‘LET destiny decide for us!”

Mrs. Gina De Venecia gave this view on the possible fate of her husband and House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. and her step-son Jose De Venecia III who has openly named First Gentleman Mike Arroyo as the man who told him to “back off” in the National Broadband Network project.
‘The events are unfolding fast and we pray God and destiny to lead us where we are meant to go,” Mrs. de Venecia, hardly masking her concern at the events, told newsmen at the first ever Sari-Sari Store Livelihood Fair here at the CSI Jimmy Fernandez center in Lucao, Dagupan City.

Mrs. de Venecia is steadfast in her support of the 47-year-old Joey, son of Speaker de Venecia by his first marriage to the former Victoria Perez, saying that although they and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are friends, “I have also to look (out)for my son, because my son is only telling the truth,” Read more

WHY are some people agitating for the abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan?

To us in this paper, we believe it is the right thing to do.

Aside from the drain on the coffers for the salaries of such “young and idealist” members of the local legislative councils and their counterparts in the barangays themselves, times have changed – so much and so wrongly – for the Hope of the Fatherland these days. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

TRY as they may now so piously do, former members of the city council in the Lim administration — at least those who voted for approval of the Awai land purchase in the February 11, 2002 resolution ratifying it and the February 14, 2002 resolution, holdIng the first in abeyance — cannot so easily wash their hands off the whole mess.

To a certain extent now, this Awai imbroglio takes on an eerie similarity to the bad, very bad NBN ZTEdeal now hounding various department secretaries.

The paper trail, of course, will tell the tale and even as the present city legal office appears to brand the two resolutions as worthless and void ab initio (from the start) because the then Vice Mayor, now City Administrator, Alvin Fernandez, purportedly did not sign it, the councilors concerned cannot escape guilt for at the very least, not exerting due diligence in scrutinizing the million-peso deal. Read more

Nen MARIO F. KARATEKA

NO tuan mililikna kan kabaleyan nen Ispiker Dyo de Benesya, antam, nalikas mo ed salita nen Misis Dyina de Benesya ed sakey a okasyon diad Dagupan nen simban imbeneg ya manliliknay baleg a gonigon so pamilya da.

Agton balot ipatnag iya ed publiko nen Ispiker ta amtayometlan sakey iyan madiplomasyan lider balet amtay karaklan so belat ya aawiten to tan pamilya to manlapud impantestigo nen anak ton Dyowey de Benesya Da Terd laban ed si Pers Dyintelman Mayk Aroyo, asawa nen GMA.
Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

NOW we know why traffic is getting problematic anew on M.H. del Pilar street, Arellano street and A. B. Fernandez Avenue east. Those bus entry and exit points which are within the prohibited zones, i. e., within the 100-meter-radius from road intersections, have been opened anew.

It seems the public order and safety office under Robert Erfe-Mejia has melted under pressure, by whom and for whom we don’t know. That city ordinance regulating establishment of PUV terminals had long been there but it was only during the Lim administration that it was fully observed.
Read more

CAN the city government of Dagupan still take back the Awai (San Jacinto) lot – or the money paid for it – despite its already being placed under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).

At the very least, the money paid to the lot seller, a city alderman said.

A three-term city councilor here who was privy to the deliberations for the now controversial real property in the hilly town, and somehow, the approval of the sale itself, said he and some colleagues were not told the whole truth by the previous
Lim administration that the Awai lot was subject of litigation.
Read more

REMEMBER the old city hall siren that those now in their 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s used to hear at noontime and angelus time?

The Old Alarm that used to wail from its perch atop the city hall building is being re-commissioned after it last sounded decades back.

The city council, thru its tourism committee, thought city residents deserve a romantic, if historic return to those days when the wailing of the siren could be heard far and wide in the city. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN
PIA- Dagupan Infocenter

THE Department of Foreign Affairs is considering requests for the establishment of field consular offices, according to Regional Director Eleonor Belgica.

Belgica said however that satellite offices will be put in place instead of regular offices.

A DFA employee will be assigned at the satellite office to receive applications for passports. In this way, people from far-flung areas no longer need to travel far to the regional office in San Fernando City in La Union just to file their applications. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

GREENERIES along the major roadlines will make Dagupan City look livelier and more pleasant.

This was the concept being mulled to change the image of the city, according to engineer Augusto Ventenilla of the city engineer’s office. He said that greening the major highways within the city limits is part of the city’s plan to make Dagupan more attractive to visitors and tourists. Read more

A TOTAL of 118,503 youth, aged from 15 to 17, will go to the polls in the 48 towns and cities f Pangasinan on October 29, simultaneous with the barangay elections.

Provincial Elewtions Officer Reddy Balarbar said the biggest number of SK members are located in San Carlos City with7,878 followed by Malasiqui, 6,177 and Bayambang, 5,697.

Dagupan City and Binmaley have 5, 324 and 4,836, respectively.
Read more