CAGEFEST OPENING CEREMONY - The ten collegiate teams in Pangasinan participating in the prestigious annual tournament stand before the jam-packed crowd during the opening ceremony of the of this year’s PRISAA Pangasinan-Dagupan Inter-Collegiate Invitational Basketball Championship last Tuesday at Dagupan People’s Astrodome. — (Photo by Jun Figueroa)

 By Jesus Garcia Jr.

LAST YEAR’s runners-up, the University of Luzon (UL) Golden Tigers and the Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) Dukes drubbed their respective opponents last Tuesday during the opening of hostilities of the Private Schools Athletic Association (PRISAA) Inter-Collegiate Invitational Basketball Championship held at Dagupan People’s Astrodome.

The unpredictable Dukes, second runner-up last year and perennial title contender, broke the ice of the tournament with an easy 105-43 victory over the youthful and erratic Colegio de Dagupan Voltz.

The Dukes, exploiting skills of its veteran players to the hilt, took control of the game from the tip-off behind Benjie Labitoria and Lionel Razon, who pumped in 11 and 10 points, respectively, to take a lopsided 48-20 lead at the first half.

What was done on the first 20 minutes got worst on the second half with Michael Indoy leading the frontline.

The less experienced boys of Voltaire Arzadon were out-rebounded, out-gunned and out-sped to the end to yield a 62-point margin, one of the highest in the last three years.
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By Jesus Garcia Jr.

WHETHER Whether it’s an official game or just a goodwill match, the University of Pangasinan Webczars shows no mercy. They’re always out to prove that they are the team to reckon with in Pangasinan’s collegiate basketball tourneys.

       The UPang quintet also known as the Pitaki Boyz (supported this year by Guam based Jazy Sportswear), crushed the PIMSAT Mariners last Wednesday afternoon in an exhibition tussle before a jam-packed crowd  held at the UPang’s gymnasium. 

       Displaying the form that crowned them the PRISAA Pangasinan-Dagupan 2005 champion, the boys of head coach Angel Gumarang plastered the   visiting   Mariners, 80-53, and appear ready to do battle with the other  giants in the province’ tertiary level games. Read more

KARATE-DO ADVANCEMENT - Pocholo Veguilla, Milo National Organizer and president of the Association for the Advancement of Karate-Do, and Dr. Enrico Vasquez, president Philippine Wado Ryu Karate-Do Federation & Region I Director of the Philippine Karate Federation, discuss future events with the Team YMCA Dagupan composed of Jimko Alcantara, John Meverick Edralin, Rhys Palaganas, Gian Mark Tamayo, John Enrico Vasquez, and Dan Kurt Vidal.

YMCA based Team Dagupan won 4 Bronzes in the Milo Super Karate Kids for 11 years old below held July 30, 2006 at SM Megamall, Mandaluyong in Metro Manila.

The winners are 11-year old John Meverick Edralin of Creative Montessori-Lyceum Northwestern, 9-year old Gian Mark Tamayo of West Central Elem. School, 5-year old John Enrico Vasquez of Mother Goose, and 11-year old Kurt Vidal of Ednas School.

The participation of Team Dagupan in the Milo Sports Karate Championships helped the young members of the Dagupan City Training Pool familiarize themselves with the Kobe Osaka International Rules, the same rules adopted for the World Karate Cup.

The Milo Super Karate Kids in the biggest Karate Championships in Metro Manila organized by Milo and the Association for the Advancement of Karate-Do.

Enough of lip-service for our OFWs

For the past decades, individual tales of horror from hundreds, if not thousands of desperate overseas Filipino workers have been met generally with indifference by the national government. This policy of apathy has led labor officials and trustees of the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration to be lethargic in their planning for the welfare of our overseas workers and focus on how the billions of OWWA funds can be funneled to some officials’ bank accounts.

It took the mass exodus from Lebanon and the belated reaction of the national government coming to the succor of our helpless workers mostly women, for our countrymen to realize that the horror tales are true and are perpetrated wholesale worldwide.

Our domestic helpers overseas are treated like slaves, a treatment that makes the household pets of their employers a lucky lot. Others have it worse. Our young women, who risk life and limb to seek a better life for their families they leave behind, find themselves treated as sex slaves.
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Lying and stealing in Dagupan City

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

What’s the truth about Dagupan City’s financial condition?

On one hand, an obstinate Lim administration continues to deny that the city government is bankrupt, yet and on the other, the Lim allies in the Sanggunian Panglunsod are falling over themselves trying to pass ordinances ostensibly aimed at shoring revenues for the city because they claim the city government is in dire financial strait.

Is the Lim administration constantly lying to its constituents to cover up some anomalies in the past or are the onor-onors in the city council simply creating “income” opportunities for themselves?

Where things stand today, both casually issue self-serving statements leaving the Dagupan taxpayers on the receiving end.

Loloko-en da la lamet so totoo.
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Readers’ E-mailed reactions more credible

By Gerry Garcia

IN this province as probably elsewhere in this benighted Republic the national daily most often preferred and read is the Philippine Star. At least from this writer’s impression, who often finds the copies all sold out before noon in his favorite news-stands.

One section of the paper most read because it involves written participation of readers wanting to have a say on certain vital issues . . . is the INBOX page.

It’s from this section in fact where I find poll and opinion surveys more factual and not misleading.
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Where change begins

By Jun Velasco

AT PRESSTIME, Task Force Lebanon reported of two casualties who, probably gripped by fright, died while trying to escape from their Lebanese employers.

Most of our countrymen who have succeeded in returning to the fatherland are full of horror stories.

Many families - Pinoys and other nationals working in Lebanon - have been thrown in the melee and confusion.

Such is the tough life people, including many of our countrymen abroad, undergo to beat the hard life back home. Many Filipinos overseas live lonely lives and lose the old grace they enjoyed in the pre-OCW era.

It would be a comfort to have them back safely, but when the excitement dies down, they will miss their jobs in Lebanon, which are no longer there.
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Watch out, Mr. Pontaoe!

By Gonzalo Duque

IN the Punch On-line, certain contributor by the name of Pontaoe has the nasty habit of picking a fight by maligning the names and columnists in this prestigious paper.

I have asked my lawyers to study how we can avail ourselves of a new law, Electronic Commerce Act, to deal with this crackpot soon because he has abused this paper’s hospitality.

Those who have read his devilish write-ups wonder if he is sick in the mind, so that some of my neighbor columnists would rather dismiss the canard’s business because he is sick. Not me. Because he has been trying to bring ruin to our school.

Being a lawyer myself, I know if a libel and moral damage complaint will stick. I will focus my energies here because this guy who belongs to some good friends in Pangasinan because he is a Pontaoe, has been abusing the right to privilege communications. I am sure the punk deserves a slap on the face. But I’ll do it in the legal arena, through the ECA.
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