CHINESE NEW YEAR last Sunday, finds local Chinese, Tsinoys and even plain Pangalatoks busy picking out their own good luck and good health items at a Chinese stall on Arellano St.. The Chinese traditional charms have taken hold of the local populace too, perhaps in line with their having a Tsinoy in Benjamin S. Lim for their mayor. Please click here for related story. (PStar Photo by Butch F. Uka)

PNP DIRECTOR CAN’T BE REACHED

HIGHWAY robbers struck in three successive days, testing police resolve and capability against criminality in Pangasinan.

In the latest incident, some P2 million pesos were taken from victims who had just withdrawn money from the bank.

Holdupmen first struck early Tuesday morning in an isolated road in barangay Unzad, Villasis, robbing two bank employees of more than P800,000 in cash and checks.

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TAYUG – Judge Ulysses R. Butuyan of the Regional Trial Court here has inhibited himself from hearing the case against the two accused in the murder of his fellow judge sometime in September last year.

Butuyan, presiding judge of RTC Branch 51, said however his order dismissing the case against the two accused, Elmer Cabiles and Jornald Vargas, last Nov. 30 for lack of probable cause, still stands.

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IN MEMORY OF DAUGHTER KC

GRIEF writ over his face at apparently recalling the death of his daughter in their Makati home in a pre-Christmas blaze in 2004, House Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Jr. donated the first two of 30 asbestos firefighting suits to two fire stations in his native city of Dagupan last week.

Imported from Austria at $5,000 each inclusive of taxes, the fire protection suits were given to the Dagupan City Fire Station and the Panda Volunteer Fire Brigade in memory of his daughter, KC, who he believed could have been saved had the Makati firemen responding to the big fire at his Dasmarinas, Makati home been equipped with the full-protection suits.

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AN official of the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) has identified Region III as source of counterfeit drugs still flooding the Ilocos region.

Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto, food and drugs regulation officer of the Department of Health in Region I and BFAD officer-in-charge, said most counterfeit drugs seized by his office last year came from Region III or central Luzon.

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EVERYTHING’S set for the 2006 National Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) games to be held in Dagupan City and various other venues in Pangasinan from Feb. 6 to 12.

Dr. Gonzalo T. Duque, national PRISAA president and also president of the Lyceum Northwestern University here, said some 4,000 athletes from all over the country will see action in the week-long games.

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IF House Speaker Jose de Venecia is to be believed, the Philippines will have a parliamentary government sooner than we think.

De Venecia sounded very optimistic when he said over radio Tuesday that the parliamentary system he has been endorsing for 15 years now will be a reality in the coming months.
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VIGAN CITY – Some 15,000 tourist and residents lined up the streets here Sunday to witness the street dancing, a top feature of this year’s 5th Longanisa Festival.

Vigan City Mayor Ferdinand C. Medina said the festival showcased once more Vigan’s native longanisa (processed pork) which is now famous nationwide and even overseas.

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CITY Mayor Benjamin S. Lim said Thursday his stand against President Arroyo and his brewing disagreements with House Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Jr., of the ruling Lakas administration party may have turned him away from administration favors but has brought more benefits to city’s barangays that are now being wooed more ardently and directly by the powers-that-be.

Saying that his alienation from the administration since after he joined the opposition clamor for the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo may have become a “blessing in disguise” for the greater majority of Dagupenos, particularly barangay officials, Lim cited several projects benefitting barangays now coming from Speaker De Venecia’s funds.

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LAGANGILANG, Abra – Six members of the terrorist New People’s Army (NPA), one of them an amazon, were seriously wounded while an army trooper was slightly hurt following a more than two-hour encounter between rebels and government troopers in mountainous barangay Apao in Teneg, this province last Tuesday.

Lt. Colonel Angelito De Leon, commander of the 41st Infantry Battalion, stated in his report to Colonel Manuel Manalo Jr., commanding officer of the Army’s 503rd Infantry Brigade based at Sulvec in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, that the gunbattle took place at 6:50 a.m. Tuesday.

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