By DANNY O. SAGUNPIA Dagupan Infocenter

STA. MARIA -Sweet sorghum may replace cotton and tobacco in 10 years as major agricultural crop in the Ilocos Region, an agriculture expert has projected.

Dr. William Dar, who heads a biofuel research center based in India, said that enough research work has been done on sweet sorghum and the crop proved to be cost-efffective.

Sweet sorghum, was found to have multiple uses - food, animal feed, forage and fuel (ethanol). It is drought-tolerant, high yielding for both sweet stalk and grain, and a renewable source of energy. Read the rest of this entry »

THE Japanese national who committed suicide inside one of the rooms of Star Plaza Hotel in Dagupan City was finally identified with the arrival on Wednesday of the Japanese consul in Manila, according to the police.

Sr. Supt. Dionicio Borromeo, chief of police of Dagupan, said the suicide victim was identified as one Hega Seisa Boro, 70, a native of Tokyo, Japan, who came to the Philippines on October 27.

The victim was traced to be residing at Mabini Street in Malate, Manila and was suffering from terminal cancer, which was possibly the reason why he committed suicide by shooting himself through the mouth with the bullet exiting in the right side of his head. Read the rest of this entry »

LESS than two weeks after the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on October 29, members of the Board of Election Tellers on duty in Dagupan precincts finally received part of their promised honorarium.

City Treasurer Romelita Alcantara said each member of the BET was given a partial honorarium of P1,000, from a total of P2,300 they were expecting as their honorarium and transportation allowance.

No reason was given by Alcantara for the partial amount sent to her office by the Commission on Elections through the Provincial Treasurer’s Office in Lingayen. Read the rest of this entry »

THE city of Dagupan and Milpitas City in California, U.S.A. have renewed their bond of friendship when they signed an extended sisterhood pact.

The signing of a new Memorandum of Agreement between the two cities took place October 16 in Milpitas by Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez and Milpitas City Mayor Jose Esteves, who is himself a native of Dagupan City. Read the rest of this entry »

BARANGAY firecracker factories, mostly operating illegally, are sprouting once again with the coming Christmas season and New Year.

Dagupan City Fire Marshal Romualdo Mina said the firecracker factory that exploded and hurt one person last week in barangay Bacayao Norte here was one of the underground factories in that community.

The barangay is believed to be one of the biggest sources of firecrackers being sold in Dagupan City and Pangasinan during Christmas and New Year. Another firecracker hub is Pogo-Lasip and Pogo Grande which buyers all over patronize during the season. Read the rest of this entry »

CAMP BGEN OSCAR FLORENDO, La Union – Four bishops, along with 30 priests from various parishes in Ilocos and Cordillera regions, joined hands in calling for a stop to violence and killings not only in northern Luzon but also in other parts of the country.

They made a call during a peace rally on Tuesday held at the St. Williams Cathedral in downtown San Fernando City that was also attended by members of the Philippine National Police and non-government organizations. Read the rest of this entry »

TWENTY travel agents from North America and Manila held a three-day familiarization tour of the Hundred Islands National Park starting on Saturday.

Dubbed as “100 Islands Survivor Tour 2007”, the activity was sponsored by the Garden State Travel Group of Companies headed by its president Vid Figures and Northwest Airlines represented by Ms. Shirley Yin.

The tour of the city was arranged by Refinne JG Travel & Tours Inc. (RJGTII) owned by Jun Gonzales, and the city government of Alaminos. Read the rest of this entry »

OFFICIALS and experts from the Korean government arrived here on Tuesday to inspect the site of a proposed fish processing plant to be funded buy a U.S. $2 million grant coming from their government.

With them were officials from the funding agency Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

The visit brings closer to reality the multi-million project sought to be implemented by the new city administration in order to create jobs and put more value to the city’s bangus.

Bangus is Dagupan’s chief agricultural products being raised from its over 900 hectares of swamp lands, including rivers. Read the rest of this entry »

CAMP PRESIDENT QUIRINO, Ilocos Sur – A candidate for barangay chairman who figured in a tie with his lone rival in the election last Oct. 29 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan election was shot and killed by two unidentified gunmen in barangay Tabucol here on Friday.

The killing of Danilo Bernido, 40, happened just a day before he was set to participate in the drawing of lot with his lone rival Elvira Baguyo at the Municipal Election Office in order to break the tie. Read the rest of this entry »