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 »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR
DON’T you feel that this firecracker mania in the city, especially in the barangays, is getting a bit too much already? As the Tagalogs would say: “Enap olredi naw.”
What started out as a “fun” lighting of big, loud firecrackers at 12 noon of New Year’s Day, January 1, in barangay Pogo Grande – well-known for its lucrative though mainly underground firecracker manufacturers – has become nothing but one grand noise pollution, with the “big bomb” punctuating each rapid fire trayanggulo enough to break a child’s eardrum.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
YOU just have to read colleague Yolly Sotelo’s Inquirer feature last Wednesday on the paper’s Northern Luzon page to know instantly that Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza won’t be giving up easily on his city’s “right” to be the site of GMA’s announced plan for an international airport in Pangasinan.
The full-length, three-fourths of a page article titled “Interconnected Hundred Islands seen” should, by sheer imagination, draw more attention (and sympathy?) for Alaminos’ now feverish claim to be the airport location than most of the pat and dry stories being churned out by other local reporters – in an obvious bid to “please” the mayor.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
HE has put his life on the line, that’s for sure – and he knows it.
Still, the man they call ‘1-O-1” or more fondly, Bebot — that’s Undersecretary Antonio Villar, Jr. of the Presidential Antri-Smuggling Group (PASG) under the Office of the President – dares to take on all comers. Like threats were ordinary peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast for him.
He’s, to be trite about it, the right man for the job.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
WE are watching the conduct, nay, the vote of our dear six congressmen of Pangasinan in the ‘Cheaper Medicines Bill.
As lady commentator Ruth Abao of DZRH-Manila aptly voiced the masses’ line of thought on the issue, we know the honorable congressmen have been making a pile on most infrastructure projects, purchases, trade negotiations and such other “government projects” where their approval or imprimatur is vital or necessary and the people — out of helplessness mainly – are willing not to make them accountable for these “sins.”
But “ito man lang isang isang ito na magpapagaang sa anumang dalahin ukol sa kanilang kalusugan, e sana pagkaisahan na ng ating mga mambabatas na ipasa para sa nakararaming mga mahihirap,” Abao appealed on air.
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By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
TUESDAY evening’s near-panic in coastal Bonuan Gueset and even parts of barangay Pantal and the downtown area when water began suddenly carpeting the groundfloor of homes and roads – this less than 12 hours after an Intensity 6 earthquake shook the city at lunchtime –necessarily brings images of the deadly July 16, 1990 killer quake, if not Apocalypse itself.
A hundred or so shanty dwellers in the Gueset area, including those in the honky-tonks of Bagong Baryo fled in fright as three-meter high waves began to batter the beach area and floodwater entered their homes and small video-oke cottages. In the downtown area, we are told, even at the CSI area and the Read the rest of this entry »
By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.
EVERYTHING’S turning up roses in this beloved land of ours: political scandals hitting the country’s seat of power left and right, deadly bombings coming one after the other right in the Capital and now this — three weather disturbances (the third of these still churning off the Pacific Ocean and about to enter Philippine area of responsibility) doing a mean tango all over the country just as the week starts.
Who says the Philippines isn’t blessed? Read the rest of this entry »
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