Pride and joy of Mangatarem

By Al S. Mendoza

I AM PROUD once again for being a son of Mangatarem. 

For that matter, everybody should take pride and joy in his/her land of birth.  Every hometown has a spot that is special to all its residents.

I am saying this again after I had visited Manleluag Hot Springs last Sunday, January 21.  It’s been years since some friends and I went there for a picnic. And what a rewarding trip it was.

Not only did I immensely enjoy the place, my classmates in The Spirit of ’67, many of whom are balikbayans, also did.

Everybody was gushing, saying endlessly that, truly, we are blessed. Manleluag is but a breeze coming from the town proper and, hence, it’s so easy to go there for a picnic. 

The two swimming pools there, what with their warm, mountain water, are soothing to the nerves and soul. 

The picnic huts and grilling areas are perfect in a setting embraced by Mother Nature.
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SOPA observations

By Eva C. Visperas 

I arrived early because the invitation said the State of the Province Address (SOPA) of Governor Victor Agbayani will be at 8:00 a.m. Friday.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan session, where the governor reads his SOPA, actually started at 8:58 a.m. First came several minutes of discussion. Then the governor, for the first in his entire nine years as head of the province, was escorted not just by one or two board members but by the entire members of the board.

Maybe that was part of giving honors to a graduating governor, I suppose.

I told my seatmates that as I have observed in the past, there will only be a few, or a maximum of 10 out of 48 Pangasinan mayors, who would attend.

My guess was right. Only Mangaldan Mayor Herminio Romero, Manaoag Mayor Napoleon Sales and Pozorrubio Mayor Artemio Chan were there to listen to the governor’s address. Oh, well, maybe the others were very busy with their own schedules or were not expecting anything that would benefit them or their constituents. Nonetheless, I checked whether they were invited. Yes, they received their invitations.
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Herbicide resistance can be avoided

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

There’s nothing to fear about herbicides for as long as it is applied only when extremely necessary as practiced in integrated weed management or IWM.

In a nutshell, this was gist of studies by PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute) researchers led by Dr. Madonna C. Casimero with the collaboration of DA researchers and municipal agriculturists in Dingle and Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo and Rizal and Aliaga, Nueva Ecija.

IWM involves a combination of cultural management practices such as good land preparation, intermittent water management, and minimal herbicide application, Earlier, PhilRice researchers found that continuous use of an herbicide family results in the development of herbicide resistance in weeds of lowland rice.
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Glorious rhetorics and notorious realities

By +Oscar V. Cruz D. D.

It has been no less than six long years with anticipation of three more years ahead if not more. Since then, the incumbent national leadership has been honing well its expertise in glorious rhetorics while at the same time ably ignoring the notorious realities in the land. It happily basks in sunny positivism while pitifully ignoring the down to earth truth of the gloomy present and bleak future in this once land of the morning.

It is enough to recall the memorable super vision of the administration. Originating from a super ego, it eventually went to super maids and culminated with super regions. On the other hand, there are millions of exploited women and children, millions of hungry and sick Filipinos. And there are millions of jobless individuals, not to mention the millions who leave the country in search of a chance of earning abroad, lonely and dangerous though this venture be.
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Gently Contrary

By Emmanuelle

Choose an adjective from a dangling of modifiers. You may be right on target or you may miss by a kilometer. A very touchy situation, that is, especially if you plan to write about one of the most powerful men around . . . presidential cousin, ear, and adviser; kingmaker, and king of his mighty domain himself - Mayor Ramon Guico, Jr. of Binalonan. 

Stories abound, discreetly whispered or boasted with lavish embellishment, about his person and his family, his achievements, his power and his reach, his capacity to influence politics and the fortune of men.     

He had been referred to as awesome, formidable, overwhelming, etc. - all synonymous to a hushed word in the thesaurus. But, let me introduce a pair of words I just coined, as recently as, hmnn, a breath ago . . .  he is gently contrary.

Brother sun to my sister moon, he is roughly kind, pushily protective, temperamentally calm, harshly tender. Gently contrary ngarud.    

A quandary for the past, hmnn, decades of this writer’s life - how to react upon encountering news, comments, local opinions about the man, his town, his politics, his various enterprises. I never really am sure whether to be vehement or to pay no heed, frown or smile, shake or nod the head, laugh in outright dismissal or burst out in guffaws at the statements or amplified overstatements. Once, I thought of crossing my eyes and fingers and just let go, do all these simultaneously.
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JDV’S EQUITY OF INCUMBENT FORMULA

But Dr. Jamie is optimistic

THE incumbents will have the edge over the other hopefuls in the May national and local elections as far as the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) is concerned, according to House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the party president.

In a talk to newsmen at his residence, de Venecia said the “doctrine of the equity of the incumbent” will be the guiding principle of the administration’s party in choosing its candidates for governors, congressmen and city mayors all over the country.

Saying that he and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are now being besieged by those who want to run under the Lakas-CMD banner, de Venecia presented the “incumbent-is-priority” formula as the best mode of choosing local candidates.
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THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been dared to cancel or withdraw all the certificates it issued to numerous persons and entities attesting that certain portions of land near the Lingayen Gulf in Dagupan are alienable and disposable.

In a recent letter, Dagupan vice mayor and city council presiding officer Alvin

Fernandez to the DENR, he noted that the government agency cancelled only 34 or 38 Certificates of Alienability and Disposability (CAD) that were unlawfully issued by its unscrupulous field personnel for a still undetermined amount of fees.

The CADs were used by individuals and entities in securing Tax Declaration Certificates (TDC) from the City Assessor’s Office.

Noting that the number of CAD cancelled or withdrawn by the DENR was far less than the number of TDCs issued by the City Assessor’s Office, Fernandez asked the agency to cancel all certificates that were issued to finally bring to a close the issue of massive land grabbing of the beach land in Dagupan.
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LINGAYEN—The leader/negotiator of the notorious Pepino Kidnap-For-Ransom (KFR) group, which was involved in a series of 15 KFR cases nationwide, was arrested Wednesday morning by the joint effort of the Philippine National Police, the Police Anti-Crime Emergency Response (PACER), provincial and  regional police in barangay Arnedo, Bolinao town.

       Arrested was Jessie Ruelas Pepino, alias Gingging, 34, a native of Surigao del Sur. He was swimming at the beach with his family and friends when he was picked up by lawmen led by Supt. Rolando Magno from the provincial police office and Supt. Ronald Lee of PACER.

Senior Supt. Alan Purisima, Pangasinan police director, told local newsmen when Pepino was presented to the media late Wednesday afternoon that “this (the arrest) is a product of good intelligence and I commend the police personnel for doing their job.”

Pepino is the brother of convicted KFR personality Jerry Pepino who is presently detained at the National Bilibid Penetentiary in Muntinlupa. Jerry is the leader of the Baling-baling KFR group whose members come mostly from Surigao del Sur.
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IS Mayor Benjamin Lim really running against Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. in the coming polls?

By month’s end, the people of Dagupan will finally know which position Lim will really vie for in the coming election.

The mayor said over a public radio station broadcast that he’ll announce his final decision by   the end of January even as in an earlier interview, he said that within a scale of one to 10, he is now at seven in favor of fighting De Venecia for the congressional seat in the fourth district of Pangasinan.

Meanwhile, De Venecia seems unperturbed, saying last Saturday that he welcomes any contender because that is the exercise of everyone’s right, the Philippines being a democratic country.

In his talk to the radio station, Lim again fired some ballistics on De Venecia when he said the construction of an overpass in barangay Tapuac was not coordinated with him, even just for courtesy.
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Speaker Jose de Venecia’s wife, Georgina de Venecia, is not yet giving up on the administration’s offer of a senatorial slot in the May 2007 elections despite her husband’s “opposition” to her possible candidacy.

Mrs. de Venecia said she is now resorting to a more intense prayer power. In fact Sunday, Manay Gina, as she is popularly known, phoned in The PUNCH to say she is with the Pink Sisters, a group of nuns in Tagaytay City led by Sister Herminigildes Cabral, helping her to pray for discernment.

Manay Gina, the president of the Congressional Spouses Foundation Inc. (CSFI), is not yet losing hope of becoming part of the 12 candidates of the administration ticket despite her husband’s pronouncement Saturday to the local media in Dagupan City that “My inclination is for her not to run.”
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