THE coming of television giant GMA-7 finally with its studios and crew to Dagupan can only be for the greater good of public service and information in Pangasinan and its four cities.

One way of viewing this development in the local information sector is that GMA’s setting shop here to pit programs with rival network ABS-CBN’s means there’s money to make in this part of northern Luzon, something you can hardly begrudge these giant telecom industries for wanting to have a piece of.

Another way of looking at GMA’s chosing to be in Pangasinan, specifically Dagupan, is that there’s a whole wide and fertile ground out there for public service and news-entertainment that eager servers can fill and often eagerly do. Read more

THERE’s an online voting for the world’s “Seven New Wonders of Nature”

No less than President Arroyo has exhorted Filipinos here and abroad to support thru their online votes at least three Philippine natural wonders which are the Tubbataha Reef, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular diving site that has been acknowledged globally for its unmatched biodiversity; Chocolate Hills of Bohol, famous for its dome-shaped grass covered limestone hills that turn brown in summer when the hills dry up and the Underground River in Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

In the current Top 77 Live Rankings of the worldwide online poll, Tubbataha ranks seventh, Choco Hills ninth and the Underground River, 20th.

What the Pangasinenses would give to have their very own Hundred Islands in Alaminos –as natural as natural can be – included in the list of top natural sites to stir a sense of pride!

With the city government led by Mayor Hernani Braganza having its own well-designed website, and in the midst of promoting their unique scenic spot, we see no reason why our famous Islands should not be entered in the worldwide online Search (at www.newsevenwonders.com) to vie for the honor – and probably get GMA’s own unequivocal endorsement.

Without belittling the claim to fame of the top three Philippine spots in the search which are admittedly all breathtaking, we believe the Hundred Islands should also be there fighting for that special spot for its sheer natural beauty and pristine charm.

Nothing, you know, beats being acknowledged and recognized in the world stage even if, as it happens, even our own Department of Tourism hardly finds it worthwhile to include the Islands in its map for Most Recommended Spots.

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.
Read more

ANY perceptive town or city executive, sometime during his term, and especially if his fiefdom is experiencing some economic boom or the other, will always have to grapple with the reality of balancing morals with money or income.

This simply means that he has to have one eye out for veritable sources of income for his town or city and another for the finer sensibilities of his constituents.

In the current revitalized campaign against nightclubs and other areas of prostitution in Dagupan,inevitably targeting “businessmen” of the prurient and scandalous type, city officials may be catering to the better morals of the people Read more

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.
Read more

IN late August last year, Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr., then still House Speaker, for the firs time ever in his long political career asked the provincial force of the Philippine National Police to put a stop to jueteng, that illegal numbers game that has plagued Philippine society even longer than the congressman’s term in public service

At the inauguration of the new police station in San Jacinto, among the audience of De Venecia were top police officials: Chief Supt. Francisco Llamas representing then PNP Chief Director General Oscar Calderon, Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil, then Police Regional Director; and Senior Supt. Isagani Nerez then and still is serving as police provincial director. Read more

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

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.
Read more

IT is probably correct to say, as it has often been said in these people-powered times in the country, that Manila is not the Philippines and vice versa.

This, in light of the brewing ferment in the nation’s capital where oppositionists are again marching to force the sitting President to resign in the wake of charges of massive and unbridled corruption while the provinces are largely unaffected and on wait-and-see mode.

What is behind this marked and contrasting attitudes of burning involvement in Manila and quiet indifference in the countryside?
Maybe, resignation to the fate or fatalism on the part of the rural masses? Perhaps contentment among people in the provinces?
Read more