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 more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

WE are all reeling now from the unabated soaring prices of gasoline products. Premium gas is now pegged at P50 per liter and based on reports we expect more price increases of fuel products in the coming days. Gloom is painted in all faces especially for us here who were devastated by super howler Cosme.

Where would all this lead? We can only hope we will survive knowing the Filipino trait of resiliency in times of despair and crisis. And we also hope all will remain calm and sober and not resort to any desperate moves that will disturb the relative peace and tranquility we are yet in. Read more

Nen MARIO F. KARATEKA

HUNYO la, bulan na gapoy iskwela.

Panon to ya balet, inong, ta nian ageba-geba tan alak-lakasan so iskwelaan mo? Agka kasi onansit no man-aral kayo ed pataktak ta lanti nakalan lay atep so klasrom mo?

Say marakep ya balita – at lis diad peryodiko tan radyo – et angibulos lay DepEd kono na singa P25 milyones pesos pian panapiger o panpagawa na aderal-deral iran iskwelaan ed indalan nen bagyon Kosme. Read more

By BEHN FER. HORTALEZA, JR.

MY late father, a cop all his fruitful life who retired as a police colonel with unblemished record, never smoked; neither did he drink. A teetotaler, as the late poet-fictionist by the Pantal river and one of my great literary mentors in college and in my later years as a columnist-editor, Armando R. Ravanzo, would quaintly label those of that species of humanity.

In a way, yes, I have taken after that firm resolve of my dad not to smoke – or drink liquor in excess thereby making a fool of oneself — though you can say I applied it in quite another field, journalism, my career and passion. This, I know, is a cardinal violation of the unwritten code of newspapermen, that is, to drink like a fish and write like a demon. Frankly, I don’t know how Read more

By DANNY O. SAGUN

PANGASINENSES particularly those from western and central part of the province saw the wrath of weather disturbance Cosme Saturday night. We think the damage it wrought surpassed that brought by Gading in 1998

Cosme was only considered a storm, not a typhoon, by Pagasa, with winds packing from 90 to 120 kph. A typhoon is supposed to be much stronger than that.

What happened that night belied Pagasa’s prediction- the winds, we think, passed the 200 kph mark, what with the tragedy it brought to us. The Gading experience was repeated. The weather bureau that time only warned us of Signal No. 1 with Read more

Mario F. Karateka

AMAGAMAGA a kuan daray matatakken. Singa kulang na rikado, no diad salita daray managloto.

Anggapoy Nana Gloria, anggapoy Cuya Joe ed panaon na pangilukas na sankabalgan a proyekton imprastruktura ed Dagupan – samay tatawagen natan ya Taytay na Pantal – ya manbiliy singa sakey bilyon a pisos. Say wadman a sinmabi labat a sankatagyan ya opisyal nasyonal et si Sekretaryo Hermogenes Ebdane na DPWH tan say ambassador na Hapon a si Makoto Katsura. Read more

THE coming of television giant GMA-7 finally with its studios and crew to Dagupan can only be for the greater good of public service and information in Pangasinan and its four cities.

One way of viewing this development in the local information sector is that GMA’s setting shop here to pit programs with rival network ABS-CBN’s means there’s money to make in this part of northern Luzon, something you can hardly begrudge these giant telecom industries for wanting to have a piece of.

Another way of looking at GMA’s chosing to be in Pangasinan, specifically Dagupan, is that there’s a whole wide and fertile ground out there for public service and news-entertainment that eager servers can fill and often eagerly do. Read more

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 DANNY O. SAGUN

RAINS spoiled what could have been a grand street party last Wednesday night, the Kalutan or Bangusan as this year’s organizers called it, at Dagupan’s main thoroughfare. There was no record to break unlike in the time of former hizzoner Benjie Lim so that there was less worry whether rains would spoil the event or not but it could have been merrier and drew more people considering that big names in the local rock/pop industry were invited.

Whether Lim grinned or not when heavy downpour played KJ (kill joy) to the fun and disappointed the city administration, the people, and the visitors no end, we nevetheless congratulate Read more

Nen MARIO F. KARATEKA

NENGNENG mo pay kalokoan daray totoo met, awa?

Imbes a mikasakey iratan ingen iyagel day siyudad da ed makapoy a pakabitla ed sayay kalabalabas ya Bangus Pistibal, sikarani so manderal na pakadayewan na siyudad.

Say tutukuyen ko aliwa labatlan satay apabalitan pigaran tuson pinalsan manga-alay kontribusyon ed saray lokal iran negosyantes para konod say Bangus Pistibal balet ibubulsa da labat so nakolekta, no ag ingen pati samay impinge-ekas na saramay “tarpaulins” ya anunsiyo na saray nanduruman aktibidades ed Pistibal. Read more