By DANNY O. SAGUN

PUBLIC officials perceived to be close to former House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. may now be watching their backs as anytime they could be replaced or reassigned.

In fact, the sudden reassignment of Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil to Camp Crame was seen as the first of such moves against De Venecia’s proteges.

Bataoil was in China when Chief Superintendent Romeo Hilomen, whose name was mentioned in the reported abduction of ZTE-NBN star witness Jun Lozada being the head of the police security and protection unit, took over the police Region 1 command.
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NOW, the city government of Dagupan is finding out just how convoluted the issue on massive illegal squatting in the beachland of Bonuan could get.

One indication of this is the fact that despite 93 tax declarations having already been verified by the city assessor’s office — out of over a hundred parcels of land that were first tagged for rechecking — not a single tax declaration has been nullified or cancelled – yet.

Perhaps it is the more prudent course to take, especially with a court suit filed by some of the claimants including Calasiao Mayor Roy Macanlalay, questioning a request of City Mayor Alipio Fernandez, Jr. to the Dagupan Electric Corporation to have the electrical connections of the alleged illegal structures there cut.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

AS is usual in the post-event assessment of the magnitude of a mass action, it depends on who’s making it. If it’s from the joiners or sympathizers, it’s a big multitude; if it’s from the oppositors or the antis, it’s a dismal number. Knowing this, I did try to check and get confirmation from everyone — the participants, kibitzers, cops on post and outright and rabid oppositors to the rally — to arrive at a respectable (and moderately acceptable) figure from all the diverse estimates.

It’s gotta be a little less than 3,000 but a few warm bodies more than 2,500.
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By DANNY O. SAGUN

AS WE were in the process of finalizing our school research on local media practices, our attention was struck by a tabloid article which listed media people allegedly receiving jueteng payola ranging from P20k to P60k a month. True or not, that expose, if it qualifies to be one, tells that something is wrong with the Pangasinan media, or at the very least, a section of it.

We were really surprised at the boldness of the writer (though it is apparent, there’s no one going by that name in local media circles) to name known media men and women as recipients of dirty money, which we think she could not do just like that if, or unless, she got no proof?
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MARIO F. KARATEKA

RALI la lamet!

Sanen taon 2000, dimad Manila, akimbog iray totoo tan pinaepas si Erap bilang presidente na bansa.

Natan, taon 2008, waloy taon labat so apalabas, nian nakikiwakiw lamet so nasyon ed getman pamaepas ed sakey ya panguloy bansa, si Presidente Gloria Arroyo.

Martsa, rali, ebatan, sermonan so narerengel la lamet ta onong ed saray manpoprotesta, korap so gobyerno nen Mrs. Arroyo tan dawit iray pamilya to.
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By BLESS MALLARI & MAY VELASCO
P/StarCorrespondents

A CHURCH-backed multi-sectoral group organized a rally against the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Friday, drawing a crowd of some 3,000 at the Dagupan city plaza to protest the NBN-ZTE bribery scandal and the subsequent cover-up involving key government figures.

Archbishop Oscar Cruz, the staunch and outspoken critic of the Arroyo administration, was not around for the mass action as he was reportedly in Metro Manila but Fr. Oliver Mendoza, parish priest of San Fabian and convenor of the “Agco ed Tila (I am Against Lies) spearheaded the activity, the first in Pangasinan directed against the Arroyo governance.
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