

THERE’S something the Chinese-Filipinos – “Tsinoys” — in Dagupan City have done here that the natural-born Dagupeno would never have the conscience to dispute or deny – that they have helped protect the city from fires.

This the Dagupan Filipino-Chinese Community Association (DFCCA) has successfully achieved thru its organization of the Panda Volunteer Fire Brigade that has seen action in many a big fire in the city. If verbal efforts to promote amity between the native Dagupenos and the Tsinoys have somehow been spotty, the deeds of the Panda firemen has bridge any gap there is or may have been in the area of brotherhood.

All on their own, pooling their own resources and manpower together, the Dagupan Tsinoys have formed what is now a formidable, dependable and most of all, volunteer fire unit comparable to the best volunteer fire brigades in the region and nationwide – if there are any such brigades around to date.

DFCCA-Panda Fire Brigade observed its 25th year yesterday, the torch of responsibility for managing the association and the fire brigade’s day to-day- operations passing from Guanson Lo to Bernabe F. Dy, Jr. As always, Panda has kept pretty much to itself, keeping its feats and achievements in stock without letting the rest of the city know about it. Only when the fire alarms are sounded and its apple-green firetrucks zoom to the fire scene, its young crew of firefighters responding to their self-imposed duty with grit and skill, will we native Dagupenos remember and again feel that their fairer complexions notwithstanding, these Tsinoys really our bloodbrothers.

They have cast their lot with us, in fair times or foul, and the least we Dagupenos can do is to give them a pat on the back for a job well done – and a goodwill extended beyond words.

AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.

A QUICK browse of the website of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would easily reveal that despite the much-ballyhooed government e-procurement system already being in effect, local government units still appear hesitant to use it to post their supply and services requirements in.

Hesitant — or defiant, that is.
Only about four or five local government units (LGUs) in Pangasinan, we noticed in our scan, were posting their invitations to bid or supply needs at bid prices of from P50,000 to P250,000 on the DBM e-procurement site to include Sual and Santo Tomas and three others we could not now recall.

If this implies anything, it is that all or most of the rest would be still using the old system of sending out notices for bidding or worse, not sending notices out at all. A few others probably still take out paid newspaper advertising space that quite often, is manipulated with some corrupt publishers so that these don’t get circulated at all in the newsstands (quite obviously, to prevent open bidding) and copies are just given to the advertiser-LGU for paper compliance to auditing and accounting requirements. Do we see our friend, the unyielding Lydia Colobong Arilla of Agno nodding in full agreement?

We got into a little chat with Santo Tomas’ super-efficient lady treasurer Julieta Alvarado some weeks back and, according to her, LGUs who have used the e-procurement swear they were able to buy their supplies or services from the DBM at almost half the usual commercial price!

That alone, if not the sheer convenience of shopping right in the comfort of one’s office with just the click of a mouse, should be enough reason for cash-strapped towns or cities to go the e-procurement way. But many of them still don’t; neither do they post their bidding notices on the Net.

We recall some district engineers of the DPWH too citing the government e-procurement policy as the reason for the absence now of their once familiar invitation to bid notices in local newspapers. They are now supposedly posting their big-budgeted projects for bidding in the DBM website. Which, as far as that agency is concerned, should somehow minimize collusion and hanky-panky in the awarding of winning bidders – or, has it?

It is time, government, i.e. local government units, show they indeed are into belt-tightening as a way of safeguarding the people’s money given in their care. And they can do this by doing away with frivolous spending and really implementing the enshrined policy of accepting only those bids that “are most advantageous to government”– not to the approving or signing officers.

* * * * *

You should hear Dagupan’s young Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez mouthing his piece on the current debates at the Consultative Commission to which he is now a member. He was appointed by President Arroyo last October 25. He admits to being a bit awed – at first – by the likes of the, Espinas, Abuevas, Garcias dissecting issues on the Constitution on the discussion floor but eventually getting the hang of it and once I n a while now putting in a word edgewise among the debate giants.

The Con-Com commissioners (to include Alvin, of course) – or at least five or six of them — are coming to town on December 2 for the Pangasinan leg of their mandated consultations with the people. The consultation-workshop will be at the Regency Hotel grand ballroom in Calasiao, simultaneous with one to be held in Vigan, where another set of commissioners will “commune” with the people. The following day, Dec. 3, the two groups will converge in La Union for a public dialogue.

But back to VM Alvin, the young executive is now so full of ideas on just what an ideal structure and form of government should be that, chances are you’d go away from a conversation with him infected by all the political thoughts he spews. Trust us, we did.

At least now we know that a federal system of government, for a change, would be good overall … if not for one thing: the national (federal) guys would still be the ones doing the revenue collection with the provinces (states) still awaiting the release of their share from them.

But don’t take it from us, ask Commissioner Alvin. He has a mouthful to say on that.

WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza

Until last Sunday, I did not know what a call center looks like and I had no idea what it does.

Thanks to Bitstop Computers’ Wilson Chua. Along with other media colleagues, Wilson invited us to the inauguration of the FarmOut Central Intouch (Foci) Inc., a business process outsourcing company (read: call center), located in Bonuan.

More than the hi-tech equipment in a speech laboratory-like set up, what amazed us was that Foci is the first and the only call center in the Ilocos Region. It is also a local company, with its few investors consisting mostly of prominent Dagupeños and Pangasinenses, who, like Wilson, risked to “tread on the path few dared take.”

“A lot of the experts have said that we can’t do it in Pangasinan. We don’t have enough talents. We don’t have a US office. We don’t have the technology. We don’t have millions needed to set up a call center. We are here to prove the experts wrong,” Wilson said during the press briefing.

And prove them wrong they did. From an original four agents when Foci conducted its “dry run” early this year, the company now has 26 agents and the number will soon double with Foci’s winning of more accounts from companies based mostly in the US and UK.

In fact during that inauguration, Wilson was quite frantic in inviting us, having been told earlier that morning that no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be there to formally open Foci. PGMA, of course, never came. But her non-appearance did not dampen our interest to cover the call center inauguration because to us, it was a story.

Foci’s success may also be attributed to its belief that “no job is too small.” Wilson says that while other call centers require a minimum of 50 to 100 seats, FOCI makes no such demand.

“This is to enable smaller companies to compete head on with larger companies and become more focused in relationships with their valued clients. We can start with a single seat. We grow when their business grows,” Wilson added.

Board of Investments Governor Connie Perez, who cut the ceremonial ribbon, was ecstatic about the fast growth that Foci has achieved. She was telling us that the first time she visited the call center, it was just a one-room affair “and now, it has an additional room.”

But what Mark August Viegelman, Foci director, is proud of is the fact that their call center agents are all from Pangasinan and they receive salaries comparable to those received by their counterparts in Makati. And as such, they are in a better position because they will be able to save more by no longer paying for apartment rentals. They are also with their families.

Wilson swore that if we close our eyes as we listen to Foci agents handle their clients we would think that we are hearing an American or a British national. This proves, he said, that we have a local pool of talents.

But what impressed me most was Wilson’s vision and enterprising spirit, as articulated in Bitstop Computers’ profile. It said: “So where will Bitstop be five years hence? Bitstop aspires to be globally competitive and hopes to provide new product and service offerings on a global scale. These products will of course still be branded with the unique Bitstop trademarks of high level of expertise, commitment, dedication and drive.”

I’m sure this also applies to Foci.

QUICKQUOTE: Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve. — Martin Luther King