TONS upon tons of milkfish (bangus) from western Pangasinan are continuously being unloaded by trucks since a massive fish kill broke out in the towns of Anda and Bolinao last Monday.

City Agriculture Officer Emma Molina noted that trucks bringing in milkfish to the Dagupan Fish Market arrive day and night.

She said the milkfish being unloaded here are still of good quality but were observed to be below their marketable sizes, indicating a premature harvesting by the fishpond owners wary of the fishkill in the Anda-Bolinao area. Read more

ECONOMY first before charter change

This is now the position of House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., even as he is still waging a battle to capture a fifth unprecedented term as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

In a talk to newsmen here on Thursday, de Venecia expressed his desire for a moratorium on the proposal for charter change for the moment. Read more

IT’S FOREIGN affairs for Vice-Mayor Alvin Fernandez.
Fernandez himself revealed the possible jump from City hall to a foreign post either in the United States or China during a recent radio interview.

The position is seen as a reward for his sacrifice or efforts in the last elections after he was prevailed upon not to run anymore in the last elections but simply be the paty manager of the winning Lakas-CMD team led by his father, resigned Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez, Jr. Read more

MALASIQUI – Congresswoman-elect Rachel ‘Baby’ Arenas of the third district of Pangasinan appears to be starting on the right foot when she called for a “drug-free and gambling-free third district.”

Arenas made the call in a speech after taking her oath before Municipal Trial Court Judge Edgardo Caldona, one of the highlights of the celebration of the 109th Philippine Independence Day in Malasiqui on Tuesday. Read more

CAMP JUAN VILLAMOR, BANGUED, Abra – A newly elected town councilor of Abra was killed in an ambush by unidentified gunmen along a road in sitio Campong, Barangay Langiben, Lagangilang on Tuesday.

A belated report said Oswald Villamor, 43, who topped the election for councilor in Lagangilang last May 14 despite being an independent candidate, was gunned down by unidentified suspects while aboard his XRM motorcycle on his way home.

Supt. Joseph Adnol, spokesman of the Cordillera police, said based on the investigation of PO3 Anatalio Rillera, investigator on case, the ambush happened at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

Villamor was hit several times in the chest but was still able to bring himself to their residence aboard his motorcycle, them collapsed afterwards.

Gaygay Ayunon, a close family friend of the victim, brought Villamor to Dr. Petronilo Searez Sr Memorial Hospital but the victim died at 4:35 p.m. while being operated on.

Adnol said that the ambushers used shotguns in shooting Villamor.

OUTGOING Governor and incoming Congressman Victor E. Agbayani said he hopes the incoming provincial administration under Governor-elect Amado T. Espino will find merit in the pro-people programs of his administration especially on livelihood and agriculture, and continue these for the sake of the province.

Hardly showing any displeasure at the outcome of the provincial gubernatorial fight where Espino beat his wife, Dr. Jamie Eloise Agbayani, the governor claimed “moral victory” and said he has no regrets about having fielded his wife in the grueling mid-term election. Read more

HOUSE Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. said at least 167 congressmen have confirmed and signed commitments to him in his battle for an unprecedented fifth term as Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Speaking to newsmen during the birthday of comebacking Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. at the Inn Asia here, these congressmen he said vowed to help him retain the speakership with the elections held on July 23. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN
PIA-Dagupan Infocenter

ANY pupil or student can enroll in public schools without paying any contributions, two education officials stressed Tuesday.

Dr. Aurora Domingo, Dagupan City schools superintendent, said that authorized contributions for Boy or Girl Scouts, Red Cross, and school publications are to be collected during the campaign period for such activities.

Payment for contributions is not a requirement for enrollment in public schools, she stressed. Read more

PAMPANGA. Isabela. General Santos. Taysan town in Batangas.

Remember these places because they are where the seeds of freshly found sanity have been planted in the last election. In these places, geographically set apart from each other, people still have their hearts and minds in the right place –i.e, in the good and the noble and the true. They were neither lured by gold, seduced neither by glitter (of celebrity status) nor intimidated by goons.

In a landscape now reeking with deceit, greed and lies, it is always good to hear of people going for symbols of old-fashioned honesty and sincerity, bucking the odds and winning as in the election victories of priest Ed Panlilio in Pampanga, Grace Padaca in Isabela and Darlene Antonino-Custodio in General Santos – or losing, with dignity and courage as those two poll workers in Taysan, Batangas, including a teacher, who were burned to death inside the schoolbuilding where vote-canvassing was going on, set ablaze by forces so wicked and evil mere hanging would be so kind a punishment for them. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

CHUMI, my first apo, is entering kinder school this June. Her mama was telling me she’d been talking to her husband, Gilbert, who’s abroad in Florida and Gilbert had told her to just pay their little girl’s tuition fee at a local kinder school in cash.

“Wait till he hears it’s gonna cost P26,000 for a schoolyear,” my daughter said on arriving home from the school where she inquired about the tuition and miscellaneous fee for Chumi’s schooling.

I was myself floored. Read more