LINGAYEN— Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Leduina Co has directed thru a memorandum the officer-in-charge of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office in Dagupan City to “refrain from giving/issuing A or D (Alienable or Disposable) certifications to individuals applying for foreshore lease agreement within the Lingayen shoreline. “.

The PENRO took the move in response to a letter of Mayor Ernesto ‘Jonas” Castaneda of this Capital town in July last year addressed to then Environment and Natural Resources Sceretary Angelo Reyes and reporting the illegal occupancy of beach lots by different persons.

Castaneda said the municipal government is itself applying for FLA rights over the entire area of the beach for eco-tourism purposes. Read more

HE has chosen to be a magnet for criticisms on the Fernandez administration and it seems he’s been successful at it. Proof of this is a so-called “white paper” on his alleged sins, excesses and well, handicaps that circulated at City Hall last week, a dissertation authored anonymously to make lesser men cringe and crawl under.

But City Legal Officer George Mejia, combative as they come, only seems a bit uneasy over the cowardly expose on his persona. A former judge himself, he must know how to roll with the punches, overt physical threats (in the past) included. Any quick survey at City Hall certainly will show many employees do not cotton to his style of people management and inter-personal dealings especially with subordinates but that’s him. You can’t turn oranges into apples whatever you do. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

I AM not saddened about the reactions of some Patrima colleagues on the current controversy over jueteng payola. In a way, I expected and understood their positions. I can only hope they understand mine.

Frankly though, up till this moment, I wonder if they do, this despite some reaching out that a few of them did to me last week; I wish to tell them all I appreciate their gesture of still recognizing me as an elder in this trade worth talking to.
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By DANNY O. SAGUN

THIS corner for quite a time has not written anything about his humble town San Jacinto.

In fact, the municipality has not been in the news, print or radio, for the past several months, except for its being mentioned as the possible site for the planned landfill dumpsite project of Dagupan City. Or when a project there was inaugurated by Congressman Joe de Venecia. Apart from these, no significant issue or event has been reported out from that small town.
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LINGAYEN —The municipal government has confirmed the massive illegal occupation of public lands along the foreshore land in Lingayen by different individuals, all of whom are rich and influential persons.

Mayor Ernesto Castaneda, in an interview, said as early as July 3, 2007, he had written then Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Reyes to inform him that sopme parties have been putting up structures along the shoreline of Lingayen as confirmed by barangay officials.
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AS talks of a media hush money swirled in the community press the past two weeks, elements of the Philippine National Police swooped down on jueteng joints in the city last March 2 and 3.

Raided twice by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) was a jueteng den in Poblacion Weste where undetermined amounts of cash and jueteng parapehernalia were seized. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN
By PIA Dagupan Infocenter

THE demand for welders here and abroad remains high even as training institutions in the province could not cope with the demand, a supervisor of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) said Tuesday.

The training centers authorized by Tesda - PSAT in Lingayen, Luciano Millan in Asingan, Philgerma in Calasiao and the Tesda training center at the Capitol compound- only produce an average of 25 trainees per batch per school, according to engineer Jovencio Ferrer. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN
PIA Dagupan Infocenter

IS IT really urgent for the provincial government to name a legal officer?

Provincial Board Member Alfonso Bince thinks so as he urged Gov. Amado Espino to appoint as soon as possible a provincial legal officer which position has been vacant since the Espino administration took over some eight months ago.

Bince wondered if there really were no takers for the post or if it was being reserved for somebody. Read more

By LIEZLE BASA INIGO
PUBLIC reaction in Pangasinan to the current unrest in the nation’s capital appears mixed with a regional trial court judge, speaking as a citizen, observing that students are being used for political purposes by some opposition sectors .

Regional Trial Court Judge Ulysses Butuyan of Branch 51 in Tayug expressed his belief that the students may now be unwitting pawns to some interests and their wide-eyed innocence being harnessed for purposes they have little knowledge of.
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THE University of Pangasinan (UPang) has “chalked up 83 years of missionary work in the education of the Filipino youth in this part and is still going strong.”

Thus did UPang chairman Cesar T. Duque proudly describe the strides taken by the university shortly after a thanksgiving prayer and the faculty’s restatement of commitment to academic excellence during last month’s university foundation day celebration.
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