Wishes. Wishes. Wishes.

So, you change the calendar, maybe throw out the old doormat, dust up and discard old boxes in the house or office and perhaps too, inwardly pray or utter a fervent wish that in the new year, everything will be more peaceful, more joyous and happier than the year you’re about to leave in ten,.. nine.. eight… seven minutes and counting.

Whatever it is they say about old years and new years, the fact is we don’t often will change. It comes upon us thru a variety of factors, clusters of events, forces of circumstances. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

YOU just have to read colleague Yolly Sotelo’s Inquirer feature last Wednesday on the paper’s Northern Luzon page to know instantly that Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza won’t be giving up easily on his city’s “right” to be the site of GMA’s announced plan for an international airport in Pangasinan.

The full-length, three-fourths of a page article titled “Interconnected Hundred Islands seen” should, by sheer imagination, draw more attention (and sympathy?) for Alaminos’ now feverish claim to be the airport location than most of the pat and dry stories being churned out by other local reporters – in an obvious bid to “please” the mayor.
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By DANNY O. SAGUN

WHY Pangasinan with all its big population, huge land area and billions in internal revenue allotment (said to be the biggest beating even Cebu and Negros) lags behind other big provinces in terms of development is quite a puzzle to many.

Critics of the Agbayani family which for decades had ruled the province thus have a grand time pointing the accusing finger at the political clan. But were the late Aguedo and his son Victor really to blame for the failure of the province to be at par with Cebu or the provinces surrounding Metro Manila in terms of progress and development? Does it mean that Pangasinan would Read more

THE city government of Dagupan is expected to start building its own fish processing plant hopefully by January next year to be completed and opened sometime in July at the earliest.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is collaborating with the Dagupan City government in building the project, utilizing a financial grant of US $2 million dollars (approximately P82 million) from the Korean government.
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EMPLOYEES of Alaminos City in western Pangasinan are an envy of all government workers, national or local.

In the spirit of Christmas, their city government extended a whooping P25,000 extra bonus to all 309 of them holding regular plantilla positions.

Mayor Hernani Braganza said the amount was drawn from the P8.4 million appropriated by the city council headed by Vice Mayor Teofilo Humilde Jr. for the purpose. Read more

BINMALEY - Business permits of eateries operating as videoke bars in this town will no longer be renewed for 2008 if they continue violating municipal laws, Mayor Simplicio “Sammy” Rosario said Thursday.

Rosario said the joints have sprouted along the national highway in barangay Naguilayan and Gayaman. The permits issued to them were for restaurants.

Instead of being open during the day like a restaurant or canteen should, the establishments are open during nighttime. There are reports that the night spots are operating as front sfor prostitution, he disclosed. Read more

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strong>Mayors, lawyers, priest, treasurer among victims

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union—Though the problem of insurgency was almost nil in 2007, many sensational crimes nevertheless rocked the region, causing so much concern among the population.

Victims of the sensational crimes that hogged the pages of newspapers included two mayors, a vice mayor, one councilor, three lawyers, a priest and a municipal treasurer.

The major murders reconfirmed public apprehension that there are still too many loose guns in the hands of the civilian population in the four provinces of Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.
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THE city government of Dagupan will focus on projects geared to make the city more child-friendly next year.

This was disclosed by Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. who said he and Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez as well as the other city officials will give premium to projects that are basically addressed to the welfare of children.
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BALUNGAO – Investigators are still facing a blank wall in connection with the slaying of a policeman at his rest house while about to celebrate Christmas with friends in front of his farm house in barangay Mabini here on Monday at 11:15 p.m.

The victim was identified as Gervacion Villanos, Jr. 55, chief investigator of the Balungao Police who was shot by unidentified suspects in different parts of his body
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ALAMINOS CITY—A high official of the Department of Transportation and Communication has confirmed that his office is “considering the proposal” for the construction of an international airport here.

Chairman Thompson Lantion of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) repeated to newsmen here no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s statements for DOTC to place the airport here.
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