INFANTA – The municipal council here has placed the town under a state of calamity as a result of the disaster that struck fishermen when their fishing boats capsized due to big waves in the south China sea last Friday and Saturday.

The municipal council, on recommendation of Mayor Ruperto Martinez, took the move even as 24 fishermen from Infanta are still missing in that big sea disaster.

The other fishermen affected in that disaster were from Agno, Dasol and Bolinao but Infanta had the most number of fishermen involved.
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OF the 166 reported missing fishermen off the coasts of Infanta and Zambales since Dec. 16, 124 have been rescued or accounted for, so far.

Police Regional Director, Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil. gave this update Friday, quoting a report relayed to him by the Tactical Operations Center set up by the Pangasinan Provincial Office in Infanta, close to the Zambales border.

This means that only 41 fishermen remain unaccounted for.
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By FREDDIE G.LAZARO

NARVACAN, Ilocos Sur – Army soldiers were deployed in Bangued and other towns of Abra on Thursday in preparation for the arrival of the remains of slain Congressman Luis “Chito” Bersamin at his ancestral house located at Zone 7 in Bangued.

Colonel Loreto Rirao, Commander of the Army’s 503rd Brigade based in barangay Sulvec, Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, said his troops will also provide security to vital installations and establishments in Abra in anticipation of possible attacks by communist terrorists.

“This situation (killing of Bersamin) is very favorable to the local communist group to sow violence. Thus, we are on a state of full alert in anticipation of any violent move that might disrupt the wake of Congressman Bersamin,“ Rirao said.
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By PRESCILLANO N. BERMUDEZ

DON’T waste your most important human right, register and vote!

This was the clarion call of Atty. Irene Alfa F. Villamil, election officer III of the Commission on Elections in San Manuel, as the deadline for the continuing registration of new voters nationwide on December 31, 2006 nears.

Villamil said as of October 16, 2006 her office had already registered a total of 20,015 voters.

Based on the propensity of Filipinos to beat the deadline during the last “three minutes”, Villamil is optimistic that her office will Read the rest of this entry »

CANDON CITY – The first 15 Filipino immigrants to Hawaii who came from Candon town were extolled here for their “untold sacrifices.”

Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, in a visit to this city last Wednesday, hailed the workers who left their families in search of greener pasture in Hawaii’s sugar cane plantations a century ago.

The Filipino ‘sakadas’ (sugar cane plantation workers), historically arrived in Hawaii on December 20, 1906 or exactly 100 years hence.
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HOUSE Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said the withdrawal and archiving of the Constituent Assembly resolution in the House of Representatives was not really a defeat but a mere “strategic retreat.”

Interviewed by newsmen Sunday night at his residence here, De Venecia philosophically said: “You can lose the first battle so that the next battle and succeeding battle could be yours.”

He added quickly: “That is likened to taking one step backward, two-steps forward.”
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NEWLY-INSTALLED Labor Officer-in-charge Henry John S. Jalbuena of the Department of Labor and Employment, Regional Office 1, said that his office is encouraging employers to comply with labor code provisions on the giving of 13th month pay to all employees not later than December 24of every year.

Pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 851, all employers are required to pay their rank-and-file employees regardless of the nature of their employment and irrespective of the method by which their wages are paid provided they worked for at least one month a calendar year.
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THE Children’s Code was identified as the most significant piece of legislation passed by the provincial board of Pangasinan this year, according to Vice Governor Oscar Lambino.

Lambino, who personally authored the provincial ordinance along with Provincial Board Member Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, said the legislation recognizes the rights of children who are the hope of the future.

“What is important in the Children’s Code is that we are preparing our children to be the future leaders of our province to ensure continuity of leadership,” he said.
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ALL four provincial police directors in the Ilocos were recently directed to consult and confirm with political leaders in their respective areas if there is any threat on their lives.

The directive was issued by Regional Police Director Leopold Bataoil soon after unidentified assassins riding on a motorcycle shot and killed Abra Congressman Luis Bersamin Jr. and his bodyguard at a parking lot of the Mt. Carmel Church in Quezon City just after attending the wedding of his niece.
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THE Dagupan City police is still trying to unravel the mysteriy behind the dumping of two boxes and two bags of voluminous negotiable instruments and mail matters at dawn last Tuesday in barangay Bonuan Binloc here by unidentified persons.

The negotiable instruments which may have originated from the central Post Office in Manila, were inventoried piece-by-piece by the police in the presence of Regional Police Director Leopoldo Bataoil when he dropped by at the Dagupan City Police Station Thursday morning.

The police said one of the boxes contained several Land Bank of the Philippines checks issued by different government agencies to certain officials and employees, treasury checks in the name of certain persons and voluminous mail matters addressed to different individuals in Regions II and III.
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