LINGAYEN – A barangay captain of Baybay Sur in Sual, Pangasinan was shot dead in his open garage near his house at 11:20 p.m. Friday (March 3), a police report said.

Barangay Captain Camilo Ragojos was shot just after alighting from his vehicle by still unidentified gunmen. He died on the spot.

Investigation conducted by the Sual police led by Seniro Inspector Medardo Soriano, chief of police, showed that Ragojos and his wife Elizabeth just came from a wake of one of their barangaymates when the incident happened.

Read more

BURLEY tobacco farmers in Pangasinan are also suffering from the unusual early rains sometime in January this year that resulted in negligible harvest of tobacco leaf product.

This was disclosed by Mayor Manuel Collado of Alcala, one of the biggest burly tobacco-producing towns in Pangasinan today.

Like in Ilocos Sur where millions of pesos worth of Virginia tobacco plants were destroyed, Pangasinan also suffered the same fate with million of pesos worth of burley tobacco plants wilting after the rains.

Read more

SAN CARLOS CITY — Is politics rearing its ugly head again in this city?

This question cropped up in the wake of the slay try on Mayor Julian Resuello Thursday night during a birthday party in barangay Bolingit, where the suspect was said to be a bodyguard of former Mayor Douglas Soriano.

Alert bodyguards of the mayor prevented suspect PO3 Juanito Menor, from getting nearer to inflict harm on him.

Read more

Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre

HOUSE Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. is confident the country will have its first parliamentary election next year.

Asked by local reporters if he will be the Prime Minister, de Venecia remarked: “Anggapo tan ya ambisyon ko. (I don’t have that ambition) But I pray to the Lord and let the Lord decide my fate and my destiny. I am just an instrument of the Lord in improving the lives of the people.”

De Venecia said not only will parliamentary elections push through next year, so will the local elections.

Read more

SAYAN INDIO
Mario F. Karateka

MANPETANG lay banga na politika diad luyag a talaga.

Mamapaliteng tan manisiim laray pigaran personalidad ed ibatik da tan kada kurang, kada balikas da et napatnagan mo lan kaibalad masakbay a kampanya iraya.

Syempre anggapod sikaray mangawat ya mangakampanya laya balet meeng tan waweng kametla nio agmoni natalusan so getma tan gagala ra, awa?

Read more

Editorial

There’s a war going on in the Philippines – but no bullets are flying.

A “virtual reality” battle for the hearts and minds of the people is at play here; while the dehado (underdogs) are pushing the limits (of their Constitutional freedom), the llamados (odds-on favorites) are pushing the same back. No question about it; something’s got to give, if not sooner then later.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, presidential chief of staff Mike D, police director general Arturo Lomibao and Army chief Hermogenes Esperon, all on war footing, are manning the ramparts for the Queen as a horde of “infidels” are banging at the doors of the Palace, this even after the Queen has thrown away the scarecrow of 1017 that had so frightened the horde in the last days of February.

Read more

AFTER ALL
Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr

TARPAULIN ads and signages printers must be raking it in. And if you have any doubt at all about this, try looking up as you walk or drive thru Dagupan City streets and roads, you’d never miss the retouched and unretouched images of your favorite city officials staring at you with their toothpaste ad smiles.

From Benjie Saplan Lim’s Pisasalamat public invitation to the coming Bangus Festival (whatever happened to Pista’y Dayat, the original reason for the May 1 celebration –shunted aside?) to Alvin Fernandez’s announcements of various projects, to Farah Decano’s women’s month drumbeating, to Michael Fernandez’s young legislators’ thingmagajig – all in big tarps pasted at strategic round-the-corner sites – you’d know elections are well, just that — around the corner. Oh, yes, we almost forgot our villagemate, Vlad Mata, in full crisp Marine khaki uniform and officer’s cap gazing at you along Perez Blvd. like your dream, uh, Big Brother.

Read more

THE PEN SPEAKS
Danny O. Sagun

DAGUPAN City Mayor Benjie Lim can’t help but take a snipe at Speaker Joe de Venecia when opportunity comes. Playing host lately to a group whose business name has the word “promise” in it, Lim lauded his visitors for keeping their word “unlike a politician we know who makes a lot of promises but delivers less.”

The House leader invariably earned a lot of monicker especially from among barangay captains for making promises left and right on the delivery of projects and services that would come in so short a time. “I tell you, in one week…” has often been heard from him every time he speaks before a crowd in his sorties here as though his promise is sure to be delivered ASAP, a month or two if not literally within one week.

Still recall how so confidently he said soon after the 1990 killer quake that in one week the badly-damaged Magsaysay bridge would rise again? He was not yet the House speaker then yet but he already made that bold pronouncement. Then President Cory Aquino could only smile wryly.

Read more

Smorgasbord
Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre

THIS fourth class agricultural municipality is aiming to set two records in the Guinness Book of World Records - the Longest Grill and the Longest Barbecue Grill.

The longest grill will have a length of 150 meters while the longest barbecue grill will be 3,000 meters long. The longest grill record ( 33 meters) is currently held by a town in Germany.  Validation result of Dagupan City’s 2.2 kilometer entry is yet to be known.

The three-kilometer (3,000 meters) long barbecue grill will start at barangay San Pedro Ili and end at barangay San Vicente. The whole stretch will traverse six barangays including barangays San Nicolas, Poblacion East and West and San Juan.

Read more

WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza

After three months, the provincial government is finally taking a decisive action against the owner of the barge that spilled some 300 metric tons of coal in the waters off the coastal village of Macaboboni in Agno town.

Last Friday, provincial administrator Virgilio Solis has given the Malabon-based Asian Shipping Lines ten days to remove its 900-foot landing craft transport Aisner from the area or face legal action.

The barge was on its way to the Philippine National Oil Company in San Fernando City, La Union from Semirara, Antique to deliver 4,500 metric tons of coal when strong waves forced it to a coralline area of the Agno Bay and got stuck there.

Read more