PANGASINENSES OK CHA-CHA

Province-wide results reach 27.04%

LINGAYEN - The campaign for signatures to support the “People’s Initiative” launched by local officials, has already reached 27.04 percent as of Tuesday.

According to Sixto Aquino, provincial local government operations officer based here, all towns and cities in Pangasinan have already submitted the signatures to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for verification.

Based on partial reports, District One (Sual, Alaminos City, Bolinao, Agno, Burgos, Anda, Dasol, Mabini, Bani, Infanta) delivered 24.51 percent; District Two (Lingayen, Binmaley, Aguilar, Basista, Mangatarem, Urbiztondo, Labrador, Bugallon) posted 23.58 percent; while District Three (Calasiao, Sta. Barbara, Mapandan, Malasiqui, San Carlos City and Bayambang) hit 28.20 percent.

District Four (Dagupan City, San Fabian, Mangaldan, San Jacinto and Manaoag) had 30.74 percent; District Five (Binalonan, Sto. Tomas, Urdaneta City, Villasis, Sison, Laoac, Alcala, Bautista, Pozorrubio and Binalonan) got 29.94 percent, and District Six (Asingan, San Quintin, Sta. Maria, Rosales, Umingan, Balungao, Tayug, San Nicolas, Natividad, San Manuel) had 24.43 percent. Read more

IT’S STATUS QUO

“To be clear, I am still the president of the Liga (ng mga Barangay).”

Thus said beleaguered Councilor Eric Munoz last Monday before the Sanggunian Panlungsod after his fellow barangay captains whom he described as “disgruntled elements” attempted to oust him.

He said he has no plans of resigning from his post but indicated he would give way to his successor once he is legitimately elected and qualified.

“I will remain as president until my successor has been lawfully and legally elected and qualified,” said Munoz adding that it is his “first and foremost duty to protect the Liga ng mga barangays being the duly-elected president.” Read more

LINGAYEN - The sacked police provincial director is back.

The reinstatement of Sr. Supt. Alan Purisima as police provincial director of Pangasinan effective April 3 was confirmed by both Chief PNP Arturo Lomibao and Provincial Administrator Virgilio Solis.

Evidently, Purisima managed to clear his name over the three-strike policy of the police against illegal gambling within his area of jurisdiction.

An investigation conducted by the Police Regional Office showed that the three-strike policy of the police on illegal gambling machines, such as slot machines or “hataw” and fruit games, locally called ‘ameneng’ did not apply to him (Purisima) since one strike did not appear legitimate. Read more

FINALLY, swimming by the Tondaligan Beach will now be a lot safer.

The city council finally approved an ordinance seeking to make swimming and bathing at the Tondaligan beach safer and prevent more drowning incidents in the area.

Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, who chairs the committee on tourism in the city council, proposed the ordinance to save lives and to boost the city’s main tourist activity that earns revenues for the city.

In proposing the ordinance, he recalled the demise of Karina Garcia, daughter of the founder editor and publisher of Sunday Punch, who drowned in the area in 1963. Read more

BANGUS FESTIVAL

DAGUPAN City will take center stage as a showbiz paradise and concert center in north Luzon when it stages Bangus Festival.

Watch out for some Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) “housemates” who will join Mayor Benjamin Lim, during the April 30 ‘Kalutan’.

In addition to PBB celebrities, artists like Bamboo, Francis Magalona. Blackjack, Masculados, Maricar Bautista, Rey Valera’s band, String Quartet, will also arrive to perform.

GMA7 Network is also expected to bring its contract artists to the Kalutan.

Orange and Lemons, the original composer of PBB’s theme song “Pinoy Ako” will be playing on April 20 at the city plaza during the Pop-Fiesta concert which will also feature Ara Mina, Jed Madela and Metafour Band. Read more

SAN CARLOS CITY - The police chief of San Carlos City was relieved from his post last Wednesday after only few months in office.

Supt. Pedro Austria was replaced by Supt. Johnny Bacbac who was earlier relieved as police chief of Urdaneta because of the one-strike policy of the police.

Austria belied rumors that he was summarily relieved because of the Philippine National Police’s “one-strike policy”.

Instead, he clarified that he was scheduled to attend a Senior Officers Executive Course as a requirement for his impending promotion as deputy director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group based in San Fernando City. Read more

THE drivers and operators of the Downtown Loop Service Association (DOLOSA) are alarmed over the gradual phase out of their route by the city government.

They conveyed their sentiments to Councilor Vlad Mata, chairman of the transport committee of the city council, whom they sought to sponsor a resolution asking

Mayor Benjamin Lim not to phase out their service route, during a committee hearing last Thursday.

Lim already called for a freeze in the renewal of franchises of DOLOSA members as the initial step for the phase-out of the service route. The daily traffic bottleneck in the city is being attributed to their number. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY - Population is a great resource for wealth but the government has done nothing but to exploit the people.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz echoed this as he pointed to the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as the country’s primary export earner.

Cruz, a vocal critic of the Arroyo administration, said “it is sad but true as well as providential that the country has its own citizens” as its primary export commodity.

In a statement Wednesday, Cruz lamented that “the present Administration to this time has nothing to show as any real accomplishment other than making millions of Filipinos precisely leave the country to make their living abroad”. Read more

THE People’s initiative was more of a survey rather than an initiative, and the small number of signatures submitted, therefore, may very well indicate that the opposition to the charter change is overwhelming.

This was how Liga ng mga Barangay National President James Marty Lim described the on-going solicitation of signatures from the barangays for the People’s Initiative.

Speaking before the city council here, Lim expressed doubts over the format adopted for the people’s initiative.

“For me it’s like a survey, because it did not follow the right procedures written in the Constitution. The format should be like a petition but this was not,” Lim said. Read more

NINETEEN Pangasinan professional-amateur cyclists, who hurdled the two-day qualifying races last February 12 and 13, will vie for honors in the annual summer bikathon ‘Tour Pilipinas ‘Padyak Pinoy’ on May 11-21.

As in the past three years, the province’s “boys of summer” will be led again by 2003 Tour Pilipinas champion Arnel Quirimit of Pozorrubio, last year’s “rookie of the year” Renato Sembrano of Mangaldan, 2003 Southeast Asia Games veterans Reynaldo Navarro and Ericson Obosa of San Jacinto and Manaoag, respectively, and 2002 Tour of Calabarzon king Santy Barnachea of Umingan.

According to the Philippine National Cycling Association, 80 participants with eight members per squad will be divided into ten teams, with Quirimit, Sembrano, Navarro, Obosa and Barnachea leading five different squads each to balance the team competitions. Read more