WHADDAHELL! City officials gathered by the grills for the opening of the 2006 Bangus Festival are seemingly unconscious of the hell-like scene created when the coals in the grills were lit, lending an eerie glow to the city plaza revelers. Only the double horns, it seems, are missing to complete the Dante’s Inferno tableau. Next time, forbid cameras to record this scene, please – or there’d be hell to pay! (PStar Photo By Butch F. Uka)

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

DAGUPAN’S main avenues will teem with merrymakers once again today, April 30, for the biggest summer crowd-drawer “Kalutan ed Dagupan” now renamed “Bangus Sa Lansangan”or BSL – an obvious play at the initials of Mayor Benjamin S. Lim – that is expected to draw a record half a million crowd.

Milkfish or bangus will be grilled open-air along A.B. Fernandez Avenue, the whole activity occupying 1.2 kilometers, a little longer than the 1.007 Dagupan world record which it registered for the same event on May 3, 2003.

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THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) arrested Monday one of the leaders of hired guns tagged responsible for the slaying of a barangay captain of Malasiqui town in December 2003.

Lawyer Dave Alunan, executive officer of the NBI in Dagupan City, identified the suspect as Rodel de Guzman, alias “Itiw”, and “Edwin”.

De Guzman was identified as co-leader of the gang called “Young Guns” believed responsible for a number of suspected contract killing perpetrated in Dagupan City and Pangasinan.

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By DANNY O. SAGUN
PIA Pangasinan Infocenter

SAN CARLOS CITY – Gov. Victor E. Agbayani has directed heads of government hospitals to see to it that their in-house pharmacies maintain a steady supply of medicines to discourage doctors from prescribing medicines that are said to be available only from certain private drugstores at prohibitive cos.

Agbayani issued the order following persistent reports that some prescribed medicines by doctors at the provincial hospital here could only be bought from certain pharmacies located outside the hospital, not from the hospital pharmacy itself.

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PRICES of basic commodities in the Ilocos region remain steady despite the recent increase in the price of gasoline and in the local as well as foreign markets.

This was disclosed by Department of Trade and Industry Regional Director Florante Leal in a talk to newsmen when he graced the opening of a trade fair and exhibits in connection with the ongoing Bangus Festival here last Tuesday.

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THE result of DNA test ion hair strands found by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in the clutched hands of the late Pasay City Judge Estrellita Paas may hold the key to the secret in the latter’s slaying sometime in September last year.

This was disclosed by Dave Alunan, executive officer of the NBI branch in Dagupan City, who said his office continue to investigate the slaying despite the dismissal of the murder case filed against two suspects earlier arrested by the police.

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ALCALA – All roads led to Alcala yesterday as people came to witness this town’s attempt to enter its name in the world map by putting up the world’s longest grill and the world’s longest barbecue for the Guinness Book.

Mayor Manuel Collado said after several dry runs, there is no doubt anymore that Alcala has broken the two world records of 32.84 or 107.7 feet for the longest grill and the 1007.56 or 13,305.54 feet for the world’s longest barbecue.

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A TOP business executive in the country believes that despite its present troubles, the Philippine will soon become a great Asian nation.

Jose Ma. Concepcion III, special consultant of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on entrepreneurship and president and chief executive officer of the RFM Group of Companies, told graduates of the University of Luzon here recently that “the Philippine will definitely become a great nation”.

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THE 4th Philippine National Corn Congress will be held here on May 4 to 6 under the auspices of the Philippine Maize, Inc. on the theme “Masaganang Maisan, Maunlad na Bayan”.

Agriculture Secretary Domingio Panganiban will keynote the three-day Congress slated at the Leisure Coast Resort in Bonuan Binloc here, to be attended by various stakeholders of the corn industry from different parts of the country.

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LINGAYEN – There are 255 wanted persons in Pangasinan involved in separate offenses. Heading the list is one Angelo Ico who was charged with three counts of murder.

Icio’s name is on top of the 20 most wanted men listed in the website of the Pangasinan provincial office: www.pnp-pangasinan.com as of the first quarter of this year.

The 19 others are: Rolando Ulap, morder; Wilson Castro, four counts of rape; Gonzalo Catabay, robbery with violence and intimidation against persons; Jolly Abuan, homicide with illegal possession of firearms; Renato Tuvera, frustrated murder; Ronnie Resuello, rape; Orlando Guillermo, rape;

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