PANGASINAN is not only rich in natural resources, it is also teeming with talented individuals who, together, could showcase a great performance deserving a niche in the world of arts and culture all its own.

Such is the gem that glows out of the fine and classic musicale of Pangasinan orchestras that are all too often tapped to provide entertainment not only in neighboring provinces but even in the big cities.

Pangasinan Orchestra was started by a clan in the small, agricultural town of Basista, now known as the hometown of famous orchestras. In the town’s Barangay Dumpay alone, seven orchestras are always being contracted for fine musical entertainment, especially during big fiestas and other significant occasions. Read more

ON a fountain in a small park in the hamlet of Wilhelmsfeld in the city of Heidelberg, Germany is a life-size statue of Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippine’s national hero whose martyrdom on December 30, 1986 was recalled anew by the whole nation ysterday.

“This is how deeply the Germans love your national hero,” said Professor Manfred Ollik, a retired colonel of the German Police Academy who lives with a Filipino wife and a grown-up son in Bonuan Gueset Centro in Dagupan City.

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A FULL-PLEDGED physician has been named assistant vice president-regional manager for Region 1 of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) effective last September.

Dr. Leo V. Cardona, Jr., a native of Borongan Samar, was reassigned to the Ilocos region Philhealth office based in Dagupan City following the promotion of former AVP Ilocos manager Ernesto Beltran.

Beltran is now Philhealth senior vice president based in the central office.
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(Delivered before a LIVE interaction with the local Press recently during the opening of a Media Sportsfest at the CSI The City Mall premises)

IT’S been 118 days since the new administration has been at work at the Capitol. Any ordinary observer should be able to spot changes — from the Capitol grounds to the bustling work that has kept the provincial government a veritable beehive.

The Pangasinan Press has been properly apprised of what we have been doing last Oct. 15 when I delivered my “First 100 Days Report.”

To recap, we have streamlined government operations; put to order operational systems to maximize efficiency and results; kept the finances afloat by trimming down on excess personnel and slowly reducing our debt burden left by the previous administration and seeking additional revenues such as the collection of overdue tax obligations from the two large Pangasinan power plants in Sual and in San Manuel. Read more

The following is an actual question given in a University of Washington chemistry mid term.
The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following: Read more

URDANETA CITY – With its promising economy as the melting pot and center of commerce and education in eastern Pangasinan, Urdaneta City is now ready to jump from second to first class, besting other cities in the province and in the Ilocos region.

An elated Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. announced that the city last year posted an income of P440 million, from local taxes and Internal Revenue Allotment, excluding P123 million it realized from its own City of Urdaneta University (CUU).

The city-operated CUU, a model for all Local Government Units, is virtually the goose that lays the golden eggs for Urdaneta as it earns extra income for the city’s general fund. Read more

By EDWIN A. AMPLER
Principal 1, Anda Central School

ELEMENTARY education is the foundation of a person’s lifelong education.

It is during the elementary grades that the Child develops his personality, his system of beliefs and values, his attitudes and all other aspects of human behavior necessary for proper adjustment to his community and the society. Read more

FILIPINO migration to the United States of America has had a long and colorful history. Scholars point out that Filipinos were in North America even before the end of the Spanish era. Findings of Filipino researcher Marina Espina point to the existence of a Filipino colony in Louisiana as early as 1763.

“Manilamen”, as they were commonly called, were the very first Asian immigrants to settle in the American continent after jumping ship because of harsh working conditions in Spanish galleons manned by them.

Despite such earlier landings however, scholars consider those who left during the period 1906 to 1919 as the first wave of Filipino migration to the Untied States, including Alaska and Hawaii, due to the organized and regular nature of their migration.

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By PATRICIA MARCELO and ISAGANI DE LA PAZ

MANILA – Some overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may resemble Johnny Depp, but unlike the charming pirate, they are regarded as “unwitting” couriers of bootleg videos to and from the Philippines, experts told the OFW Journalism Consortium.

An official of the Association of Video Distributors of the Philippines (AvidPhil) urged the government to look into this.

AvidPhil, a national trade association promoting the video industry, made the call after the United States Trade Representative removed the Philippines from the priority list of governments that American firms accuse of allowing intellectual property theft.

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By JEREMIAH M. OPINIANO
www.ofwjournalism.net

IRISAN, Baguio City – THE afternoon sun cuts through the chill here and casts light on metal cages where thousands of honeybees dash through and fro.

“Welcome to Cypress Apiary,” Florida Labon said at her backyard that houses the 20 metal enclosures of honeybees.

Overlooking the slopes of one side of Baguio City, these colonies provide the daily source of income for Labon and her young daughter.

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