ALAMINOS CITY – An investigation is now going on to determine the veracity of the allegation of a ranking official of the Department of Health regional office that some of the personnel of a government hospital in Pangasinan are using prohibited and or regulated drugs even while on duty.

Provincial Administrator Virgilio Solis has ordered an investigaton of all personnel of the provincial government-run Western Pangasinan District Hospital in this city, some of whom were reported to be using prohibited and or regulated drugs.

The allegation came from Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, chief of the standards and regulatory division of the Department of Health regional office and also chief of the Bureau of Food and Drugs in the region, who said some of these personnel are even administering these prohibited and illegal drugs to themselves.

Jacinto however has not substantiated his allegation, including his earlier disturbing claim that some doctors of government hospitals in Pangasinan were prescribing and dispensing counterfeit or fake medicines to their patients.

Nevertheless, Solis ordered WPDH officer-in-charge Susan Meriño to conduct the investigation on the matter while he (Solis) conducts his own discreet investigation.

Meriño said he already met some of her personnel last Friday who even agreed to voluntarily submit themselves to drug test in order to disprove Jacinto’s “very sweeping” allegation.

Solis said Jacinto should be man enough to substantiate his allegation by naming names of WPDH personnel concerned because unless he does this, every doctor and nurse in that hospital are suspects.

A lawyer, Solis said he cannot prevent the employees from filing cases for damages against Jacinto if the result of the drug test will show they are negative of prohibited and or regulated drugs because the latter’s allegation has ridiculed and scandalized their lives. (PNA)

A member of the Consultative Commission on Charter Change has expressed the need to amend the national patrimony provision in the 1987 constitution to make the Philippines more investment-friendly just like the rest of developing nations in Asia and the world.

Saying that the national patrimony provision is as important as the change in form, system and structure of government, Dagupan City Vice Mayor and ConCom member Alvin Fernandez Jr. said the Philippines can become more competitive if it will remove economic restrictions on foreigners investing their money into the country.

Fernandez invited the people of Pangasinan to attend a consultation to be conducted by the body on December 2 and let their choices of amendments on the 1987 Constitution be known and heard. The consultation with various sectors of the society in Pangasinan will be held at the Regency Hotel in Calasiao with up to eight ConCom members coming, he said.

Fernandez expressed confidence that an amendment to the national patrimony provision could be the key to the growth of the economy as it would attract more investors who will open jobs for the unemployed and underemployed citizens.

More foreign investments in the Philippines could reverse the trend that made the government the number one employer of the people in this country, Fernandez said.

Saying the restrictions of land ownership by 40 per cent to foreigners imposed by the 1987 charter had discouraged investments, Fernandez expressed confidence that the Philippines can still catch up with the developing economies if the national patrimony provision in the 1987 charter is amended.

Fernandez cited the case of mining which failed to take off because of the provision limiting foreigners from owning more than 40 per cent of share of business in the Philippines.

Only few years after it was ravaged by war, Vietnam has now overtaken the Philippines because the constitution of the former is more investment-friendly, the ConCom member added.

This, he added, was the same strategy that propelled the growth of China, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries of the world.

Maintaining that the economic restrictions to foreigners put the Philippines behind its neighbors in all aspects of development, Fernandez cited the case of Thailand that received an investment of eight billion dollars last year, as compared to only 800 million dollar investment for the Philippines.

ACTIVE participation of the community has brought very positive results to the school/community nursery program of City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim that seeks to improve food security in the barangays..

Most barangay councils and parent-teacher community associations (PTCA) in the four school districts of Dagupan have pooled their efforts for the construction of fish tanks for aquaculture development.

These include the Don Federico Elementary School and the Pogo-Lasip Elementary School.

Fish tanks substituted for the absence of fishponds in these schools while the East Central Elementary School PTCA simply helped improve a fishpond dike.

“The school/community nursery serves as a show window of the city government’s service delivery and assistance to the community,” City Agriculture Officer Emma Molina said.

The National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center of the local Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in coordination with the barangay council donated the aquaculture products raised in the school nursery like bangus, hito and tilapia.

According to Agricultural Technologist and Project Coordinator Alberto de Vera, Jr., the program which serves as a technical support to the aquaculture, livestock, poultry and crop production of Dagupan, is also profitable even on a small-scale basis.

Bangus was recently harvested in the nursery of the Lucao Elementary School led by Barangay Captain Marcelino Fernandez and School Principal Marilou Llamas.

The bangus was sold to the community and the income augmented the school fund.

Fernandez expressed support to the program which he believes should be sustained because it forms part of the 10-point agenda of the Lim administration while Llamas stressed the nursery generates additional fund for the school and highlights the transfer of technology to students.

Apart from aquaculture, agriculture, poultry and livestock are raised in the school/community nursery of the nine pilot schools and the rest of public elementary schools.

Most of the teachers from the schools finance the procurement of poultry and livestock while the City Agriculture Office donates vegetable and fruit seeds.

The products are also sold to the community to generate additional school fund.

De Vera also commended the initiative of the schools in converting vacant school areas to form part of the nursery.

These areas used to be grassy and were possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes but were cleared and tapped for planting vegetables and fruits.

Pilot schools that have successfully launched the nursery are the West Central Elementary School I and Lucao Elementary School in District I; East Central Elementary School and the Pogo-Lasip Elementary School in District II; Bonuan Boquig Elementary School; Federico N. Ceralde Elementary School and the Leon-Francisco Maramba Elementary School in District III; and the Carael Elementary School and Juan P. Guadiz Elementary School in District IV. – (Sheila H. Aquino)

Giant sea turtle saved from butchering returned to ‘home’
A GIANT sea turtle cared for in one of the research tanks of the Integrated Technology Development Center (NIFTDC) in Dagupan City soon after it was saved from being butchered in Lingayen town was returned to the sea late last week.

Reggie Regpala, Aquaculturist 1 of the center, said the aquatic animal was brought in by residents of barangay Maniboc in Lingayen led by their barangay captain Elizardo Laureta who seized the same from a fisherman who had tied it and was preparing to bring it home for butchering.

The fisherman, whose name was not immediately known, said he caught the turtle with his net while fishing along the coastal waters of the Lingayen Gulf last Nov. 17 in the morning.

Knowing that the fisherman’s catch was a sea turtle belonging to an endangered specie that must be protected, other fishermen went to report the matter to Laureta.

Laureta lost no time in going to the seashore to look for the fisherman. Once he saw him, he asked for the sea turtle which the fisherman readily brought out and gave to him.

Regpala said the turtle had to be treated first of injuries in the body which it suffered after being tied, before it was put into the tank filled with about four feet deep of sea water.

It was not clear by whose authority the turtle was released.

Regpala could not say how old the sea turtle was but judging from the circumference of its oblong-shaped shell, it could now be more than 10 to 15 years old or even older.

The sea turtle was kept in the tank temporarily along with three other sea turtles that are already there, to await final disposition from proper higher officials.

The turtle, along with other turtles there, appeared friendly, oftentimes surfacing from the water to let people touch its shell and head.

THE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is putting up a multi-million peso modern pathological and infectious waste disposal system at the Region 1 Medical Center here, soon to be the pilot all over the country.

This was disclosed by Dr. Jesus Canto, R1MC chief, after Jorge Emmanuel, lead international technical consultant of the UNDP Global Environment Facility called on him last Tuesday to announce the project.

R1MC is one of only three hospitals in the country to have the facility, Canto said, adding that the other one is the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital located in San Carlos City.

The third beneficiary of the project is a big government hospital in Metro Manila.

Canto said R1MC will provide the location including the needed infrastructures, as its counterpart to the project.

Saying the project is a big boon for the management and control of hazardous and infectious wastes, Canto stressed that the project will innovate on the present system R1MC has adopted in this area for the last two years.

The system of depositing the treated wastes in vault is working well but this will last only for three more years, Canto admitted.

R1MC and the privately-owned Villaflor Memorial Doctors Hospital were the only two hospitals in Pangasinan found by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to be taking care of their infectious and hazardous wastes.

The others have yet to put up their respective facilities with which to treat and store their hazardous wastes.

Canto said the UNDP project will provide the proper mechanism and treatment to prevent the release of hazardous dioxine and mercury into the soil, water and air, thus making the community safer.

At least one million dollars will be spent for the projects in the few pilot hospitals in the Philippines, Canto said, pointing out that the province of Pangasinan will get a lion’s share of the fund.

A JAPANESE lady scholar has impressed no end Dagupeños and Pangasinenses when she arrived here in October this year to gather materials for her dissertation for a doctorate degree at Kobe University in her country.

Thirty-year old Masako Inagaki is here alone to prepare a treatise on the topic “Politicians and their relationship with the people of Dagupan City” in order to complete her requirements for a doctorate degree.

Wonder of wonders, Ms. Inagaki, despite her fair complexion and Japanese features, could easily be mistaken for an ordinary Filipina because she speaks fluent Tagalog.

Try talking in English to this petite and bespectacled Japanese lady from the industrial and port city of Kobe in southern Japan, and you would be awed to hear her answering you in Tagalog.

Well-versed in international politics, Ms. Inagaki confessed she cultivated her Tagalog tongue when she was taking a masteral degree in cultural studies in Kobe University where she also earned a degree in political science.

The scholarly Ms. Inagaki had three professors who were fluent in Tagalog as they stayed in the Philippines and mingled with Filipinos for three or more years in the past.
These professors taught her the Tagalog language, Philippine culture and Philippine literature.

She could even be more familiar with the Philippine language, culture and literature than most Filipinos, past and present.

Her routine in gathering her material about politics in Dagupan includes a daily visit to a local newspaper office on A.B. Fernandez Avenue, where she pores over newspaper files include articles on Dagupan politics.

WOWOWEE IN DAGUPAN. The newest rave of noontime television shows in the Philippines, Wowowee, over ABS-CBN took Dagupan by storm last Friday and Saturday with its cast led by colorful male host Willie Revillame doing personal appearances and the grand show yesterday at the CSI The City Mall. Revillame and his three female co-hosts in the show also came for a press conference at the Star Plaza Hotel. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

MR. GABRIEL CARDINOZA
Executive Editor
The Pangasinan Star

Dear Sir,

Greetings.

This is in connection with the Headline of your newspaper Pangasinan Star “Truth at its most brilliant” dated November 20, 2005 Vol. XX No. 14, entitled, SP PASSES PARKING FEE ORDINANCE.

One of your distinguished associate editors, Mr. Daniel ‘Danny’ O. Sagun singled out this councilor and MADE IT APPEAR that I am the chairman of Peace and Order that is primarily charged to conduct a public hearing PURSUANT TO YOUR REPORT in connection with the ordinance in question.

With all due respect to the good editor who knows the facts, from the official records let it be made clear that Councilor Joey Tamayo is NOT Chairman on Peace and Order. The current Order Committee chair is distinguished Councilor Hon. Luis ‘Chito’ Samson, Jr., author of the Pay Parking Ordinance.

Contrary to the news item published, the Pay Parking Ordinance was never committed to the Committees on Tourism and on Human Rights which I currently hold as Chairman thereof. Be that as it may, please check the Sangguniang Panglungsod records.

In the light of these facts, it is requested that you please rectify your report considering that the Committees on Tourism and Human Rights, to which I am assigned, were not charged, much less directed by the Committee of the whole to conduct public hearing.

It is the Committee on Peace and Order that has prime jurisdiction over the Pay Parking Ordinance reported.

With full faith that your good newspaper stands for “Truth at its most brilliant”, it is hoped that said report be rectified to give justice and CREDIT that is due to the current chairman of the Peace and Order Committee, Councilor Luis Samson, Jr..

Very truly yours,

Jose Netu ‘Joey’ M. Tamayo
Chairman, Committees on Tourism; Human Rights
Sangguniang Panglungsod
Dagupan City

SAYAN INDIO
Mario Karateka

DIA’D sayan kolum ko, labay kon itda’y pankanawnawan mangusar na espayok si kaaron Sonny Villafania ya akapansulat lamet ed ‘online’ ya ‘blogspot’ na dyaryo tayon Pangasinan Star. Labay kon sikatola so mangikongkong na pankaukulay pundo parad samay tinogyop nen Gobernador Viktor a Provincial Council for Culture and Arts.

No manaya makapantotongtong iran dua met ed telepono nen Gob, di lukas sirin so komunikasyon – parad ibulaslas tan isekder na irararo tayon salitan Pangasinan, panamegley na masimoon a imano tan tulong na Anak nen Aguedo.

Nia pay sulat nen Sonny sirin:

“Ay naimano yo manaya iman so in-post kon komento.

Dia’d say tua, abayag ko lan akabatan so pangitogiop na Pangasinan Arts and Culture Council. No ag ak nalilingo abitla to la’ya nen datin DTI Director Jaime Lucas ed siak nen 2003 ni.

Kapigan labat impalapag na opisina nen Gobernador so impangipaoay to’y Executive Order No. 058-2005 (Reconstituting the Provincial Council for the Culture and the Arts in the Province of Pangasinan). Akala ak na kopia na sayan Executive Order nanlapu mismo ed opisina na Gobernador via email.

Say nibagak labat ed sayan impangitalindeg nen Gov. Agbayani ed kulturan Pangasinan, MARAKEP tan itdan to komun na tagano tan pundo iyan proyikto ta aya so baleg a pankaukulan naani na apili to ‘ran kabiangan na Provincial Council for the Culture and Arts.

Marakep a kurang so pansukisok da’y peteg a petsa’y impangiletneg ed luyag tayon Pangasinan. Anggapo’y arum a pakalmoan anganko ed saya no ag ta dia ed saray daan ya aoaran ya isusulat da’ra’y praylin Kastila.

Manaya, kaluyagan a Mario Karateka, tuan lurey ko labat so inkuan kon “Say amtak ag makatalus na Pangasinan so Gobernador tayo.” Amtak ya makatalus na salita tayo si Gov. Agbayani ta tinaoagan to ak la aminsan dia ed Manila. Akapan tongtong kamin agano ed telepono usar so salitan Pangasinan
No manpapasaring ak bilang ed sikato, ed panamegley na anlong tan komento, aya et pililiknak labat bilang kabiangan na Ulupan na Pansiansia’y Salitan Pangasinan tan sakey met ed saray totoon pilalek dan ombulaslas so kulturan Pangasinan.”

AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.

MAYBE it was just her fraternal or maternal instincts getting the better of her but surely we can empathize with woman colleague Eva Visperas’ little “outburst” at the palpable absence of many media practitioners and “leaders” of the Pangasinan press from the wake and funerals of three mediamen who passed away recently – Napoleon Donato, Maximo Mendiguarin and Dominic Villafuerte.

To be sure, her own clique in the local media (from the Patrima particularly) were very much in the wakes and funerals of our three departed colleagues; that’s one thing you can’t take away from them, and they’ve proven they are sincere condolers. The Pangasinan media is that much richer for their display of oneness and sympathy for fallen comrades.

Eva may have been however a little unfair, to say the least, to imply hardness of heart of other colleagues whom she may not have physically seen in those times when she was present at the wake or at the funeral. For one, at Nap’s funeral – rather, cremation – many other media “leaders” were there, we can vouch for that, who need not be mentioned in this space anymore since that would be unseemly — trotting out a list of who’s who in a morbid scene. And who could have guessed how many others went to the wakes or funerals in the other days, or hours, when Big Sister wasn’t there?

We do believe that, like praying, attendance at a wake or funeral should not be made a big thing of since it is a personal devotion between the dead and the living, and nobody else. It is not something one does to publicly profess deep colleagiality or kinship or worship of someone or something because that would be akin to the ways of the Pharisees, they who are wont to be seen and heard paying obeisance to their deities.

One last word to the wise, and just for the record, at Nap’s pre-cremation rites — not that it matters anyway because distant cousin Nap in his coffin wouldn’t’ even have known, but just to set the record straight (we hate even doing this at all, naming names that is!) — Patrima prexy Roland Hidalgo was there, and so was the other club’s chief Raul Tamayo during the final night of wake at Eternal Gardens.

Personally, of the three dead mediaguys, the only one we missed saying farewell to, (physically, we might stress, for Ms. Eva’s info) was Dong Villafuerte. That’s as sincere as we can get about this funeral attendance thing. Enough said. Makapabegas la.

* * * *

GRADE 1 and pre-elementary pupils of the towns of Basista, Labrador and Burgos here don’t to go absent or truant from their classes anymore for the “sacrificial” reason of working to help augment their family’s income in order to buy a ganta or two of rice for the dining table.

Government, thru the Department of Education and the National Food Authority, among other agencies, will be giving them their day’s daily rice needs – actually a kilo of rice each to the pupils in the target areas — for each day of school attendance as a form of incentive.

The Food for-School Program is a food subsidy package for young learners pre-identified as belonging to poor families by the Technical Working Group (TWG)composed of the National Nutrition Council , NFA, Department of Interior and Local Government, DepEd and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) .

A memorandum of agreement has been signed between DepEd and NFA for the delivery of the rice to school principals in identified schools of 5th and 6th class municipalities. Distribution will be based on a validated masterlist to be submitted by DepEd to NFA. This was an agreement forged during an orientation meeting among the agencies concerned at Teachers’ Camp in Baguio City last November 12.

Hitting two birds — school truancy and malnutrition among pupils — the program, to be very effective, must keep away those politicians who are quick to “ride”on such community-based programs and yes, school administrators too who might have other ideas with the commodity to be delivered under their care.

And if we sound too suspicious about these, it’s just because there is available and more than ample evidence of good programs going bad precisely because of such obnoxious ulterior motives among vultures in official clothes.

* * * *

SAID AND DONE: We’re saving our appreciating peso’s worth of comment on that ‘novel’ money-making, er, revenue-earning scheme, the pay parking ordinance, of the sangguniang panlungsod of Dagupan for next week. Having given our neighbor columnist below, DOS, the chance at first bat, we don’t want to fall guilty of doing an issue “overkill.” Just a small shot for now: There are intentions and there are motives. . . . We hope our good friend Councilor Joey Tamayo is not raising an issue on his having been misidentified by this paper as chair of the committee on peace and order of the Dagupan SP last week because he confuses The Pangasinan Star with the Sun-Star.Pangasinan.The latter, which folded up early this year, is identified with Mayor BSL…. Joey, we’re a purely independent (and proud) community newspaper, surviving by dint of hard-earned advertising and indelible newsman’s blood. We lick no asses to survive.