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.
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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?
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PRESIDENT Arroyo, at last Saturday’s inauguration of the Binalonan airfield owned by the Guicos, was diplomacy in verbiage personified when she simply proclaimed that a bigger more modern airport will be built “in another part of the province” using the Binalonan event as reference point.

She could have mentioned either Alaminos City (which city of Mayor Hernani Braganza she had anyway sometime last year mentioned as the site for the project) or Sta. Barbara, a serious ‘bidder’ for the same project (and made Mayor Rey Velasco jump with joy) but she didn’t. She was obviously only too aware of the political overtones and undertones of such a categorical statement and opted to be deliciously vague about it, at least for the moment.
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PROVINCIAL Police Director Isagani Nerez’es quick answer to the Provincial Governor’s order for a total gun ban in Pangasinan is, as widely expected, the setting up of checkpoints on the road and body searches or frisking of persons in such frequented spots as video-oke bars and nightclubs. It is supposed, and perhaps quite correctly so, that the probability of armed customers being present in such places of entertainment is high.

A report said two members of a gun-for-hire gang were caught at a video-oke joint in Sual last week precisely in implementation of the gun ban. Let us pray that more such pre-emptive operations against such armed individuals or groups roaming in our midst earn similar good results in the coming days so that peace-loving citizens would be relatively safe from those nasty “stray bullets” when guns suddenly start barking.
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SO we ask the question: Is the gun ban directed at lawless elements with guns alone or at law-abiding citizens with guns duly licensed and issued also?

If it’s the first, Governor Amado T. Espino’s directive to the policemen of Sr. Supt. Isagani Nerez, provincial police director, is hollow because being lawless and violence-prone, such gun-holders – with or without a gun ban – will always find means to have a gun at all times. What’s a gun-for-hire for if he doesn’t have a gun? Just imagining such a situation already sounds ridiculous. More so, if the governor and the police director believe that a gun ban will strike fear in the hearts of armed criminals. Quite the contrary, these people’s success at evading or thumbing their nose at the prohibition even adds to their thrill.
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HEARTWARMING how many of our overseas countrymen really go out of their way to show how much they care for us back home in these floodlands and disaster-prone areas.

Ultra-modern ambulances fully loaded with all kinds of life-saving equipment imaginable will soon be at the service of dagupenos and Malasiquinians courtesy of a Michigan-based Fil-Am nurses group who will also be coming over to conduct a medical mission this week.
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AS we’re wrapping up this week’s issue of the Pangasinan Star, a magnitude 5.2 earthquake, felt at Intensity 4 in Dagupan City, rocked the province.

It was fairly mild but enough to jog our senses to that big quake of July 16, 1990 and rekindle a brief fear about the unspeakable consequences of a Big One occurring anew in this city sitting on land geologically below sea level.

Quite significantly, we’ve been hearing the past weeks calls for better disaster preparedness in Dagupan aired by not a few of our city officials who, no doubt, were thinking more along the lines of the floods and typhoon surges along the beaches and waterlines that are common occurrences, in fact almost traditional, in our neck of the woods each year. Read more