THOUSANDS spent Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Saturday at the Tondaligan in Dagupan, savoring the vastly improved rest and recreation area by the beach initiated by the city government.

The city government jointly launched on Wednesday Oplan Semana Santa and Oplan Baywatch to ensure a stress-free long holiday weekend for residents and visitors alike.

The beachgoers started coming in on Monday, their numbers peaking on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The huge crowd gave the owners and operators of the newly-built huts and sheds in the park a good earning weekend.
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POOR Cebu archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, now he’s brought it upon himself, this current mood of disrespect for his ecclesiastical authority. For one steeped in the psychology of human behavior being a shepherd of men, he appears to have overreacted on the Lozada phenomenon and unilaterally‘decided for his faithfuls’ when he could have best left them to discern things for themselves.

Vidal has done a fatal mistake barring any Catholic mass in Cebu for star corruption witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada in the latter’s current guest speaker mode that’s taking him around the nation.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

SOMETHING that’s closest to the gut of Pinoys now threatens to put everything going on in this country– NBN-ZTE deal, Lozada’s crusade, Lakas-Kampi merger, Villarosa’s acquittal, the smuggling issue brouhaha between congressmen and PASG chief Bebot Villar , typhoons, even Ben’s to die for ‘borjer’ – in the back burner.

Rice, the staple, the cereal that most Pinoys can’t do without in a day, now looms in scarce supply. And that is bad news, real bad news.

The administration, quite naturally, won’t say it directly but the telltale signs are there: We’re importing rice from Vietnam, the President has suddenly allocated a whooping P1.6 billion to the Department of Agriculture to boost rice production and the grains agency, the National Food Administration, is nervously twitching as it calculates how long the available stocks in its bodegas could last.. Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

IT’s now clear to us why the third district representative in the House of Representatives voted in favor of a motion to declare the Speaker position vacant that eventually led to the ouster of Congressman Joe de Venecia as House leader. That GMA visit in Malasiqui last Tuesday noon said it all.

The President acknowledged that support given her by Rachel Arenas during that crucial period when ties, relationships, loyalties, etc. were put to the test.
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