Truth at its Most Brilliant
LINGAYEN – Two persons were arrested in simultaneous raids last Tuesday on a house and market stall in San Quintin town in line with the campaign of the police against loose firearms.
The raiders swooped down on the house of Arsenio Divina Sr. in barangay Mantacdang, San Quintin; and the market stall of Primo Divina in the poblacion, that town, which were tagged by a tipster as holding a cache of loose firearms and ammunitions.
THIRTEEN persons are now under investigation after their arrest in simultaneous raids conducted by the police in several houses on Cortez street in Mangaldan town, all believed to be serving as drug dens.
The raids were conducted recently by joint elements of the Regional Anti-Drug Special Operations Group Task Force, Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division, Regional Mobile Group and Mangaldan Police Station.
SOME 1,000 provincial government employees in Pangasinan will receive their P1,000 additional compensation allowance at most by June 15, retroactive January this year.
This was announced by Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino after getting the assurance today of Provincial Administrator Virgilio Solis Jr.
AFTER ALLBy Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr.
ALARMED Alcalenians overseas burned the electronic mail to their town mayor’s office soon as they read the Pangasinan Star blogsite two weeks ago. They simply could not take the line contained in our editorial that Mayor Manuel Collado was not keen on restaging next year the barbecue grill party which he and his townmates successfully held last April 29.
After having had such a grand time in that summer event right in their old hometown, all the dancing, all the the parading, all the barbecuing, and all the festive homecoming, overseas Alcala natives cannot simply accept Collado’s giving it up just like that.
We guess whether or not The Pangasinan Star stands by the integrity of the report (on which the editorial was based) that Collado had expressed to some mediamen there might not be a repeat of the big kalutan (grill) next year, is immaterial at this stage. If the good mayor now says there’s no truth to that, it’s his word, and his word alone, that should matter. And the overseas Alcalenians, they who felt so upset about that news they had practically stormed the gates of the mayor’s office over it, can all feel relieved now.
We can’t really put a head to it all though; the editorial actually meant to laud the Alcala officials’ sensitiveness for the present hard times such that they were willing to forego with an expensive restaging. That would have been quite a plus sign for their administrative and intellectual savvy.
Now, it seems to us, after having talked to the young and suave Alcala Vice Mayor Clemente Arboleda, that the mayor was really and actually quite concerned about something else, other than the reported no-similar-show-for-next-year-at least-folks. He was more concerned about the impression that the editorial might have created when it used a phrase “x x x his government overspent x x x”
Okay, we guess that may have been a little slip there. It was the balikbayans show, and balikbayans’ money, all the way that saw the fiesta-barbecue grill party to its highly successful end (Wasn’t that the whole line used by the municipal officials long before the event – and which, fully knowing it to be so, the editorial also not more than once emphasized in its entire context – talk about overemphasis!)). No government money spent, not a single cent.
So be it.
Now, everybody happy?
The Pen Speaks
Danny O. Sagun
MANGALDAN Vice-Mayor Berex Abalos is apparently trying to do a (Mayor) Bening Gubatan when he openly acknowledged recently that jueteng in a way has helped him realize his pet projects for his constituents. Can he escape the prying eyes of the law by making such admission, a similar one of which the late mayor successfully did — without prosecution — during his fruitful term?
Nobody else except the late straight-talking Mangaldan Mayor Bening had the courage to admit he was receiving jueteng payola lest they face criminal suits.. We recall one time while we were covering a meeting of barangay captains at the municipal hall, and right there and then, the good mayor announced (while waving a fat envelope before them) that he had just received some manna. He mentioned the exact amount to be evenly divided among them and also his share to be used, he said, for the purchase of chairs for public schools and other municipal needs. Yes, just like that.
Smorgasboard
By Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre
“FREEDOM of expression is one of the hallmarks of democracy which I would like to protect being in government.”
Thus assured Police Director Gen. Arturo C. Lomibao, PNP chief, when we interviewed him last Saturday.
Lomibao made a quick visit to Mangaldan before leaving for the U.S.
He leaves tomorrow, Monday for Washington, USA to honor an invitation extended by the director of the FBI. After that, he will proceed to Kosovo to inspect the Philippine contingent to the UN Peacekeeping Mission, then attend the National Chairman Bureau of the Interpol in Lyon, France.
WINDOWS
Gabriel L. Cardinoza
JUST when I thought Archbishop Oscar Cruz has stopped his tirades on the present administration because his present media exposure has not been as wide as before, I have just discovered in his blog ( http://ovc.blogspot.com) that he’s still very much at it today.
In fact in his latest blog entry dated May 27 entitled, “Suspect government equals difficult governance,” he slammed the present administration for fomenting disunity and division among the people because its tenure of government is suspect.
“That is why it finds it hard to exercise governance. Instead of leading, it is merely led by its preoccupation to retain power and to wield authority. Rather than having the assent of people, many of these demonstrate their strong dissent. Hence, it divides, not unite the citizens,” the archbishop said.
CAN’T OUTRUN THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW. Double murder suspect Gilbert Banzuela y Posadas (left) of Parañaque City, suspect in the killing of his own mother and niece on May 13, glumly mulls his fate after his arrest in Dagupan City where he fled to hide at an uncle’s house after his crime. Supt. Edgar O. Basbas, Dagupan City police chief, (right, foreground) said policemen pounced on the murder suspect on a tip from his relative. A report said Banzuela appeared to be a bit unstable in his answers to mediamen’s queries. (Photo by Liway C. Manantan-Yparraguirre)
LINGAYEN- A total of 31 persons have already been arrested in six towns of Pangasinan in connection with the renewed crackdown on the illegal numbers game called jueteng which hs resurged after several months of lull.
This was the result after only the second day of operation in Pangasinan of the Anti- Gambling Task Force of the Criminal Investigation Detection Group, and the Pangasinan police provincial office.
The task force headed by Senior Superintendent Federico Castro Jr., CIDG chief in the Ilocos region, was assigned to validate the resurgence of jueteng not only in Pangasinan but also in the provinces of La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.
LINGAYEN—Provincial employees will start receiving their additional P1,000 compensation allowance next month.
Provincial Treasurer Ramon Crisostomo said the additional monthly allowance is retroactive to January this year, meaning each regular or casual employee will get P 5,000 covering the period January to May and P1, 500 each month thereafter.
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