ALL SET FOR THE BLASTED FINGERS. With the streamer of the health department’s Oplan: Iwas Paputok hanging overhead, the Region 1 Medical Center admission area has laid out beds for the expected New Year celebration casualties of blasted fingers and bloodied bodies tonight. Late reports from health facilities in Pangasinan showed minimal injuries served by the medical teams as many apparently took the “safety first” policy to heart. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

WHO is to blame for the abandoned bangus processing plant project here in Dagupan City?

If reports are to be believed, the finger is pointed at House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. as a seemingly surprised President Macapagal-Arroyo washed her hands off the delay — or unsustained funding – of the project.

Arroyo, as is her habit when she goes to the North, dropped by her favorite seafoods restaurant in the city last Monday noon on her way by helicopter to Baguio City along with her family.

Mayor Benjamin S. Lim, despite his political differences with the Chief Executive, joined the President for lunch.

In their conversation, she reportedly asked the mayor about the status of the project, whether it was already finished or nearing completion.

She was surprised when Lim told her the project had not even started, the mayor told newsmen later.

The President told the mayor she had entrusted the project to De Venecia and thought all along that it was going on smoothly. She had no idea it never got off the ground.

Arroyo, during her early days in power, pledged support to the project when she came over for the celebration of the First Bangus Festival. She gave an initial P10 million and directed the Department of Agriculture to allocate additional funds for it. The funds never arrived however apparently due to the bureaucratic maze.

Lim appears to have lost all hope about any funding assistance from the national government for the project due to bureaucratic red tape. He said he stopped following up after several tries and failing to have the funds released.

He has not abandoned the project however. He said he invited foreign investors particularly from China to fund or pursue the project.

The mayor had called for the President to resign at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal. Her unfulfilled promises to the city including funding for the P300-million processing plant might have been a factor in Lim’s distancing from her and even joining the call of the opposition for her to step down, some observers said.

It was not clear if the President was not fully apprised of the matter by the DA or by De Venecia himself.

THE Dagupan office of the Bureau of Immigration registered a total of P8.4 million in collections for 2005, an increase of P2,151,380 over last year’s P6,322,680 by the same field office.

Alien Control Officer Alberto S. Garcia said the bulk of the 34.03 per cent increase in collections came from Filipino-Americans transacting business with the office for visa extension, annual reporting fee, re-entry and exit charges, and change of status from temporary to permanent residency.

Fil-Ams were followed by Indians, Americans, Europeans, Koreans, Chinese and Middle Eastern nationals in terms of volume of transactions with the Dagupan BI office, Garcia said.Most Filipino-Americans in Pangasinan hail from the town of Binalonan, the maternal hometown of President Arroyo.

In all, he said BI-Dagupan averaged P600,000 monthly in collections, all of which were regularly remitted to the BI central office throughout the year.

Garcia said since the decentralization of operations of the Immigration bureau during the administration of former Commissioner Rufus Rodriguez, the BI provincial office based at the Dagupan City Astrodome here has zoomed up from a zero-income unit to multi-million revenue-earning office in just five years of operation.

Garcia thanked Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez for consistent support to the operations of the Dagupan office contributing to a highly motivated and efficient field workforce. Three main categories make up the collections of the BI-Dagupan: general fund, legal research fee and express lane fee.

For 2005, these three areas posted increases of P1,695,670 (33.75%), P24,710( 28.83) and 431,000 (35.52%) respectively for a total annual increase of P2,151,380 or 34.03 approximating the collections, volume-wise, of Baguio immigration office, the premier office in northern Luzon, considered the main destination and residency of most foreign nationals and Fil-Ams.

Garcia said peak months of collections this year are January followed by February and November. (BFH-PIA Pangasinan Infocenter)

TAYUG – A regional trial court judge as well as the assistant provincial prosecutor based here are under serious threats on their lives from still unidentified persons, following the dismissal for lack of probable cause of the murder—theft charge against the suspects in the high-profile Paas case.

Threatened were RTC Judge Ulysses Raciles Butuyan of Branch 51 as well as Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Noel C. Bince, Sr. who both hold office in the town’s justice hall.

Butuyan requested two police escorts from the Tayug police which Chief of Police Rhode Espero immediately granted.

This was after Butuyan received threatening text messages soon after dismissing the cases filed against the two accused in the brutal slaying of Pasig City Judge Estrellita Paas at their residence in Natividad town.

Butuyan suspects that the threat against him may have something to do with the Paas case but did not elaborate.

In the case of Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Bince, he believed that the attempt on the life of his son Noel F. Bince, Jr. 22, the evening Dec. 22 in front of their residence in Barangay B, Tayug was actually meant for him.

The younger Bince was hit on the foot by a bullet from a Cal. 45 pistol as he was opening the gate of their compound to park their car. He was fired upon by two men on a motorcycle.

Witnesses said the driver of the motorcycle was overheard talking in Ilocano chastising his companion for shooting the wrong man before they zoomed eastward.

The younger Bince was rushed to the Eastern Pangasinan District Hospital before he was transferred to a hospital in Manila.

Observers believed the threats on Butuyan and Bince may have come from the same group. Both officials handled the cases against the suspects in the Paas slay.

IF there is anything that the Dagupan City government fully regrets not having implemented this year, it is the establishment of the city’s P150 million bangus processing plant.

This was disclosed by Mayor Benjamin Lim who said the first ever bangus processing plant in the city would have been the major flagship project of his administration for 2005 had it materialized.

He said the project was conceived as a partnership between the city government and the national government, intended to put more added value to the bangus, create jobs for the unemployed and earn the much-needed foreign exchange.

Saying the processing plant will make the bangus produced in Dagupan and Pangasinan distinct from the rest of bangus produced in other parts of the country, Lim believes the project will be a big boon to local fish farmer-producers as well as traders.

Aware of the importance of the project, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave P10 million of the P50 million she promised for the project when she addressed the Bangus Congress organized by the city in 2003.

Arroyo however emphasized that the P40 million would not come in cash but in the form of machinery to be provided by China as part of a soft loan granted by the Chinese government to the Philippine government.

Arroyo inquired about the processing plant from Lim when she and family were having lunch at Tondaligan Park here last Monday on their way to Baguio to spend their holidays.

Lim told the President that the project has not yet started because the P10 million released by her last year was not enough to start even the site development for the project.

The mayor said since this did not materialize through the partnership between the city and national governments, he tapped some investors to do the project themselves on a one-hectare lot in barangay Bonuan Binloc.

The city will lease the land to the private investors who, in order to complete the project, would import the needed machinery from Europe, Lim declared.

Lim said it was the Department of Agriculture in fact, during the time of Secretary Leonardo Montemayor, that made the project study on the bangus processing plant and recommended the amount of P150 million as project cost.

CHILDREN AT WORK. Children in riverine barangays of the city, join the “Gilon, Gilon” fish harvest contest in one fishpond, aiming not so much to win as to scoop enough viand for the family table in the holidays. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

MANAOAG –The youngest member of the municipal council who topped the race for councilor in the last election and promoted later to vice mayor will keep his post.

The Second Division of the Commission on Elections assured Vice Mayor Kim Mikael Amador he stays as alderman when it reversed and set aside an earlier decision of the Regional Trial Court in Urdaneta City disqualifying him from continuing to serve as member of the sangguniang bayan.

The 10-page resolution signed by Presiding Commissioner Myhol K. Sadain and Commissioner Florentino Tuazon Jr. last Dec. 8 reversed the decision promulgated January 12, 2005 of Regional Trial Court Judge Joven Costales disqualifying the 26-year old Amador and ordering him to vacate his office.

With lawyer Villamor Tolete, Amador appealed the RTC decision before the Comelec, which eventually resolved the case in his favor.

Amador is the son of Alcide and Dahlia Amador, directors of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Philippine Tourism Authority, respectively.

As topnotcher in the council race in the last election, he was elevated to the position of vice mayor when Vice Mayor Pedrito Garcia died middle part of last year.

The case against the young Amador was filed by Wilfredo Sibayan, losing candidate for councilor, who sought the disqualification of the respondent despite having garnered the most number of votes in the council race.

Sibayan alleged that at the time of the filing of certificate of candidacy of Amador on January 5, 2004, he was not yet a registered voter of the town because his name was stricken out from the list of voters for not having voted in two consecutive elections.

However, earlier on Dec. 30, 2003, Amador filed a petition for inclusion of his name in the list of voters with the Municipal Trial Court which was approved by the court only on January 12, 2004.

Citing “Dura lex sed lex” (The law is harsh but it is the law), Judge Costales said the respondent may have all the intentions in the whole world to serve his constituents but he cannot continue because of the infirmities subsisting at the time he filed his certificate of candidacy.

In its resolution, the Comelec said that although Amador was not a registered voter at the time of his filing of certificate of candidacy, he became a registered voter on the day of the election.

Citing a ruling of the Supreme Court, the poll body said Amador is eligible to hold office in as much as he possessed all the required qualifications at the time of his proclamation and at the time he assumed office.

It said the defect, if any, is not so patently antagonistic or noxious to the Constitution and laws as to nullify the overwhelming voice of the people in favor of Amador.

“In fact, the Supreme Court emphasized that the Local Government Code requires an elective official to be a registered voter. It does not require him to vote actually. Hence, registration–not actual voting—is the core of this disqualification.

Citing the Supreme Court decision, the Comelec said that undeniably, respondent-appellant was a registered voter at the time of elections and continues to be so until the present.

A LITERARY contest to mark the Centennial Celebration of Filipino Migration to Hawaii seeks to draw contestants on the competition theme: 100 years: The Filipino Legacy in Hawaii.

The contest is divided into three categories: poetry, essay, and one-act play. It is open to all Filipino writers, students and professionals. At stake are prizes of P15,000, P10,000, and P7,500 for the first, second and third placers.

Entries may be submitted from December 25 to February 28 next year. All entries should be original.

For poetry writing, every entry should be a collection of five to 10 poems. For the essay writing category, the entries should have 2,000 to 3,000 words. The one-act play writing category should be 30 to 45 minutes long in actual play.

The contest is one of several activities lined up for 2006 as part of the 100-year friendship between the Philippines and Hawaii.

The project is sponsored by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Interested parties may contact Atty. Golda Myra Roma or Mr. Frencel Louie Tingga at telephone number 5618321 locals 600-604, or visit www.cfo.gov.ph or www.neca.gov.ph. (DOS/PIA)

SOME 4,000 athletes, coaches and school officials from various parts of the country will flock to Dagupan City and Pangasinan from Feb. 5 to 11 to take part in the 2006 National Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) Meet.

This is the biggest sporting event ever in Pangasinan since its hosting the Palarong Pambansa in 1995.

To be hosted by PRISAA Region 1 headed by Dr. Gonzalo T. Duque, also PRISAA national president and vice chairman of the national board of trustees, the meet has for its theme “Friendship and Solidarity Towards National Transformation.”

Duque, president of the Dagupan-based Lyceum-Northwestern University , led the launching of the meet last December 23 through a program and news conference at LNU.

The meet will open on Feb. 6 at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center in Lingayen, which was designated by organizers as among several venues of the meet, along with the Dagupan City People’s Astrodome and other sites.

The athletes will see action in 12 sporting events, such as athletics, badminton, chess, baseball, basketball, softball, lawn tennis, sepak takraw, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo and volleyball.

“This is the first time that we challenged ourselves to hold the national games in Dagupan since the PRISAA was founded in 1935,” Duque said.

The last national meet was held in Zamboanga City.

Duque said the hosting of the national PRISAA meet got the needed support from Gov. Victor Agbayani, House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. and the other Pangasinan congressmen.

Also pledging their support were Mayors Benjamin Lim of Dagupan City, Amadeo Perez, Jr. of Urdaneta City, Julian Resuello of San Carlos City, Hernani Braganza of Alaminos City, Simplicio Rosario of Binmaley and Ernesto Castañeda of Lingayen. (PNA)

A TOP illegal drugs operator not only in Pangasinan but the whole of Ilocos region, including Tarlac, fell Tuesday in a dragnet set by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in adjacent La Union province.

Arrested in an operation conducted by the PDEA provincial office in La Union headed by Senior Inspector Rey Lizardo was Raymundo Vienes, tagged as number one drug personality in Pangasinan and number 10 in the whole region.

He was caught in a buy-bust operation conducted by lawmen with the aid of their asset at 3 p.m. Tuesday in barangay Sta. Rita West, Aringay, La Union.

PDEA Regional Director Chief Inspector Christopher Abrahano said a report from Senior Inspector Lizardo said at least three grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu was seized from the suspect.

The suspect’s car, used in his numerous drug-dealing activities,was also seized, Abrahano said. His contacts in Panasinan as well as in La Union are now under surveillance by the PDEA.

The suspect, whose cohorts are yet to be identified, was sourcing out shabu from the domestic pipeline through his contacts in Manila, Region III and Region IV.

A report received by Abrahano said that Vienes was selling to still unidentified persons up to 50 grams of shabu at one time, proof that he is really a big fish in the illegal drug trade.

Vienes came under police surveillance after known drug personalities who were already previously arrested and whose operations had already been busted linked him to the illegal trade. (PNA)