By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
WE have received not a few complaints on the arrogance and discourtesy of GSIS personnel the past several months on even the simplest query or request for assistance of members who go to their offices. It looks like the attitude of their top officials — take a bow, Winston Garcia — has rubbed off so very well on their subordinates in the field.
Considering that this government insurance system has been having this problem (supposedly technical) with its processing system the past months such that claims for retirement and loans have suffered big delays, the least this government unit’s staff can do is make up for it by being a bit more courteous and patient with the members who pay their salaries. Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
OUR friend and hibernating columnist Bald Dragon was crying foul in his morning radio program late last week after learning of some PNP officers supposedly engaged in the highly patriotic task of “monitoring” his commentaries and assiduously making transcripts of everything he spews forth over the airlanes the past several weeks (months?).
But isn’t that flattering for you, BD?
How he got wind of the habit of the local PNP boys, we do not know. But he sounded so sure of it anyhow, stopping short of naming the PNP “officer” he harangued on air. Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR
THE current Vice Mayor Julio Parayno-Councilor Higinio ‘Boy’ Agsalud imbroglio over in Urdaneta City has become one big spectacle – in large part, fanned by media itself. Parayno accuses the slightly-built lawyer Agsalud of making political capital of his (Parayno”s) alleged fund indiscretions.
In turn, Agsalud says his vice mayor is only trying to evade the basic issue which is that, under his term, Parayno has presided over the “bankruptcy” of the sangguniang panglunsod by hiring too many casuals whose salaries have eaten up practically the council’s whole annual budget by this month of September. Boy, a former vice mayor himself, says the sangguniang panglunsod has no more maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE)left to operate the town council Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
FINALLY, the good cops found what they’ve long suspected to be in Region 1 since two years back but have failed to find till only recently. A trillion-peso worth of a shabu laboratory right in the heart of the region, La Union, can you beat that?
What the police has been discovering in Metro Manila and nearby provinces in the past few years by way of methamphetamine hydrochloride manufacturers’ dens whose estimated worth are themselves already in the millions have turned out to be patsies compared to that one found in barangay Binmutubut, Naguilian town.
Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
IF it’s true that many were surprised at the decision of Provincial Board Member Alfonso C. Bince, Jr. to shed his opposition garments and, as he words it, “go independent” at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, here’s telling you I am not.
Let us clarify that, he’s not a member of the majority in the board – yet.
Quite, but not quite. He’s neither here nor there. He’s in the netherworld.
Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
BUMPED into an old friend, the affable and efficient Manager Edilberto Libatique of the National Food Authority western Pangasinan branch during the coordination meeting for President Arroyo’ visit last week at the PNP provincial headquarters.
Before I could ask him about the report of the P18.25/kilo government rice “disappearing” from outlets at public markets,which has been aired shrilly the past weeks by a couple of broadcasters who didn’t seem to have the answer for it altogether, the manager was telling me the subsidized rice price has been pulled out and brought to “community-based outlets” in “poorest of the poor areas.” Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
ONE of the most jarring consequence of disasters –natural calamities, if you may — is the cutoff of communications, or at least the difficulty of accessing known help or assistance numbers for the latest information when you need it most.
This problem was brought home in very telling measure by no less than the reported inability of President Arroyo to check on the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) itself when she was trying to monitor disaster developments in the country from Fresno in California where she is making a three-day working visit to the United States.
The high volume of internet traffic accessing the site appeared to make the NDCC website unavailable, the President herself noted. Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
BOARD Member Alfonso C. Bince, Jr. really has a knack for unpredictability. Sometimes, he telegraphs his moves, sometimes he does not. Sometimes he walks the talk, sometimes he does not. So, okay, maybe it’s really the lawyer in him that explains his behavior and keeps both critics and admirers dumbfounded by his actions most times.
For him, perhaps, the world around is a big trial court and he has to summon all guile, gimmick and gumption to prove a point and make the adversary think he’s losing a case when he’s actually winning one.
At the last sangguniang panlalawigan session, so mediamen covering the regular deliberations have reported, he surprised almost everyone by authoring a measure on the floor for a move Read the rest of this entry »
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