SO far, so good.

This was the assessment of Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, Executive chairperson of the Dagupan Bangus Festival 2008 a week into the 19-day festivities that ends May 4.

Fernandez hailed the mammoth crowd participating in the festival, especially those who lined up in the streets even under the blazing sun to watch the featured “Gilon-Gilon ed Baley” street dancing last Monday afternoon.
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RIGHT off the bat, we ask: Would you prefer listening to the bad news messenger or to the good news deliverer?

Your answer to this and that of the rest of theoretical respondents will quickly reveal the percentage of the nation’s populace that want to bring this nation down and those who want it to rise – despite all odds.

Taken against the current preoccupation of media to herald the bad news about the rice situation by incessantly ranting from its own safe “pulpits” on the air, on print or in the blogs as though Armageddon was nigh and coming terrifyingly real, we can only wish many of these characters were the true pundits they proclaim themselves to be.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

YOU can’t blame local officials and traders tripping over each other on radio to sing hallelujahs to business tycoon Lucio Tan the morning after his visit to Dagupan City to receive an honorary degree for leadership in entrepreneurship from the Lyceum Northwestern University. In this material world, it’s to each his own kind of praise, to each his own motive.

It’s rather unkind to say this, I know, but frankly a perceptive reading of their universal acclaim for the man who ranks No. 785 in Forbes’ Magazine’s Top 1,000 Billionaires of the world can be summed up this way: Come on, Lucio, pour us part of your billions here in Dagupan and Pangasinan and you, too, will be our God. A rather selfish, if disdainful, motive at paying tribute to a self-made man who made his pile by the sweat of his brow – and some uncanny sense of business timing.
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By DANNY O. SAGUN

NOW we understand why environmental pollution problems cannot be addressed or acted upon expeditiously: Provincial offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) cannot act on their own.

As a matter of course, they still have to bring public complaints on pollution problems to the regional office of the Environmental Management Bureau, a line bureau under the DENR, for proper action..
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“LAWS can embody standards; governments can enforce laws–but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted–when we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened– when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom

ROBERT ‘Bobby’ F. KENNEDY
(Slain U.S, Attorney-General brother of the late American President John F. Kennedy)

Nen MARIO F. KARATEKA

NADNGEL koy pares da di Dr. Guido Tiong tan si maganganan Rachel N. Sapigao ed radyo nen imbeneg a simba, Sikaran dua so nansalita nipaakar ed araparapen ya Bamboo tan Mango Pistibal ed San Carlos, tan siyempre, dawit metlay Kapiyestaan ed saman a maples so ibubulaslas ton siyudad.

Alay abig – masansanting, no diad salitay taga-Manaoag – ya narengel so nanduruman aktibidades ya akalinya parad sarayan duaran selebrasyon yab imbalikas ed dilin salita tayon Pangasinan ya nilaokan ni na makolor tan matudyon ehemplos tan paelek na sayan duaran inpormesyon opisers na San Carlos.

Diad antikey a salita, marakep so impanolop da di Mama Guido tan si Nana Rachel ta naikday ligsa so pangibalita na nagagawad siudad. Read more

By Ruby R. Bernardino, PIO

THE Provincial Development Council (PDC) composed of all component municipalities and cities of Pangasinan convened last Monday in Lingayen for a strategic planning of the province’s common vision and plans at the Consuelo Hotel and Restaurant here.

The conference, which was the first to be conducted after a lapse of 13 years, according to the Office of the Governor, sought to inform and familiarize members on the major development plans of each local government unit (LGU) to guide them in formulating a common action agenda for the province.
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LINGAYEN – Twenty lovely ladies with the proverbial “beauty and brains” assets will vie for the coveted Limgas Na Pangasinan 2008 title on May 1 at the Capitol Plaza here.

Leo Urmaza, pageant committee chair, said the 20 semi-finalists were chosen during the pre-pageant night held recently at the Consuelo Hotel from an original field of thirty women who qualified from the series of screening sessions conducted at the Lingayen Gulf Resort Hotel here.

The semi-finalists were formally presented to members of the media last April 12 at the Consuelo Hotel who later picked the ‘Darling of the Press’ among the beauty contestants. Read more

LINGAYEN – Pangasinan Provincial Assessor Nestor P. Quiambao was recently adjudged the Most Outstanding Provincial Assessor of the Philippines.

The award was given by the Department of Finance-Bureau of Local Government Finance (DF-BLGF) during the 75th annual convention of the Philippine Association of Local Treasurers and Assessors (PHALTRA) Incorporated, held recently at the Mall of Asia (SMX) Convention Center in Pasay City.
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STA. BARBARA –A P20 million post-harvest facility for corn is set to be put up this year in barangay Leet here, courtesy of the Department of Agriculture.

Albertini de Guzman, municipal administrator of Sta. Barbara, said this was why Mayor Reynaldo Velasco and he, including Provincial Agriculturist Jose Almendares, went out Mindanao last week upon the invitation of the DA.

De Guzman said they visited corn post-harvest facilities, particularly in the province of North Cotabato, Saranggani and South Cotabato, set to be duplicated in Sta. Barbara town.
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