Fil-Chinese businessmen express grave concern

ALARMED businessmen and rich families in Dagupan City have asked the police to step up its monitoring and counter-measures against kidnap-for-ransom gangs believed to have descended anew in the city after a long spell.

The nervous concern from the business sector came following the leak of a tightly-hidden private negotiation last week to secure the safe release of two children of a prominent Filipino-Chinese businessman who were kidnapped close to their residence last November 15. Read more

A SANITARY landfill, yes, the environmental need of the hour for many local government units whose dumpsite are filled or almost filled to overflowing, requires at least 12 hectares of land for it to be effective and successful.

That need alone, the land area, is already a luxury of space that a 50 square-kilometer Dagupan City can ill afford to allocate for, well, rubbish. Add to this, the cost for an ideal landfill, a staggering P150 million by the estimate of some engineers and contractors.

That should be enough to prod the environment department and other regulatory agencies to come up with other more doable solutions to the garbage problem not just in Pangasinan but throughout the country. We hear a coming environmental summit in the province intends to do just that – propose more economical and convenient solutions. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

EVERYTHING’S turning up roses in this beloved land of ours: political scandals hitting the country’s seat of power left and right, deadly bombings coming one after the other right in the Capital and now this — three weather disturbances (the third of these still churning off the Pacific Ocean and about to enter Philippine area of responsibility) doing a mean tango all over the country just as the week starts.

Who says the Philippines isn’t blessed? Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

EXPECT federalism as one hot issue to dominate discussions in various fora in the coming days. We wonder why this renewed interest for a Charter Change after the failure to get public support of an earlier similar plan to change the system of government from the present presidential to parliamentary form.

This corner maintains the view that what matters most is the kind of persons who will run the government - be it unitary or federal, parliamentary or presidential, or a modification or combination of the various systems. Read more

URDANETA CITY – The city or Urdaneta will formalize its sister city relations with Ordezia City in Spain with the formal signing of the accord in that city by the first week of December.

Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. will sign the agreement with Ordezia (Spain) Mayor Sta. Maria Ezia, to be witnessed by the President of Bilbao in Spain. Read more

WW II vintage bomb found in junk shop

ALAMINOS CITY – A World War II vintage bomb, weighing approximately 90 kilograms and measuring two feet and eight to 10 inches in diameter, was discovered in a junkshop in Alaminos City on November 21.

A team from the Explosives and Ordnance Disposal, 750th Combat Group of the Philippine Air Force based in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City led by Capt. Ariel B. Mabiling and 10 others motored to Alaminos City to take custody and diffuse the bomb.

They informed the Alaminos Police Station that that they received picture messages sent by a concerned resident through his cellphone about the bomb. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

LUCAO barangay chair Lino Fernandez seems already assured of bagging the presidency of the Dagupan City Liga ng mga Barangay.

Fernandez, who was re-elected unopposed in the last barangay elections, only needed a formal voting by his peers in the scheduled December 29 Liga election, according to former city local government officer Filemon Vinluan, who keeps himself abreast of the barangay affairs in the city even after his retirement more than a year ago. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

WOUNDED local broadcaster Allan Sison’s encounter with a young burglar whom he shot and killed some months back remains the strongest possible lead to his near fatal gunslay last November 16.

The Philippine National Police Task Force formed by Police Regional Director Leopoldo N. Bataoil hour after the shooting incident on Jose P. de Venecia Sr. highway in Dagupan City is pursuing the angle after Sison expressed belief that some parties may have been out to exact revenge against him. Read more

A MEMORANDUM of understanding was signed on Wednesday formalizing the participation of the Dagupan-based Lyceum Northwestern University to the ongoing Sustainable Sanitation for East Asia (SUSEA) Program, with Dagupan as one of the pilot area.

Funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), SUSEA is also being implemented in Bauko, Mt. Province, Guian in Eastern Samar, General Santos City and Polomolok in South Cotabato; and Alabel, Saranggani. Read more

A RIVER ferry service that will ply a point-to-point trip from Dagupan to Alaminos and San Fernando City is in the drawing board.

Mayors Alipio Fernandez, Jr. of Dagupan City and Hernani Braganza of Alaminos met on November 15 to discuss the initial plan that would call for the participation of Mayor Pablo Ortega of San Fernando City for a tri-point or triangular coverage of the ferry project. Read more