TORCHBEARER. A happy and playful group of City Hall officials and employees get the honor of getting their candles lighted by a torchbearing Mayor Benjamin S. Lim during the opening ceremonies for the Dagupan City Fiesta last Thursday, December 15. Lim and other city officials earlier led the ceremonial switch-on of the lights at the city’s giant Christmas Tree at the city plaza. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

BINALONAN – A driver of a delivery van of Nestle was shot and killed by six persons who failed to hijack his vehicle along the national highway in barangay Bugayong here at 4:30 a.m. last Wednesday.

The driver was identified as Jimmy Nobleza, 41, whose bloodies body was left by the suspects along the road in barangay Pasileng, Asingan less than two hours later.

Chief Inspector Napoleon Viray, chief of police of Binalonan, said Nobleza was taken hostage by the armed men after they failed to hijack the delivery van being drivern by him which had suffered a flat tire. Nobleza and his three crewmen were first held at bay by the occupants of a passing van as they were changing the tires of their vehicle. The fan had one tire blown up just before the men in the van stopped and held them up.

Nobleza’s three companions managed to run away, leaving Nobleza in the hands of the suspects.

Possibly frustrated after failing to open the delivery van in order to cart away its load of Nestle products, the suspects took Nobleza with them in their vehicles.

Probers theorize they shot Nobleza somewhere along the way and subsequently left his body along the roadside in barangay Pasileng.

The van’s crew went to the police station to report the matter. While they were still at the police station, the police received a report that a body with gunshot wounds was found in barangay Pasileng at about 6 a.m. It turned out to be Nobleza. (PNA)

By DANNY O. SAGUN
Associate Editor, The Pangasinan Star

LINGAYEN – The provincial police director has yet to submit his written reply to the memorandum of Gov. Victor E. Agbayani about the alleged proliferation of illegal activities in the province to include rampant operation of gambling machines, it was learned Thursday from Provincial Administrator Virgilio Solis.

Solis said that he has yet to hear from Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima on the progress, if any, of the police campaign against criminal activities two weeks after the issuance of the memorandum directing the police to institute immediate measures against criminality as well as illegal gambling activities.

His statement virtually confirms allegation by the media that Purisima, unlike his predecessors, has been difficult to reach. It was not immediately known if he has communicated to the governor or the provincial administrator by phone.

Apparently irked by Purisima’s silence and his no-show and inaccessibility to media, the administrator advised the PNP provincial director to be transparent and face the people and the media.

Radio reports said that video gambling machines like hataw and ameneng continue to proliferate in almost every corner of the province, indicating that Purisima and his men have not fully complied with the governor’s order.

Solis confirmed that hataw and ameneng operations continue as monitored by his office. “It’s a cat and mouse affair,” he noted, referring to the transfer of operation of the illegal video games from one place to another in case of raids.

On reports that names of some ranking police officials are being dropped by unscrupulous operators to gain leverage, Solis urged the media and the public to give him names and other details. “See me secretly, give particulars, so we can act fast,” he said in a radio interview.

A radio reporter reportedly overheard an operator from Dagupan City complaining that individuals sent to collect payola or protection money keep pestering him. The name of the provincial director even crops up in such remarks.

Solis however observed that dropping names of influential people is a common practice so that he needs specific reports about such allegations. Complaints from concerned parents and teachers have reached the governor prompting him to issue the directive to Purisima, it was learned.

Robbery-holdup incidents are also on the rise. The suspects have become so ruthless they do not think twice of shooting their victims as shown in the recent hold-up incidents in Binalonan and San Jacinto last Wednesday and similar robberies in the recent past.

THE Department of Public works and Highways is likely to oppose an ordinance approved by the Dagupan City council declaring portions of city and national roads here as pay parking areas without any prior consultation with the former.

DPWH Regional Director Fidel Ginez, in an interview Friday, said his office will not be commenting on the pay parking ordinance till after it is signed into law by Mayor Benjamin S. Lim

Offhand, Ginez maintained that national roads, although within Dagupan City, are under the jurisdiction of the DPWH.

“We might as well hand over all these roads to them so that we would no longer spend anything for their maintenance,” Ginez told newsmen with a hint of sarcasm. Public Works and Highways District Engineer Rodolfo Dion admitted that he was not invited when the Dagupan City council supposedly conducted a public hearing on the propose measure, otherwise he could have advised councilors that they must first enter into a memorandum of agreement with the DPWH headed by Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.

Ginez said his office will act accordingly if someone from the public will complain after the ordinance is finally signed into law and implemented.

Last week, city Administrator Rafael Baraan said the mayor is likely to sign the ordinance into law, except on the aspect of the 20-80 sharing basis in favor of the parking contractor.

Under the scheme, 20 percent will go to the city government and the bulk of 80 percent will go to a private contractor who will enter into a contract with the city government to operate the pay parking areas, issue tickets and collect parking fees.

Baraan, however, stressed that there is a need for the city to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the DPWH on the pay parking rule.

Baraan maintained that there is nothing wrong if Dagupan will charge parking fees because this is now being done in Manila, Baguio and other big cities.

He said he found nothing wrong with the pay parking ordinance as this is one way of regulating the use of roads and streets, some of which have been arrogated upon by owner of motor vehicles and business establishments for their own use.

ALTHOUGH many migratory birds from the Northern hemisphere are already here in the Philippines, the country remains safe from the onslaught of the dreaded avian flu and will hopefully continue to be so.

This was disclosed by Dr. Jesus Fantone, epidemiologist of the Department of Health who said as long as the migratory birds are not disturbed and mixed with local fowls which intermingling could spawn what he called a bird-to-bird transmission of the virus, the Filipinos are safe from the bird flu.

Speaking Thursday during a day-long orientation workshop on the prevention of avian flu at the Region 1 Medical Center here, Fantone said affliction of local fowls with bird flu is dangerous because from there, the possibility that the virus may transfer to humans increases.

He said this month is the start of migration of birds from China to the Philippines to escape the punishing winter season there but there is nothing to fear as all precautionary measures are in place to meet the threat of bird flu.

Fantone said China was listed by the World Health Organization as among 15 countries in the world where bird flu was detected. The others are South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Romania.
Dr. Jesus Canto, chief of R1MC, said the Philippines must be blessed as a country because despite its proximity to China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Indonesia, “our country remains bird flu-free till now”.

“But as the say, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. The avian flu might not hit us now and tomorrow but it will come, and if it does, we already know what to do,” he said.
Fantone said the people have nothing to fear because a nationwide alert system is now on with the Department of Agriculture put in charge.

More dangerous than the migratory birds, he said, are some rural Chinese nationals peddling their wares in the streets of Laoag and Bulacan, as if they had just entered the country illegally.
The DA is now monitoring several bird sanctuaries in the Philippines, warning people living near these areas not to disturb or hunt down the migratory birds.

Fantone called on the people to report immediately to authorities mass deaths of fowls in their areas. If it is confirmed to have been caused by bird flu, necessary measures, including quarantine of the affected area, can be done.

Mayor Benjamin Lim of Dagupan City lauded the workshop because it afforded participants the chance to know what really is bird flu and the most effective measure that can be done to prevent its spread. (PNA)

EVEN while facing a shortfall in revenue collection of P10 million, the city government nevertheless was able to give a P3,000 extra cash gift to its officials and employees.

This was confirmed by Councilor Michael Fernandez, chair of the council’s appropriation committee, who said the additional cash gift was provided although short by P2,000 of the P5,000 given to national government workers.

The amount did not come from savings but from part of the P2,246,000 that was part of the debt servicing account under the non-office appropriation of the 2005 budget.

Councilor Michael Fernandez, chair of the city council’s committee on finance, explained the Ordinance No. 1854 “reverted this amount to the unappropriated balance in the general fund” so that it can be used to pay for the extra bonus of employees and officials. This is in accordance with local government memorandum No. 2005-48 dated December 7, 2005.

The ordinance was approved in last Wednesday’s special session, the last session of the city council for the year.

Fernandez said part of the amount appropriated was also envisioned to serve as additional outlay for the maintenance and other operating expenses under the donations account of the Office of the City Mayor. Emergency workers and casuals in the city government were however not given their extra cash gift unlike those in the national government.

The emergency workers are in a pitiful situation as, instead of getting extra cash gift, they face the consequence of being laid off due to the tightening financial situation of the city government.

ALCALA – Desiring to improve further its delivery of basic services and development planning at the turn of the year, this town finalized its revised Revenue Code of 2005 and has set in place all systems for achieving sound financial financial status in 2006 and beyond.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan which reviewed the new municipal tax code passed by the Alcala sangguniang bayan led by Vice Mayor Clemente Arboleda, Jr. to attain the visions of the municipal administration headed by Mayor Manuel T. Collado, stamped its approval on the Code with slight corrections last week.

The provincial board’s move paved the way for a full implementation of the Revenue Code starting next year in what Sangguniang Bayan secretary Teresita A. Llarenas called “a vital piece of legislation that spells continuing progress of the town guided by the vision of its leaders.”

In an interview with Mayor Collado by the Pangasinan Star, he said it was about time a change in the municipal taxes and fees was implemented as the last tax code was drawn up over a dozen years ago when the peso was still much stronger than today.

Collado said services to constituents in these times of inflationary rates cannot but suffer unless local leaders summon the will and creativity to devise a better revenue system than what they presently have and one such way, he said, is an updated tax code.

He stressed that due public hearing was held on the proposed revenue code “and more or less, the people knew and understood how important such a measure is to the town’s overall development.”

He said the revenue to be realized from the Code will support major development programs particularly on health and sanitation. He took pride in the town’s having not just one but two municipal physicians, beating other bigger towns, despite Alcala being only a fourth-class town by local government code standards.

Collado added that Alcala now has a medical technician and laboratories to emphasize its seriousness in caring for public health — a subject his fellow Alcaleneans once experienced the glare of undue and unfair national and international publicity for at the height of the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) scare.

In 2004, Alcala was found in a Service Mission Attainment Report of the Local Government Performance Management System (LGPMS) to have been “very effective” in Administration specifically in the areas of “development planning, resource allocation and utilization, financial accountability, customer service, human resource management and development and slightly on revenue generation.”

A parallel move to improve the lives of Alcaleneans, most of whom depend on agriculture, has been set in motion likewise by Vice Mayor Arboleda, piloting a novel livelihood start-up capital project in one barangay as part of the town’s economic empowerment of the people.

The project works on a no-collateral loan for groups of residents who want to engage in productive undertakings but who have no money to do it.

A PARALLEL move will be conducted nationwide in conjunction with the holding of aConstituent Assembly by both the Senate and the House of Representatives for the purpose of amending the 1987 Constitution and pave the way for a historic shift from presidential to parliamentary form of government with a unicameral legislature.

House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. said this is the launching of the “ people’s initiative” by late December or the first or second week of January which is expected to discuss the proposed amendments to the Constitution as proposed by the Constitutional Commission, a work also expected of the yet to be convened constituent assembly.

De Venecia told newsmen Monday before enplaning back to Manila after a three-day speaking engagement in Pangasinan that the people’s initiative is a parallel act by he people themselves, which is the equivalent of the constituent assembly on the part of the Senate and the House.

He said the people’s initiative will be launched by governors, vice governors, board members, mayors, vice mayors and their councilors all over the Philippines with the support of all major political parties while the Constituent Assembly is formed by the Senate and the House .

The draft of the Constitution submitted by the ConCom last Thursday to President Arroyo will be turned over by her to Senate President Franklin Drilon and him ( de Venecia) as Speaker of the House so that the constituent assembly of the Senate and the House can act on the recommendation, he explained.

De Venecia recalled that almost 10 days ago the House already approved a concurrent resolution calling for the convening of the constituent assembly to approve the amendments to 1987 Constitution.

He said that if the Senate does not approve the resolution, the Filipino people themselves will initiate the move to amend the constitution through the people’s initiative.

It is the people’s initiative, he said, where the amendments to the Constitution as proposed by the ConCom would be presented.

At least 12 per cent of all the voters in the Philippines, or at least three per cent in any congressional district, is needed to endorse the amendments in writing, according to him.

The Speaker stressed that even if the Senate will not approve the resolution calling for the holding of Constituent Assembly, “we will handle ourselves repeatedly in order to get the Senators to act on our proposal”.

He added that another “remedy” is to ask the President to call a joint special session of the House and the Senate so that their members can debate on the proposed amendments to the Constitution, the outputs of which will be presented to the people in a nationwide plebiscite in April or May.

He said that two months after the approval of the proposed amendments which is either in January or February, a nationwide plebiscite would be held. Fifty per cent of all the voters is needed to declare the adoption of the first parliamentary government in Philippine history.

ROSALES—Poor and brilliant students can still make it abroad to learn new technologies through a bill being pushed in the House of Representatives.

Pangasinan Rep. Conrado Estrella III said under the “Educational Voucher” bill pending in Congress, students from poor families studying in public schools may have a chance to study abroad.

Estrella said under the bill, top three students in public schools would be sent to study abroad to learn new technologies available in those countries so that they can apply the same to improve existing conditions when they return home.

Speaking during the 2005 Biennial Convention of the Association of Public Schools, Colleges and Universities, Estrella expressed hope this would make Filipino students better able to compete with their counterparts in more advanced countries.

Since it is almost impossible for sons and daughters of farmers to get good education abroad, Estrella said the government must adopt this scheme in order to create a new generation of workforce that can stand side by side on even terms with the best workers in the world.

Estrella called on the government to give priority to education, agriculture and job generation which are the keys to the reduction of the national poverty level.

“It is imperative that we help the farmers and their families by developing agriculture. It is a must that they acquire modern and effective agricultural technologies so that they can improve their harvests and income,” he said.
Estrella revealed that there are many institutions and entities throughout the country that are willing to extend free education to students in foreign countries in partnership with the government.

ALAMINOS CITY – The city of Alaminos was chosen pilot area for the country’s first public and private cooperation in the eradication of tuberculosis, still the number one killer disease in the Philippines today.

The project was launched Thursday by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, represented by Ernesto Beltran, regional vice president of the Philippine Health Corporation (PhilHealth) in Northern Luzon.

The project will be jointly undertaken by and among the Rural Health Unit, the city government of Alaminos headed by Mayor Hernani Braganza, PhilHealth and Philippine Coalition Against Tuberculosis (PCAT), a private group.

Beltran said the city of Alaminos, through its RHU, will determine the TB patients who will undergo two-month continuous therapy under the Directly Observed Treatment Short Course (DOTS) for TB.

Braganza hailed the project that seeks to make Alaminos City TB-free in a short period, making itself as the model throughout the country.

Under the program, the DOH will provide the local RHU with all the medicines needed by the patients under the DOTS program for the TB patients. The RHU will strictly monitor the daily therapy of TB patients to ensure complete success.

On the other hand, PhilHealth will provide the salaries of extra personnel employed by the RHU to monitor patients and defray cost of their laboratory requirements, at P4,000 per patient.

Beltran said TB patients will not pay anything for the medicines given them. If they were to buy these from drug stores, each patient would pay P60,000 for the whole therapy course.

Regular monitoring of patients is needed in order to ensure that they really take their medicines daily for them to avoid relapse in which case, they may be dropped from the program.