By DANNY O. SAGUN
PIA Dagupan Infocenter

PANGASINAN has enough rice supply for the next four months or up to July, according to the National Food Authority.

Edilberto Libatique, branch manager of NFA western Pangasinan based in Lingayen, said that the total rice stocks in the province amounts to some 3.6 million bags with NFA having 193,000 bags in its bodegas. Estimated household stocks today stand at 2.2 million bags while traders have some 860,000. The province expects to harvest some 635,000 bags of palay, equivalent to 413,000 bags of rice.

He said that based on this data, there is enough rice supply for the province for the next four months.
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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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ROSALES—Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has tagged Pangasinan as one big sleeping giant in agriculture.

Yap, speaking during the opening of an eight-day Agricultural Exposition 2008 in barangay Carmen East, Rosales, said although Pangasinan is the biggest province in Region 1, it lags far behind in the production of rice, corn and vegetables over the years.

Pangasinan is not only the biggest province in the Ilocos Region but is also the biggest in the entire country and yet it is not producing much in rice, corn and vegetables unlike other provinces, Yap noted. Read the rest of this entry »

HAS the current national crisis really become so malignant it has turned provincemates into enemies?

Congressman and ousted House Speaker Jose C. de Venecia and Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) head Usec. Antonio A. Villar, Jr. , Pangasinenses both, appear to be the latest pair of protagonists ‘infected’ by the unraveling national bitter drama sparked by the National Broadband Network-STE deal.

In a press conference with local mediamen Saturday on his way to inaugurate several municipal projects in the fourth district, De Venecia issued another one of his calibrated response at what he said were Malacanang’s “desperate” moves to divert the issue from the NBN-ZTE bribery scandal to his alleged link to some oil smugglers. Read the rest of this entry »

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

BINALONAN — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo unwrapped in a brief visit here last Saturday five major projects for Pangasinan’s development as part of the master plan for the North Luzon Agri-business Quadrangle (NLAQ) super region.
The President spoke during the formal inauguration of a private airstrip and groundbreaking for a new two-storey school building timed to be completed when classes open in June in this quiet agricultural town that is her mother’s hometown.

Owned by the family of her cousin Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr., president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, the airstrip .measuring 850 meters, was put up by the World City Colleges (WCC) Aviation Company whose president is Captain Ramon V. Guico III, vice mayor of Binalonan. Read the rest of this entry »

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
THE city administration of Dagupan is proceeding ever more cautiously now in its fight against illegal squatters at the beach area in Bonuan Binloc after the initial bravado it exhibited on the issue of public land squatting.

This, after a neighborhood association in the place urged the city hall task force to first determine “with absolute certainty” which tax declarations are valid and which are not to avoid embarrassing situations later. Read the rest of this entry »

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

SUPREME Court Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno put in perspective growing public questions about which takes precedence in the administration of justice between civil rights and national security.

The “point of balance,” he said is a moving point. “There is no fixed point of balance in the administration or dispensing of justice.” Read the rest of this entry »

THE city government’s campaign against illegal squatters at beach lots in Bonuan Binloc is taking aggressive swings against all those involved in the land anomaly.

A member of the Task Force on Housing and Urban Poor Resettlement echoed late last week the notice given by the task force chairman, City Engineer Virginia Rosario, that demolition of all illegal structures at the beach is being readied even as a legal team is checking out the documents of those engaged in the illegal occupancy of beachlots.
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THE city government will work for the restructuring of its loan of more than P300 million with the Land Bank of the Philippines this year in order that the city’s yearly debt servicing can be reduced.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez said this was among the plans spelled out by Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr., at the start of the year.

The mayor spelled out his proposed initiative during the traditional New Year’s Day call on him Monday by members of the city council.
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BY DAVE M. PARAGAS
UNITED STATES Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenny and former president Fidel V. Ramos will lead guests during the launching of the world-class exhibit dubbed as “The War of our Fathers…A Tribute to the Filipino Freedom Fighter” during the 63rd landing anniversary of Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur and his forces in Lingayen on January 9 this year.

Sponsored by the Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB) and the Veterans Federation of the Philippines (VFP) in partnership with the provincial government led by Gov. Amado T. Espino, the exhibit will be open to the public free of charge at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center.
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