IT was a question of who danced best that, by some providence, also became another question of who danced best — in the rain.

Mapandan and Agoo street dancers in the recently-concluded Bangus Festival showed they deserved the honors, respectively, bagging the grand prizes in the first and second categories of P150,000 each in the highly successful “Festivals of the North”staged last weekin Dagupan City.

Mapandan dancers thrilled the crowd no end with their well-choreographed dance in their own “Pandan Festival” while garbed in their colorful costumes to capture the top prize in the first category. Read more

A YOUNG and dynamic official of Dagupan City who helped in the back-breaking preparations for the just concluded Bangus Festival 2008 succumbed to a massive heart attack Saturday.

Reginaldo “Reggie” Ubando, chief of the city’s Waste Management Division, was rushed to the hospital but doctors failed to revive him.

Ubando, whose unit as in past editions of the Bangus Festival found itself greatly challenged in keeping the city physically clean and orderly despite the big event, held the position since the past Lim administration. Read more

By Venus May H. Sarmiento

THREE natural wonders of the Philippines may just make it to the world’s ‘Seven Wonders of Nature’ if we campaign and vote for them online.

Waiting to be included in the much coveted list are the Tubbataha Reef in Sulu, Chocolate Hills of Bohol and the Underground River in Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo exhorted all Filipinos here and abroad to help the government in its campaign for the three wonders to win in the search. Read more

Special to the PANGASINAN STAR

UNDER the leadership of Chairman Cesar T. Duque and Dr. Catalino Rivera Jr., the University of Pangasinan has launched new and innovative programs designed to sustain its mission as the education leader in Region I and access its graduates high-salaried employment after completing their college degrees.

Dr. Rivera identified “Grow @ UPang,” a graduates’ services program handled by External Linkages and Alumni Relations Office that would link graduates across programs to competitive places of employment and opportunIties maximizing use of their knowledge, skills and abilities including values and dispositions gained from their university-based courses and programs.”
Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

THERE is enough supply of rice in Pangasinan owing to the good harvest in the main and second croppings, according to farmers from this palay-rich province.

The province produces rice more than the needs of its population of some 2.7 million, it was gathered from the National Food Authority.

The farmers believe there is no rice or food crisis as claimed by some sectors. They said the crisis is just “artificial” created by unscrupulous traders thru hoarding of the nation’s main staple.
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By VENUS MAY H. SARMIENTO
Pia Dagupan Infocenter

SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said Saturday for as long as the objectives of the “Ahon Pamilyang Pilipino” program, a flagship program of government against poverty and hunger, are kept and fulfilled by beneficiary-families, how the amount is spent will be entirely up to them.

Cabral said the DSWD precisely monitors the output or result, not the amount given a particular family for the APP program.

At a media conference called during her visit to Dagupan City on
a field inspection and assessment activity of the Area Vocational Rehabiltation Center (AVRC) unit of DSWD in Bonuan, the DSWD head also vowed to see to the relocation of the center’s office that is now threatened to be washed out to sea by big waves battering the beach area. Read more

BUSINESSMEN, beware!

UNSCRUPULOUS people are taking advantage of the current Dagupan Bangus Festival to solicit money from local businessmen for their own personal benefit.

This was disclosed during a press conference called by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, executive chairperson of the Bangus Festival and Councilor Alfie Fernandez, executive vice chair person.

Both officials said they have not sent out any solicitation letter to any businessman or person in Dagupan City as they have enough event sponsors already. Read more

THE Dagupan Bangus Festival 2008, drums beat stronger and the chants and whoops went wilder last Saturday as the ‘Festivals of the North’, a street dancing competition among festival champions in Dagupan and other towns and cities of Pangasinan and the Ilocos region, rolled out in the city’s main avenues.

Adjudged top winners were the Pandan Festival street dancers of Mapandan for the Dry category and the Pindangan Festival performers of Ago, La Union for the Wet category.
Read more

URDANETA CITY – The city government will intensify its pro-poor programs here to benefit marginal families affected by the soaring prices of commodities.

City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. said they will continue the milk program of the city government as a strategy to bring down the malnutrition rate prevalent among children here from zero to six years old.

The program aims to provide milk to children of poor families till they gain weight, he explained. Read more

LINGAYEN — The National Food Authority (NFA) branch in western Pangasinan has fielded more rolling stores in a bid to end queues by people at NFA outlets located in different public markets.

Marissa Jacinto, NFA branch information officer, said the rolling stores were sought by local officials to help their constituents, especially marginal families, buy cheaper rice.

The rolling stores are now selling NFA rice in Barangay Bolo and St. Isidore Parish in Labrador,Burgos, Bantayan and Pangapisan Norte in Lingayen, and other towns at two to three kilos per family. Read more