By VENUS MAY H. SARMIENTO

A GRATEFUL Dagupan community has poured various forms of reward, monetary and material, to eleven-year-old Gicoven Abarquez of Perez marketsite here for his singularly splendid show of honesty when he turned over to the police some P18,000 despite his family’s needy economic status.

Abarquez, fondly called “Gangga” by his playmates simply said when asked why he decided to surrender the money to authorities and not keep it or spend it: “My mother taught us never to keep what is not ours.” Read more

ONLY the stupidly naïve or naively stupid will believe that the sending of the Pulido impeachment complaint to the justice committee of the House and its expected death thereafter has ended the Arroyo-De Venecia stalemate. And that peace will reign between the two allies henceforth, all recriminations and doubts totally erased like some bad dream.

The truth is, most Filipinos who are following the unfolding of events since Joey de Venecia III first blew the whistle on the NBN-ZTE deal know it is just a matter of time before the execution of the incumbent House Speaker by the Brutuses of the House. “In November or December”, an unnamed ranking House official was ominously quoted as predicting in a national daily on the countdown on the fate of the man they call JDV.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

SOME people have no problem earning and eating off illegal sources of income; others just can’t.

The shining example of good old-fashioned honesty shown by an eleven-year-old who picked up a pouch full of money – some P18,000 by news reports – last September 21 along Perez Blvd..here and turned it over to the police without touching a single bill gives us hope.

Not that Givenco Abarquez’s gesture is the only act of honesty we’ve seen or heard about because really, a vanishing few have, in their own ways in the past, felt just as uneasy as him about keeping money not theirs. They either returned this to the Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

THERE’S no stopping anymore the October 29 barangay and sangguniang kabataan polls. Only incumbent barangay captains are actually desperately moving for another postponement for obvious reason. Everyone else want the election to push thru.

We just hope the coming political exercise will not be as bloodstained as the past May 14 polls. It’s likely that protagonists in many barangays are relatives so that the campaign would not be as heated as in other political contests.
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CITY Police Chief Dionicio Borromeo sought Thursday to dispel some “hurtful” speculations that the amount found by honest boy Gicoven Abarquez of Perez Marketsite as reported by the police may not have been the exact amount actually found.

‘We do not want to put the boy’s shining act of honesty in vain,” he said.

Borromeo, admitting that there have been some “unfair” reports that some of his policemen may have had some less than honorable intention over the money, said any hanky-panky was Read more

Nen MARIO F. KARATEKA

SIOPAY manisian malet ni so aroan da di Nana Gloria tan Mama Dyo?

Natan ta apabaingan la na anak nen Ispiker Dyo so pamilya Arroyo lapud samay makilot ya NBN-ZTE brudban dil tan singa pinasakbayan la na kaalyados nen GMA ya asingger a nadisgrasya so inka-Ispiker nen kabaleyan tayon Dyo DV lapud saya, lamat ,aliwan elet, so nanenengneng na totoo ed relasyon daranian duan lideres na nasyon.
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BY IKE SENERES

HOW could the government assist in the marketing of products coming from livelihood projects? The initiative of Sen. Dick Gordon to ship fruits from Mindanao using military aircraft is praiseworthy, but we need permanent solutions for this problem that could survive the test of time.

Since Gordon has taken the first step of arranging buyers for these goods to be purchased by supermarkets in Metro Manila, the government should step in to make this a regular program, making sure however that the government should only help in the trading process, and not to do the trading directly. Read more

TAYUG – A candidate for barangay captain in barangay Carriedo was shot and killed and his son wounded when they were fired upon by gunmen aboard a motorcycle on Tuesday afternoon.

The fatality was identified as Jaime Tolentino, alias ‘Boy Hapon’, 56, who sustained five gunshot wounds on the stomach and head; and his son Marlon, 24, who was wounded by astray bullet in the right leg. Read more

URDANETA CITY – Cities in the Ilocos region and various parts of the country can learn a lot on how to manage their resources well from Urdaneta City.

A financial report of the Commission on Audit for 2006 showed Urdaneta topping all eight cities in the Ilocos region in terms of total income, total assets and total equity.

City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. said the city government does not have any secret for the success other than diligent tax collection yearly and proper allocation of resources. Read more

TWO Muslim brothers, tagged as Number 1 and 2 in the watch list of drug pushers in Dagupan were arrested by the police in a buy-bust operation near their residence in Tondaligan, Bonuan here on Tuesday.

Supt. Dionicio Borromeo, police chief of Dagupan, identified the suspects as Muslimin Hak, 345, and Ulangkaya Hak, 36, both from Maguindanao but residing in a Muslim area in Dagupan City.
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