SPRUCING UP. One always knows when a city celebration is up by the way workers, even in the heat of the noontime sun, feverishly rush the painting of bridges, walls and other areas most visible to visitors like the balikbayans coming in for the Dagupan City Fiesta that starts December 15 till the end of the year. (Star Photo by Butch F. Uka)

TAYUG — The Paas murder and theft case is taking a much more serious turn here with regional trial court Judge Ulysses Raciles Butuyan, who had dismissed the complaint against the two suspects last November 30 now reportedly getting death threats.

Butuyan admitted last week to several mediamen that there is a present threat to his life by people whose identities he prefers not to divulge as yet. A source close to the judge said the National Bureau of Investigation has likewise told him that the threat to the court magistrate’s and the two suspects lives “is real.”

Butuyan who presides over RTC Branch 51 here did not reply to queries sent by this paper thru text message on whether he has requested for a security detail for himself and at the RTC compound here.

Some Tayug residents however confirmed that some policemen have been seen stationed at the trial court building a few days after the judge issued his resolution dismissing the Paas case.

A hot verbal tussle had ensued earlier between the lawyer-son of murdered Pasig City RTC judge Estrellita Paas and Butuyan when the latter refused to issue arrest warrants against the two suspects, Jornald Vargas and Elmer Cabiles, before he (Butuyan) has satisfied himself that there was sufficient evidence and “probable cause” to do so.

Ronald Paas, the murdered judge’s son standing as private prosecutor of the case,
said Butuyan’s resolution dismissing the case was unfair because it was issued haphazardly, noting that “it took him (Butuyan) only nine days to throw away the case.”

Judge Paas was brutally killed inside their home in Natividad sometime in the afternoon of September, this year. At that time, her husband was out attending a school activity.

Butuyan said he waited in his sala till the afternoon of Nov. 30 for the formal written motion of the Paas counsel calling for his inhibition from hearing the case but this never came. Thus, he said, he had to dismiss the cases on the ground of lack of probable cause against the accused or else he would be accused of being lazy and slow in his job.

When the motion did come at 9:30 a.m. of December 2, Butuyan issued an order stating that the Court finds no compelling reason to address the issues raised by Paas but nevertheless noted it.

Court sources said they believe the judge had doubts about the alleged confession and statements of suspect Cabiles taken by investigating authorities, after noting several inconsistencies in these.

The Paas family thru counsel however maintained that the police as well as the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor conducted a thorough investigation.

A separate source from Tayug said “there was more than meets the eye” in the celebrated murder case and that the two suspects caught by the police may not have acted just by themselves in the gruesome murder.

THE Department of trade and Industry has fielded inspection teams in all markets in Pangasinan to check on stores selling sub-standard Christmas lights and decorations.

Daria Mingaracal, DTI provincial officer, said the inspection is intended to protyect the buying public from materials of sub-standard quality that could endanger their lives and properties.

Stressing that the standard Christmas lights and decors have corresponding ‘PS’ mark on their labels, Mingaracal called on the public to be careful when buying these materials in order to avoid fire as what happened in some places in the past.

Informed that sub-standard Christmas lights and decors may now be flooding the markets here, Mingaracal ordered the DTI inspection teams to seize all sub-standard materials on sale in every store.

Mingaracal said the inspection teams have so far only been warning storeowners not to sell materials without the required PS mark that they may have obtained from fly-by-night suppliers.

She advised storeowners to return these materials to their suppliers or else have these changed with the standard materials

Storeowners ignoring this warning can be subjected to another inspection by the team to catch them on the spot and impose outright the corresponding penalties, she said.

HOUSE Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Jr., yesterday lauded the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) for scoring what he called a historic breakthrough in the government’s campaign to bring more food on the dining table through its research on white shrimp called Penaeus vannamei.

Speaking during the formal launching of the nationwide accreditation program for the propagation of Penaeus vannamei at the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center ( NIFTDC) here, de Venecia said research on this kind of shrimp could bring about increased production of shrimps throughout the country.

The launching program coincided with a seminar-workshop on Penaeus vannamei culture with experts on aquaculture from the Southeast Asia Fisheries-Development Center and NIFTDC as resources speakers.

The activity was attended by shrimp and prawn raisers from Pangasinan, Zambales, Batangas and various parts of the country.

“We’ve done a lot of focus and priorities on this project on vannmei shrimp so aquaculture businessmen will have a choice,” de Venecia said, reminding that the indigenenous black tiger prawn is still around and is still widely used by aquaculturists.

De Venecia supported the ongoing research on Penaues vannamei by the BFAR, using an initial of 86 breeders imported by the country from Hawaii sometime in August this year.

He recalled that as an entrepreneur 30 years ago, he was among those who brought the black tiger prawns to Pangasinan. There were many entrepreneurs who succeeded in their ventures but there were others who also failed because of the widespread diseases suffered by the specie.

Between the tiger prawns and the vannamei, the latter could be a better help in the campaign to ensure food sufficiency in the country because it can be raised in sea, fresh and brackish water, de Venecia said.

Tiger prawns thrive only in brackish water.

Dr. Wilfredo Yap of SEAFDEC earlier said at present the shrimp industry in the Philippines is down compared to other shrimp-producing countries in Asia, South America and other parts of the world, thus the need for disease-free Penaeus vannamei.

De Venecia said that China, and Thailand amassed great export volumes in the white shrimp industry, thus he is supporting the great strides of scientists of BFAR to increase shrimp production in the Philippines for local consumption and export.

De Venecia, along with BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento and NIFTDC chief Westly Rosario distributed certificates of accreditation to 12 entrepreneurs all over the country who will go into initial propagation and development of the Penaeus vannamei specie.

He stressed that he is pushing for the vannamei because the latter can be raised in the same pond with bangus and tilapia, which are widely raised in almost all parts of the country.

DAGUPENOS are being asked to decorate their homes and hang lanterns by their windows as part of the Filipino Christmas tradition and the Dagupan City Fiesta from Dec. 15 to 30 this year.

The call was made by Councilor Alex de Venecia, hermano mayor of the Dagupan Fiesta, who said these are intended to welcome balikbayans who are flocking to the city during Christmas and the fiesta observance, eager to see the old traditions back home.

Up to 1,000 or more visiting overseas Pangasinenses are coming to Dagupan City this yuletide season, a highlight of which is the crowning of Mrs. Dagupan International and her royal court, all of them U.S.-based.

There will also be reunions of graduates of the Dagupan City National High School and the University of Pangasinan (formerly Dagupan Colleges) High School that will be attended by alumni now living or working overseas.

In deference to the present economic crisis however, de Venecia urged residents to make their Christmas and fiesta celebration as simple as possible but still meaningful.

POZORRUBIO – A local bakery here was padlocked or temporarily closed after 33 persons, in two batches, were hospitalized in a case of mass poisoning registered last Nov. 27 and Dec. 3 this year after eating supposedly contaminated bread.

All the victims suffered stomach ache, dizziness, followed by vomiting minutes after eating bread they bought on separate occasions from the Alvin’s Bakery owned by Domingo Mandocdoc, located on Caballero street in downtown Pozorrubio.

First to be hospitalized last Nov. 27 were Mar Munar, 16, his brothers Heron Mark,5; John Paul, 3;Glen Munar, 1, all of barangay Palac-palac, this town.

Hospitalized last Dec. 3 were 29-year old Analiza Perez and 28 others, from barangays Imbalbalatong, Rosario, Sugcong and Villegas, all in Pozorrubio.

At least 24 of them were rushed to the Pozorrubio Community Hospital and discharged on the same day or the day after.

The rest were rushed to the Region 1 Medical center in Dagupan City, Sacred Heart Hospital and Don Amadeo Perez Memorial District Hospital, both in Urdaneta City; Zabala Hospital in Binalonan and Bautista Clinic in Pozorrubio and have since been discharged.

Doctors said none of the victims ever became serious.

Acting on the complaints of relativesof those hospitalized, the municipal health officer seized some samples of bread and their ingredients from the bakery.

Mandocdoc, the owner, extended financial assistance to all the victims of the alleged food poisoning.

An unverified report stated that the bakery might have used contaminated or expired milk in making bread causing the eaters to suffer severe stomach ache and show other signs of food poisoning.

THE National Commission for the Culture and the Arts (NCCA) through the National Committee on Literary Arts (NCLA) formally launched the “Ubod New Authors Series,” which featured 40 of Philippine literati’s newest gems, at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) Main Lobby, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, last Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m.The series consists of 50-page chapbooks (5½” x 8½”) of selected poems, fiction, creative nonfiction and drama in English, Filipino and other Philippine languages written by young and promising Filipino writers. Ubod is the Tagalog and Cebuano word for “heart extracted out of palm or bamboo.”

Presidential assistant on culture and NCCA executive director Cecile Guidote Alvarez, CCP vice president and artistic director Fernando C. Josef and NCLA head Joselito Zulueta presented the first copies of “Ubod” to the authors.

An overview of the series was presented by Ricky de Ungria, UP Mindanao chancellor and former head of the NCLA from 1998 to 2001, when “Ubod” was first hatched.

The writers of the series are Sid Hildawa, Naya Valdellon, Gabriela Lee, Raul Moldez, Rosendo Makabali and Ralph Semino Galan for poetry in English; Joseph Salazar, Edgar Calabia Samar, Richard Gappi, Joselito de los Reyes, Joselyn Floresca, Enrico Torralba, Marieta Culibao, and Jema Pamintuan for poetry in Filipino; Santiago Villafania for poetry in Pangasinan; and Estellito Baylon Jacob for poetry in Bicolano.

Also included in the series are the works of Georgina Verdolaga and Maryanne Moll for creative nonfiction in English; Debbie Ann Tan, Christopher Gozum, and Liza Magtoto for drama in English; and Bay-viz Canleon, Edward Perez, Dennis Marasigan and Chris Martinez for drama in Filipino.

A TASK force was created by Mayor Benjamin Lim to adopt an action plan for the prevention, control and containment of avian influenza which threatens to go pandemic.

Lim said he issued Executive Order No. 309 because of the serious warning on the outbreak of bird flu in the country, thus the need to prepare for such dreaded eventuality.

The task force has been specifically directed to adopt measures for:

*Prevention of the entry of the H5N1 strain of bird flu virus,
*Prevention of the spread of the virus from the bird to bird,
*Prevention of the spread from bird to humans,
*Management of cases,
*Slowing of spread of the virus from human to human,
*Management of explosive situations,
*Management of public anxiety, and;
*Mitigating the socio-economic impact of avian and pandemic influenza.

Named chairman of the Task Force is City Health Officer Leonard Carbonell with Dr. Jesus Canto, chief of the Region I Medical Center as co-chairman.

Other members of the task force are Councilor Librada Reyna, City Veterinarian Fernando Banchiran , City Agriculture Officer Emma Molina, Dr. Gregoria Villaflor, President of the Pangsinan Medical Society; Dr. Jose Soriano, Provincial Health Officer of the Department of Health in Pangasinan;

Dr. Felipe Rodriguez, director of the Pangasinan Medical Center; Dagupan City Lions Club president Carmelita Duque, Liga ng mga Barangay president Eric Munoz, City Schools Division Officer-in-Charge Aurora Domingo; Public Order and Safety Office Chief Robert Mejia, City Information Officer Orpheus Velasco and Julie Perez, president of the Malimgas Aliguas Dagupan Vendors Ferderation.

SAYAN INDIO
Mario F. Karateka

DITAD San Fabian manaya, dimad kabasil na PTA Resort, no iner maawa-awang so dalin daray Perez tan arom niran mayayaman, walay singa 35 ektaryan asaliw na sakey negosyante ya natan et paalageyan (ed limaran ektarya labat na intiron 35 ektarya) na baleg a resort o ligliwan-painawaan na saray walay pakayarin mangaliw o mangabang.
Tawagen dayan San Fabian Beach Villas.

Anggaponi so nengneng to natan balet lapud talagan walay pakayari daray totoon walad beneg tonian proyekto, ilaloan yon kasompal na pigay bulan o sakey taon labat walaladtan so alay dakep ya paraiso.

Diad tuay tua say tawag dad satan a banda et Paraiso ni Ana; awey labat no akin et ontan so tawag na say lakin walan makankayarian na satan a baleg a dalin. Say kabat labat na karaklan et asingger met ed tagey so akankayarian niya.

Masyadoy ibubulaslas na baley na San Fabian tan naituring ya mapalar iray onlugar tan ontan met saray opisyales dadauloan nen Meyor Mojamito Libunao ta anggan aglara mangastos ed promosyon o pangikabkabat na baley da et nakabkabat met la iya panamegley na saray angkabaleg ya “investors” o managpoonan ya laba-labay day wadtan a manpainawa ed gilig na dayat sakop na San Fabian. Makalmo ira, makalmo met so baley ed buis da.

Tongtongey tua, walay baleg a bentahe daray bal-baley ya walad gilig na dayat ta natural so atraksiyon da ed totoo – tan managpoonan.

Insan, duman-duma met no say manonaan ya “agent” o managlakom parad lugar mo et singa kalibre tan indengan nen Ispiker Dyo de Benesya ta lanti sakop to iya so komapat a distrito. Nagkalaotla sirin no sakey agew bigla labatlan magmaliw iyan Praym Minister tayo.

IT is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game, this problem on illegal squatters or, as euphemistically termed by welfare agencies, “informal settlers.”

In all parts of the country, this is a problem that defies even the most patient, dynamic and psychological solutions put forth by local officials to prevent the undue self-appropriation of public lands by the assorted homeless sectors out there.

In just one area of Dagupan, in Bonuan Binloc, this wild squatting especially on accreted lands is more pronounced than ever now. To its credit, the city government has moved to somehow curb it by taking “pre-emptive” action that is alas, somehow too, pre-empted by the fast-moving squatters.

The recent announcement about the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office finally approving the “much delayed” miscellaneous lease agreement (MLA) for at least two accreted land sites in Binloc at the BFAR area is a most welcome move by that agency.

Having dragged its feet in taking action on the city government request made a long time ago, a few enterprising souls have already moved in, we hear, to find their own Canaan in these public lands. The city government could only feebly put up warning signs against illegal settlers not to occupy the accreted lands and not much else, without the official and direct seal of approval by DENR It is good the DENR finally got around to giving its “seal” in favor of government interests over the Binloc accreted lands.

Sadly, the general impression as regards activities of illegal settlers, especially of the more “influential” kind, is that some unscrupulous staff and officers of DENR are themselves tolerating squatting by their very inaction, for one reason or a thousand more.

It is time that agency moves positively and concretely to dispel that notion and really move in unison with local governments trying to stem the growing tide of illegal squatting in as innovative and creative ways as they can.