BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

MANY DAGUPENOS, pedestrians especially, are wondering whether there’s still the law regulating the operation of tricycles in Dagupan City. They feel that if the law has not been repealed or amended, perhaps it’s more honored now in the breach than in the observance.

One need only look at the buzzing, roaring tricycle units in the city roads today to realize what these observers mean – there are infinitely much more units running on the road now than at any other time and, hear this, six out of 10 of them do not have the mandated route and windshield numbers painted on them.

That could only mean they’re, in more sense than one, colorum (or unregistered) units. Woe to the passenger who meets an Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

FROM the balcony of the vintage landmark that is the Vicar Hotel building, I and several spectators watched the Festivals of the North street dancing parade pass by Saturday afternoon.

While there is no question the young participants and their drum and bugle corps gave everyone great thrill with their colorful costumes and choreographed dances (at some point, some of the groups performed breath-taking stunts, you wonder who’d foot the hospital bills if they took one miscalculation, one misstep and hurt themselves somehow – okay, am referring to the gay ‘stunt’ artist of the Sugpo Festival street dancers who’s hoisted up on two bamboo poles before swinging down and breaking into a sudden “split” on the hot pavement, ouch! ) still your heart goes out to the girls and boys literally baking under the sun to give everyone enjoyment. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

YOU can’t blame local officials and traders tripping over each other on radio to sing hallelujahs to business tycoon Lucio Tan the morning after his visit to Dagupan City to receive an honorary degree for leadership in entrepreneurship from the Lyceum Northwestern University. In this material world, it’s to each his own kind of praise, to each his own motive.

It’s rather unkind to say this, I know, but frankly a perceptive reading of their universal acclaim for the man who ranks No. 785 in Forbes’ Magazine’s Top 1,000 Billionaires of the world can be summed up this way: Come on, Lucio, pour us part of your billions here in Dagupan and Pangasinan and you, too, will be our God. A rather selfish, if disdainful, motive at paying tribute to a self-made man who made his pile by the sweat of his brow – and some uncanny sense of business timing.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

THREE things to keep your sanity and peace in these stressful times: Old Hanna Barbera cartoons on TV, a quiet brook or creek in a forest and a little child’s (preferably, your apo’s) laughter at play.

I have taken solace, okay, refuge, in these things lately, ones I have been largely ignoring or taking for granted in the past because of pressure of work. Now I find they provide such a unique feeling of relief after a hard day’s or week’s toil. Maybe I’m really getting old.

The cartoons, especially the Tom & Jerry or Mickey Mouse varieties are being re-run in one TV channel and it’s a delight to find yourself almost unconsciously laughing out loud (lol!) in your living room, something you’ve hardly done before. Such therapy, indeed!.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

SOMETHING that’s closest to the gut of Pinoys now threatens to put everything going on in this country– NBN-ZTE deal, Lozada’s crusade, Lakas-Kampi merger, Villarosa’s acquittal, the smuggling issue brouhaha between congressmen and PASG chief Bebot Villar , typhoons, even Ben’s to die for ‘borjer’ – in the back burner.

Rice, the staple, the cereal that most Pinoys can’t do without in a day, now looms in scarce supply. And that is bad news, real bad news.

The administration, quite naturally, won’t say it directly but the telltale signs are there: We’re importing rice from Vietnam, the President has suddenly allocated a whooping P1.6 billion to the Department of Agriculture to boost rice production and the grains agency, the National Food Administration, is nervously twitching as it calculates how long the available stocks in its bodegas could last.. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY Arthur Yap has just hurled a challenge in the direction of Governor Amado T. Espino and the rest of our provincial officials and employees: Do your part in helping the Philippines stave off a looming world food crisis.

Yap, who traces some roots or affinity to Dagupan City (and sounds proud of it each time he mixes with local folks), said the food crisis in the world stage is real. And he ticks off figures showing that grains production in the country has been steadily declining even as consumption is growing.

Of course, Yap said, this is largely due to several inter-related factors bearing down on the farmers’ capacity to produce as much as they used to: increasing prices of oil, fertilizer and transportation, all serving to make life and production difficult for the farmer.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

I AM not saddened about the reactions of some Patrima colleagues on the current controversy over jueteng payola. In a way, I expected and understood their positions. I can only hope they understand mine.

Frankly though, up till this moment, I wonder if they do, this despite some reaching out that a few of them did to me last week; I wish to tell them all I appreciate their gesture of still recognizing me as an elder in this trade worth talking to.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

AS is usual in the post-event assessment of the magnitude of a mass action, it depends on who’s making it. If it’s from the joiners or sympathizers, it’s a big multitude; if it’s from the oppositors or the antis, it’s a dismal number. Knowing this, I did try to check and get confirmation from everyone — the participants, kibitzers, cops on post and outright and rabid oppositors to the rally — to arrive at a respectable (and moderately acceptable) figure from all the diverse estimates.

It’s gotta be a little less than 3,000 but a few warm bodies more than 2,500.
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BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR,.

SO FAR, it’s just a plan, alright?

But surely, creating a novel Chinatown in Dagupan sounds romantic enough, considering that the Chinese entrepreneurs of the city have been here for as long as those now in their late fifties can remember.

The Chinese-owned stores in Dagupan have come as huge and imposing as the CSI and Magic mall chains and as modest and sturdy as the Botica China and Kwong Tay and Sanitary bakeries downtown. Their managements have been passed on from one generation to the next and while the heirs have imbibed the native Dagupenos’ culture and street ways, they basically adhere to the cool efficiency of the mostly Mandarin community. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR

IT is only correct that the Sangguniang Panlalawigan led by its presiding officer Marlyn Primicias-Agabas, the vice governor, is moving ever so cautiously on that controversial measure she and her board members passed for the virtual arming of barangay chairmen in these parts.

To date, the resolution has been approved and the money, so we heard, has been approved and appropriated. All that’s left, if our information is correct, is the buying of the goods.
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