By DANNY O. SAGUN

ANDA – Massive fishkills hit this town and nearby Bolinao causing several millions of pesos in losses for fish farmers.

Mayor Nestor Pulido last Thursday said that the town particularly its coastal areas was stinking from all the rotten fish to the point that residents here had to buy masks just to avoid the stench caused by the dead and floating fish.

“Ang problema naubos lahat ng tinitindang masks sa botika o kaya naaamoy mo pa rin yong masamang amoy kahit nakamask ka,” he noted. Read more

WHEN the new helmsmen of local government units come marching in by July, many of them will be gnashing their teeth and whining like cuckolded creatures as they check the money books to find it (in most instances , that is) empty or nearing so. They would effectively be reduced to being conquerors without funds, in short.

And so the first order of business for most of these new officials would be the shoring up of whatever little finance from the public coffers is left. You wouldn’t be expecting any big program or project coming up too soon from them because of this very real constraint. A little more probing here and there and they’ll probably find many payables and unpaid loans to boot, compounding the general headache. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

“8 by 08.”

To avid followers of the Arroyo administration, this catchphrase simply represents government’s goal of achieving eight blessings of a strong economy by 2008 as tangible fruits of the administration’s commitment to bring the benefits of the fiscal momentum directly to the people.

The eight blessings are: job creation, better cost of living, strong peso, more investments, pro-poor education, pro-poor health care, housing and food.

I don’t know about the seven other “blessings” if they’re on track or being waylaid but one thing I know, the one about pro-poor health care may have just been dealt the unkindest cut of all. Read more

Nen MARIO F. KARATEKA

SO PAR, so gud.

Marakep metni tiempo, anggad sarayan agew, mantapos-tapos lay bulan na Hunyo.

Say paga’d pagew na saray katoowan ya onsabin maksil iran bagyo tan delap et singa nababaat metni, panangasiy Walad Tagey. Akatulong amo imay demonstrasyon ed panangitarya parad isabiy delap ya ginaway siyudad tan say Project PROMISE.
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By DANNY O. SAGUN

WHEN will our fish farmers learn their lessons? Not even a massive fishkill, it seems, can stop them from appropriating the rivers and the seas for their fish pens and cages. They might have suffered big losses now with tons and tons of fishes floating dead in the water, the stench from all the decaying and dead fish so assailing tothe nostrils of Anda folk and visitors, according to Mayor Nestor Pulido.

But do you think those people would pack their bags and leave, so to speak? Read more

By YOLLY Z. SOTELO

HIGH School students comprising the Ogagaw ya Malingkor 2007 (Children Who Serve), took over the Dagupan city hall today as elective officials and heads of the different departments.

The 34 high school students led by “Mayor” Frances Riel Elinzano, 14, a third year high school student of the Mother Goodse Special School Systems, Inc., took their oath before Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez during the 109th Independence Day celebration at the city plaza last Tuesday. Read more

By LIWAY M. YPARRAGUIRRE

IT’S REALLY never too late for one to start learning how to read and write. May this story inspire us to reach out and encourage those who are lacking in formal education to take the big bold step to learning and free themselves from the bondage of being able to see and talk but not able to read and understand what is written.

This is a story of a woman who dreamt of becoming a stewardess and travel the world.

She has made the first step, a big leap as she hopes to fulfill her childhood dream, to travel abroad (she has the height as she’s stands 5’5” but she can no longer be a stewardess). Read more

ANDA – It’s another curse of nature for people’s blatant abuse of the environment.

This was the prevailing view of officials here to explain the massive fish kill that had already wiped out over P100 million worth of milkfish (bangus) at the Caquiputan Channel here.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has yet to take a step to stop the fish kill so that the fishes that remained in the water could be saved. Read more

LINGAYEN – A Filipino-American who joined the United States Army and died while on a military operation in Iraq was given a hero’s burial here.

U.S. military personnel came over to give full military honors to their fallen comrade, Sgt. Richard V. Correa, 25, who was interred at the Lingayen municipal cemetery.

His casket, draped in American flag, arrived at his parents’ home in Lingayen on Monday and was originally scheduled for a three-day wake. Read more

LINGAYEN – Former Gov. Aguedo Ferrer Agbayani, the longest serving governor of Pangasinan, was finally given due recognition and a place in the heart of the more than two million people of the province when a bronze life-size statue of his was unveiled Thursday at the Capitol grounds which was made into a park named after him.

Agbayani’s statue was unveiled during a ceremony presided by his son, outgoing Governor Victor Agbayani, the main architect of the beautification of the Governor Aguedo F. Agbayani Park in front of the provincial capitol, and the adjoining areas.
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