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 the rest of this entry »

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 the rest of this entry »

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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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

AFTER the ‘beheading’ of now plain congressman Joe de Venecia comes the contrition, the pained afterthoughts , the wishful musings of what-should-have been among those who presided over his Caesarian downfall.

One such twilight soul should be Congresswoman Rachel Arenas, a fellow Lakas compatriot of JdV who, according to herself, agonized over her decision to go with those who asked that the Speakership post of the House be declared vacant, in effect asking for the head of Manay Gina’s husband on a bloody platter.

And quite reasonably so. After all, it was Jdv, with the full backing of Lakas chair emeritus Fidel V. Ramos, who got her into Lakas despite a big brouhaha Read the rest of this entry »

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR

CIVILIAN local executives had better watch out in the next few years because their political careers are under serious threat.

This, especially if they have among their constituents an illustrious, top-ranking, high-profile police officer who strongly feels there’s life after retirement. You see, chances are these uniformed men, not their current vice mayor or councilor or previous opponents, will be their next (bitter) election rivals.
Lingayen mayor Jonas Castaneda, as reports now go, is in one such fix.

The looming ‘threat ‘ of a Police general Leopoldo Bataoil mayoralty ambition, so political pundits say, is growing larger by the day considering the Pol Profile’s approaching retirement from the service.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

HE STRIKES you as a lovable, kindly bespectacled grandfather, the kind who would be playing with the apos and the little ones in the living room and at the yard and not a sage of the law who will be taking on an entire Establishment, if need be, to champion the rights of the downtrodden and disadvantaged.

But he is the Chief Justice of the Land, no mistake about it, sitting right there before a local group of journalists making his legally-spiced comments almost effortlessly and with a rather marked tone that left no doubt he will, like Voltaire, defend to the death anyone’s right to say his views whether these be pleasant or unpleasant.

Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, looking sprightly for his age, was characteristically deliberate with his words in the earlier minutes of the press conference yesterday. But as the questions and discussions warmed up, he gave the local press boys a good glimpse of how the top administrator and dispenser of justice in the country will take his stand – firmly – when it comes to choosing between human rights over any establishment’s right.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

GUNS are again barking in eastern Pangasinan, particularly Tayug town, which has seen many a violent clash between warring political groups in the recent past.

The latest was another encounter last week between henchmen of the Zaragosas and alleged bodyguards of Mayor Carlos Trece Mapili. Violence has become commonplace, ironically, in a part of the province that is nestled among some of the quiet, reflective, languid landscapes you will ever find in the countryside.

More than simply confirming long-held beliefs about loose firearms aplenty in that area, this latest mayhem serves to pose a big question on the capability of the police to check and control the Read the rest of this entry »