NATIVIDAD – Some 20 members of the New People’s Army (NPA) on a mission to collect revolutionary taxes from residents in sitio San Jose, Barangay Cacandongan here may have planned to ambush expected reinforcements for some beleaguered policemen coming from the 107th Police Mobile Group evening of August 2.

Senior Inspector Bernardo Aromin said the rebels surrounded his policemen who were holed up inside a house in the sitio after they were called to check the presence of armed men collecting revolutionary taxes in the area but found themselves instead surrounded by the armed rebels. Read the rest of this entry »

BINMALEY – Two men were arrested Friday by joint police and National Bureau of Investigation agents in connection with the attempt on the life of an assistant provincial prosecutor afternoon of August 2 along the national highway in barangay Biec here.

The suspects were identified as Hadji Paras of barangay Bacayao Norte in Dagupan City, tagged as the triggerman, and Ernesto Manaoat of Perez Market Site, also in Dagupan, who was identified as the driver of the motorcycle that trailed the victim, Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Magin Niño Orlino, 30, who was riding his scooter.

Paras was rushed to the Region I Medical Center after he was shot in the right foot and right side of his abdomen by one of the arresting officers when he allegedly tried to reach for his gun, a Caliber 45 pistol. Read the rest of this entry »

THE South Korean government is willing to give a grant of U.S. $2 million dollars or more than P100 million to finance the establishment of a fish processing plant in
Dagupan City.

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said he arranged for the financial grant with the South Korean prime minister and foreign minister when he went to that country two months ago.

De Venecia said he relayed the news to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as soon as he came back from South Korea.

The fish processing plant, planned earlier by the Dagupan city government headed by Mayor Benjamin Lim, was intended to process locally-produced bangus to add more value to it for export to other countries where there are many Filipinos. Read the rest of this entry »

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo thanked the government of Japan for its continued support for Philippine Development when she presided over the groundbreaking rites for the proposed P903 million Pantal bridge here last Wednesday.

The bridge, funded by the Japan Bank for International Developmetn (JBIC), is part of Package III of the Urgent Bridges Construction Project for Rural Developmetn measuring 380 lineal meters and set to be completed in 28 months.

President Arroyo was assisted in the groundbreaking rites by Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Ryuichiro Yamazaki, Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., JBIC chief representative Hiroshi Togo, Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr, Gov. Victor Agbayani and Mayor Benjamin Lim.
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ITS pioneering efforts in planning and implementing GIS (geographic information system) technology has paid off for the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) which received a Special Achievement in GIS Award at the 26th Annual ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California last Wednesday.

ESRI, the world leader in GIS technology and mapping software, will confer the award to TransCo in recognition of its best practices in implementing Enterprise Geographic Information System (E-GIS) – the Spatial Data Infrastructure Project (SDIP).
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ADMINISTRATOR Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration was not accepting applications for jobs in Spain.

The reported 100,000 jobs reported in major newspapers last month are not yet available pending formulation of the guidelines for the recruitment of Filipino workers for that country, she clarified.

Baldoz said there have been no such job orders yet from employers in Spain except those from Servicio De Prevencion De Riesgos Grupo Los Nogales for the projecto piloto or pilot project for caregivers. Read the rest of this entry »

A LAWYER and former prosecutor was sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of large-scale illegal recruitment, equivalent to economic sabotage, in a decision handed down last week by the Regional Trial Court in Agoo, La Union.

Aside from the life imprisonment, Atty. Catalino Pepi was also sentenced from 12 to 17 years imprisonment and another term of from eight to 10 years for two separate cases of estafa and likewise slapped with civil liability of P1,118,000 million.

Pepi, a native of Barangay Irisan, Baguio City and former lawyer of the Commission on Human rights regional office based in Baguio, was convicted in a decision handed down by RTC Judge Clifton Ganay of Agoo, La Union. Read the rest of this entry »

LINGAYEN – A seven-year old chess sensation from Rosales town with the mind of a genius will be among youthful representatives of the country who will see action in the World Youth Chess Championship scheduled Oct. 19-29 in Georgia, a former part of the old Soviet Union.

Samantha Glo C. Revita, a Grade I pupil of the Rosales North Central School, earned ticket to that world tournament when she made a creditable performance in the 7th Asean Age Group Chess Championship in Jakarta, Indonesia from June 10-20, 2006 where she won the silver in blitz chess and bronze in the standard chess.
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LINGAYEN – Public utilities in Pangasinan and throughout the country have been asked to go modern technology by replacing their copper-laden cable wires with state-of-the art fiber optics to finally put an end to rampant cable thefts.

The call was made by Police Provincial Director Alan Purisima in the face of the continuous stealing of cable wires that already victimized many times the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and the Digital Communications of the Philippines.
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ALAMINOS CITY – Four Irish youths had beautiful memories of Alaminos City, especially the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP), when they came for a visit last July 30.

The four – Brian McCabe, Jennifer Walsh, Aoife Gortmally and Mairead Curran – were part of the 16-man volunteer group sent to the country by SERVE, a non-government organization based in Ireland, to see for themselves the broader aspect of development works in other parts of the world. Read the rest of this entry »