BINALONAN – The provincewide campaign against slot machines, video karera and fruit game machines yielded positive result when 31 such machines belonging to 11 different owners were seized here last week.

It was the biggest operation against the banned machines which were reported to have recently proliferated in all nooks and crannies of the province as though replacing illegal jueteng that has grounded to a halt in the middle part of this year.

The campaign was pursuant to a directive of Police Provincial Director Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima addressed to all police chiefs in Pangasinan to finally eradicate all these illegal gambling and betting machines in the province.

Purisima acted following a memorandum of Gov. Victor Agbayani who noted the proliferation of slot machines, video karera and fruit game machines near schools and the widespread complaints of worried parents against the vices that lure their children.

SPO1 Cipriano Culliao, investigator of the Binalonan Police, said all the banned gadgets were seized in establishments near the Don Juan Macaraeg National High School in police operations led by Police Chief Sr. Inspector Napoleon Viray.

Agbayani also directed the Pangasinan police to take aggressive measures against highway robbers who have already victimized many people, especially those withdrawing money from banks.

Culiao said the owners of the seized banned machines are facing criminal complaints for violation of a municipal ordinance of Binalonan before the Provincial Prosecutors Office in Urdaneta City.
The slot machines, video karera and fruit game machines were reported to have been manufactured locally but their mechanical parts may have originated form either Taiwan or China.

AN epidemiologist of the Department of Health said based on current statistics of deaths from the dreaded avian influenza worldwide, the virus seems to be having difficulty transmitting to humans.

This piece of seemingly good news on the global fight against bird flu was among the bright spots reported by Dr. Jesus Fantone, DOH epidemiologist during the recent day-long workshop on the prevention of avian flu organized by the Region 1 Medical Center here as part of the province’s measures to prevent or control the disease, if it should ever break out here.

The Philippines, according to Fantone, remains as among only three bird flu-free countries in Asia today, to include Singapore and Brunei.

He said that some countries, instead of being transparent about the status of the disease in their areas in fact withheld releasing true statistics about local outbreaks from the World Health Organization.

Fantone said in the event the disease reaches our shores and communities, mass culling of poultry should be resorted to just as Hongkong did in 1997 to stop the H5NI epidemic there. Culling means the killing of infected chicken or fowl in an affected area so that the virus would have no chance of spreading or transferring to healthy fowls.

Among the measures suggested to and taken up by the Philippine government, he said, to prevent entry of the virus is a ban on the import of poultry, including foreign birds, and tight border guarding in the southern corridor of the country to prevent entry of humans who may be carrying the bird flu virus from their country of origin.

Local government units, Fantone added, may reinforce these measures by passing laws prohibiting people from going near or disturbing migratory birds that are believed to be carriers of the virus now frequenting various bird sanctuaries and forage areas in the country. The birds flew in to escape winter in their traditional sanctuaries across the globe.

The epidemiologist admitted that aside from its cost being prohibitive, Tamiflu, the anti-viral drug produced by Roche, still has limited supply worldwide despite mass production undertaken by Roche and its deputized or licensed pharmaceutical companies.

SAYAN INDIO
Mario F. Karateka

E, ANTOEY, asabila lamet so Krismas o Piyesta’y Inkianak, onong ed say abangonan tayon relihiyon.

Labay yo ni sakey pruweba? Nimay lansones tan ubas ya nen imbebeneg et nasimot antis o bisperas na Pasko, natan akagaton o akasabit ya sansakey so makapangitepel a mangaliw ta kibili-bili met lanti, P150 anggad P180 kada kilo so patawal da. Di maong lan isaliw day pigaran order na pansit tekepay Coke litro naksel niy intiron pamilya, awa, Bret Bert?

THE merriest of seasons just doesn’t seem to be so anymore. Most people equate this sordid situation to the absence of money in their pockets and a depleted or zero balance in their bank accounts. Things have gotten so money-centered and money-driven in the world that happiness – or contentment –can’t be had with just a few pesos on hand; it has to be by the thousands to bring on a smile and buy bagfuls of Christmas goodies from the supermarket.

Outside of dying, the next most tragic thing that can happen at Christmas is to be sick and confined in a hospital while the rest of the world outside sing carols, eat and drink and make merry to celebrate what the Catholic world regards as the birthdate of jesus Christ.

To be caught in such condition and location on Christmas is so dreadful that we know of some who would bear the pain, fight the medical symptoms and postpone going to the hospital till after Christmas. In any case, the moment they finally go into post-Christmas treatment or consultation, the luckier ones get attended to on time yet; the less luckier ones only manage to delay the inevitable – a surgery, an extended medical confinement or the morgue.

Such morbid thoughts at Yuletide, you say?

But that precisely is what runs in the minds of our less fortunate brethren out there who cannot observe, much less, enjoy Christ’s birth with al the varied problems and economic difficulties besetting them and their families. Christmas is for the poor as much as it is for the children, they say. For the children who have their whole future ahead of them, spending an austere Christmas one year wouldn’t matter much – the next year is always a source of hope. For the poor who are at the very end of their economic rope that’s burning from both ends, it would always be one miserable Christmas after another. How long they can bear the deprivation and depression before they totally snap, only God in His Infinite Wisdom knows.

On this most celebrated event of the year in all of Humankind, let us pause and ask ourselves – What have we really done for them, our less fortunate brethren, to ease their burden and wipe away their tears? There lies the true meaning of this special day, one that exalts not riches or fame but the dignity of every man He created on Earth.

AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza Jr.

WE SPOKE too soon and now we may have to eat crow. But we don’t mind – if it’s for the good of the city we all love, Dagupan.

We are referring to the sudden installation of rows of beautiful lights on both sides of the Magsaysay (okay, De Venecia it is) Bridge along Perez Blvd. Just as soon as The Pangasinan Star hit the streets last week, we noticed as we pass by the bridge on our way home in the evening that the lights were ablaze, rivaling those earlier put up at the Quintos bridge obviously in time for the city fiesta celebration.

In this corner last week, you see, we had lamented — okay now, deplored — what we felt was the unfair deal given the Perez bridge which was dimly lit, if at all, while Quintos bridge on A.B. Fernandez Avenue had those rather elegant lamp posts delighting and thrilling motorists and pedestrians passing thru. It now appears that lighting of Perez bridge was part of the overall plan after all.

Our kudos to whoever it was at City Hall who decided that if we can’t have sophisticated fiesta celeb activities this year, at least we should have lights on our bridges for nocturnal attraction. Why, not even the ballyhooed Lantern Parade, which we and Vicar Hotel tenants had eagerly rushed out by the hotel’s balcony for to watch while the city was in full blackout mode didn’t even light up a spark among many Dagupeno parade watchers.

It just seems to many frustrated city dwellers now that about the only area where a whiff of fiesta air can be had are at the malls, hardly at the City Hall and environs and much less even at the Pogo Grande house of the hermano mayor himself, Alex de Venecia. For all the lights bedecking the good councilor-fund-raiser’s newly-rented house (try checking this out passing by Pogo Grande at night), “not a soul stirs” ( to borrow a line from the immortal poem T’was the Night Before Christmas – read neighbor columnist Ging Cardinoza’s piece) there most nights, like Santa had left for the North Pole with all his reindeersin tow.

Young tots doing the caroling rounds and trying the house of HM (Hermano Mayor, not His Majesty) swear they only tire their vocal chords out with nary a Santa peering out from there, at least on most night, to dole out presents..

* * * *

Many people seem to forget – or are deliberately ignoring –the fact that what the Consultative Commission (Con-Com) had come up with and submitted to the President were plain and simple recommendations as borne out from their nationwide consultations with the people. Now, if some of our leaders in and out of politics, think that’s the final thing, it’s their indigestion.

The fact is, the whole package, including the transitory provisions drawn up by the Con-Com one of which calls for a no-election scenario by 2007 and extension of terms of present officials to 2010, will still be deliberated in and by Congress. And you know how interminably long and contentious that would be. The chance of the package being approved en toto is like that of a Mayor BSL giving up on the “original design” of the circumferential diversion road in Lucao and just letting the DPWH extend the construction of the road on through Belen Fernandez’s CSI The City Mall “queendom.”

What keeps many pundits wondering is what our very own Speaker Joe de Venecia’s position on the No-El issue really is when the matter is finally thrown into Congress’lap.
As for El Tabako FVR, he’s minced no word about where he stands, to GMA’s utter discomfort. Can – and will – JDV again come up with a “rainbow compromise?”