By LILIA M. MICUA

STO. TOMAS —“We dreamed. We dared and work hard to achieve our goal. And now we would like to officially announce to you that we made it.”

This was the statement of Sto. Tomas Mayor Vivien Villar at a news conference where she presented the certificate attesting the ‘Longest Barbecue’ title in the Guinness World Record garnered by her town when it staged its first ever Corn Festival on February 11 this year.

Corn is a chief agriculture product of the town after rice. Farmers plant the glutinous type of white corn which is an ideal food supplement for rice. Read the rest of this entry »

RESIDENTS of Bonuan Boquig called on local authorities to temporarily stop the construction of a building in their community until there is expert assurance the site holds no more buried bombs like the seven World War II bombs dug up in the area Tuesday.

Led by their barangay captain, Ronaldo Torio, the residents pleaded to city officials to put a halt temporarily to the digging activity until there is clear assurance of their safety.

The bombs, which included mortars, were dug from the construction site by a backhoe operator contracted for the project. Read the rest of this entry »

By VENUS MAY H. SARMIENTO

LINGAYEN –. The National Food Authority, western Pangasinan provincial office said availability and accessibility of good quality rice is assured with its plan to saturate public markets and community-based outlets with government rice in the lean months starting this July.

Current rice inventory in Pangasinan, to include both household and commercial stocks, is at 1,214,317 – sufficient to last for 90 days

NFA announced that starting July 1, the low subsidized price of government rice at P18.25/kg will be pulled out of the market and instead made available directly to the poorest of the poor in depressed barangays identified by the DSWD thru the Tindahan Natin outlets (TNOs), Tindahan sa Parokya or church-based outlets, PDAF outlets and the usual NFA rolling stores. Read the rest of this entry »

GOVERNOR Amado T. Espino, Jr. marked his first year anniversary as governor of Pangasinan with the blessing of the newly-refurbished Capitol building.

Built in 1918, the new Capitol, for the first time in many years, will be the official working place of all elective provincial officials led by the governor, the 26th provincial chief executive of Pangasinan.

The renovation of the Capitol building was the second to be completed among all the other simultaneous renovation of provincial government buildings which are still ongoing within the Capitol complex. The first building to be completed few months ago was the finance building. Read the rest of this entry »

By RACHEL N. SAPIGAO

SAN CARLOS CITY — Fire Inspector Oscar M. Zulueta has assumed as fire marshall of this city on June 25, replacing Inspector Armando D. Fernandez who has been assigned to Dagupan City.

Upon assumption of the position, Zulueta whose last jurisdiction was the town of Mangaldan, immediately familiarized himself with the city, noting the many business establishments here which he said will all be duly inspected, including dormitories, to ensure fire prevention.

“I will also suggest to the city government (procurement of) a higher ladder for high buildings with two or more storeys, and if possible one more firetruck, “Zulueta said offhand. Read the rest of this entry »

LINGAYEN—The slaying of a lady top official of the Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative in Basista town last June 11 is now about to be solved with the identification of the perpetrators.

Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, police provincial director, however, still refused do divulge the identity of the suspects until a formal case has been filed against them by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

The CIDG heads Task Force Frias formed by Nerez a day after the slaying of Sandra Frias, 46, a division manager of Cenpelco who was gunned down by two-motorcycle-riding armed men aboard her car as she was going home in the late evening to Zamora Street in Basista from San Carlos City. Read the rest of this entry »

SAN QUINTIN—A task force has been formed to investigate the slaying of a town councilor here by unidentified armed men riding on motorcycles on Tuesday night.

The task force formed by Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, police provincial director, is composed of elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Provincial Intelligence and Investigation Division of the Pangasinan Police Office and the San Quintin Police.

The slaying of Councilor Albert Hidalgo Sibayan, 40, happened in barangay Alac at 9 p.m. in front of a day care center here where he was standing. Read the rest of this entry »

LINGAYEN—A total of 77,339 bags of rice seeds had been distributed by the Department of Agriculture to farmers in Pangasinan at the start of the rice cropping during the current wet season.

The DA Regional Field Unit based in San Fernando City, La Union said the distribution was done to enable farmers to increase their rice production and hopefully help stabilize the price of the staple.

The DA said that the planting season already started last week with around 92 hectares initially planted in the province.
Read the rest of this entry »

Pangasinan inflation rate now at 9.5 as of May

By CHRISTOPHER O. DOMINGO
Assistant Statistician, NCSO Pangasinan

LAST January 2008, the inflation rate of Pangasinan started at 4.1 after four months, and just before the start of this year, the inflation rate of the province soared more than double to 9.5 These figures made the average inflation rate of this year at 6.46.

Sign of the times? Maybe. But what really is inflation rate? Does this figure affect our daily lives?
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LINGAYEN —The provincial board here is set to give Gov. Amado Espino Jr. the go-signal to negotiate a seven-year loan term with Land Bank of the Philippines, using the province’s unreleased share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) in 2001 and 2004, as collateral.

A resolution proposed by Senior Board Member Tyrone Agabas endorsed the use of the P79.249 million unreleased IRA share of the province for 2001 and 2004 as collateral to a fresh loan that will be secured by the province from the Land Bank.
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