Jeremias Andrade Carrera
30 Mar 2007

 

Mr. Ramos:

I do not have time to waste arguing with people whose real intent is merely to impress the readers of this forum. The readers of this forum are not that stupid.

Therefore just go ahead and keep on impressing the readers as much as you can.

Eduardo Pontaoe
30 Mar 2007

 

Mr. Oriel,

I thought you’re gone for good. Here you are again, alive and kicking, full of fire and brimstone getting out the hole you’re holed in naked like a baby’s butt.

Your post is a jumble. Remember what I told you weeks ago that crossing swords with you is like talking to a wall and if you recall I dropped it because there was nothing can be gained out of it? And here, you insisted jumping in the cauldron which you did not know you’ll get burned. But, I would dignify such intrusion why it’s necessary to end this thing once and for all.

To be in a position of strength especially in this Forum is to start with the truth which pitifully you didn’t do. Your words,” Bethlehem, PA is not a little Moravian town like you want us to believe. It is a city in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania”. You got your facts wrong.

Before I start, Bethlehem is a town not a city. Bethlehem is also a full blooded American town not an eastern European town.

You know why I called it “Moravian town”, Mr. Oriel? In 1741, a Protestant religious order Unity of the Brethren came to America and broke ground in the Lehigh River valley. This religious sect was founded in 1457 by John Hus, praecurrere to Luther’s at Wittenberg. It was in 1742 when their patron saint Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf of Saxony, Germany arrived in that settlement and named it….Bethlehem… in honor of Jesus, it was Christmas. Bethlehem evolved as the Christmas town of America.

These immigrants to America came from that part of Eastern Europe called Moravia which is now a part we now call the present Czech Republic. They were the MORAVIANS who settled in that frontier part of America in her early stages. That’s why I called it that Moravian town like what everybody calls Salt Lake City, Utah, that Mormon city in the Wasatch or Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that Amish county or Chicago…Windy City by the Lake.

You don’t know America, Mr. Oriel.

Isidro Ramos
29 Mar 2007

 

Dear, dear Mr. Carrera,

It was not my intention to display or impress anyone of my observations nor make any comparisons, collect, collate, analyze data from any country but to rebut your argument that the Philippine economy is going nowhere but down. I just wanted to voice out my humble flip-side of the coin. The Philippines is still a good place to visit and live in but I am not going to sugar coat what is going on in general.

Where you got your info without breathing, living, and interacting with the inhabitants of other places other than in Guam is another thing. It is wonderful to know of your appointment as a QCM and “watch the performance of the contractor of the largest water supply project of the base” however, it would be more impressive if you were PROMOTED ($$$) to QCM to MANAGE and SUPERVISE the financial and performance schedule of the contractor of the largest water supply project of the base.

I am humbled by your educational attainment compared to my school of hard knocks upbringing where it makes someone like me to think beyond the walls.

It also amazes me how you insinuated that I spend money unwisely traveling and it is more “accurate and just a click away-CIA WORLD FACTBOOK or Google it”. It is no wonder you were appointed.

No, I would not follow your advice to refer to the CIA for accurate info since they were the ones who got us in this Iraq mess in the first place claiming it is a “slam dunk Saddam has WMD” but do not let me stop you from referring to their facts.

You are right, I mistook those Seagulls for BFB but at least I got you to notice the crabs in the island. They are kind of cute aren’t they?

Well, don’t let my blog burn holes in your managerial chair so you could go and “watch the contractors” while someone else is managing and directing the operation of the facility. I will bring my own chair next to yours and jive while watching the people work.

Rafael L. Oriel, Jr
29 Mar 2007

 

Mr. Pontaoe, do you really want to fight for the truth and to fight also for those who cannot fight for themselves like you claim in your previous post? For you to fight for the truth, you can start by making the necessary corrections in your previous post.

1) Bethlehem, PA is not a little Moravian town like you want us to believe. It is a city in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.

2) Contrary to what you said, it’s not a dying town and when Bethlehem Steel folded in 1995 it did not bring down everything with it. It is not a dying town but a city that prospered, not just survived, but thrived. The Bethlehem Steel plant closed for good in 1998 not 1995 like you said but the end of steel was a rebirth of Bethlehem City to become one of the “Top 100 Places to Live” according to Time Warner financial magazine, Money. If you consider Bethlehem City as a ghetto, where will that put Chicago where you are currently residing which did not even make it to the top 100 places to live. Bethlehem City has two thriving downtowns where most cities are lucky to have one. The population is growing where most cities have seen a steady decline. Investment in the city tops $1.6 billion while many counties have less. If you belittled too much a city that is considered the 88th best city to live in United States, how much more to a city like Dagupan.

3) Asian is not really .03% of the population of Bethlehem but 2.22%.

4) It is not true that 20% of the population is below poverty level like you said but 15.0% of the population was below the poverty line. The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living. It does not mean though that all of them are in welfare or on handouts like you want us to believe. In comparison, 19.6% of Chicago’s population are below poverty line. Based on your logic and figures, does that mean that 19.6% of 4.5 million are on welfare in Chicago?

5) You said that Chicago’s population is 4.5 million. According to the internet, the population of Chicago as of 2005 is 2,873,518. It is interesting to note that murders in the City of Chicago peaked first in 1974, with 970 murders when the city’s population was over three million resulting in a murder rate of around 29 per 100,000, and again in 1992, with 943 murders when the city had fewer than three million people, resulting in a murder rate of 34 per 100,000. Following 1992, the murder count slowly decreased to 705 by 1999; by this time, it had the most murders of any big city in the U.S. sister cities of Bethlehem are Murska Sobota, Slovenia, Tondabayashi, Japan and Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany.

I wonder if there is any possibility for Dagupan City becoming the fourth sister city of Bethlehem?

Godspeed to all.

Eduardo Pontaoe
29 Mar 2007

 

Fernando P. Estrada M.D. FACS,

Well, thanks for the invite. Your gesture as a gentleman is highly appreciated.

Let me address where you are coming from. You’re in that little Moravian town Bethlehem, PA with an insignificant clinic along the muddy banks of the Monocacy Creek. It’s a dying town with population…exactly according to 2000 census…71, 329…where the demographics is pathetic: Whites 81.85%, Blacks 3.64%, Asian .03% Hispanics 18.23%. That’s the set-up where 20% of the population is below poverty level.

There’s a lot of people on welfare, on handouts where you practice medicine, doc. Your practice is like a vulture picking on the carcass of a dead horse. When Bethlehem Steel folded in 1995 it brought down everything with it. The town’s only newspaper Globe Times ceased publication in 1991 and replaced by the Morning Call of Allentown and the Express Time of Easton. What makes Bethlehem alive is Lehigh University, its anchor.

The hospital you proudly proclaimed St. Luke’s Hospital Health Network listed you… as a general surgeon not a vascular surgeon… you claimed you are. If the network has your facts right, you could not be in two places at the same time.

To make it straight, in Chicago I haven’t seen a surgeon with two specialties as done in residency especially in surgery. Where did you do residency doc, Jamaica? You also bragged the hospital have 450 beds. It does not make sense. With a meager population of 71,329 where will you get enough patients to load up the hospital unless everybody is dying or sick?

For your info, St Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago has only 450 beds with Chicago’s population of 4.5 million. I am sorry doc to say this; you’re lying thru your teeth.

Now, we go to Velasco. The Sunday Punch dictum, “No man is to be reverenced more than the truth”. I fight for the truth and fight also for those who cannot fight for themselves. If you could not understand the simplicity of it, you better take a dip at the Monocacy Creek to clear up your mind. The least you did that blow this thing over the top, was your hubris in sending that letter to Velasco gambling that posters like me at the Forum will just roll over and play dead.

It was gigantic mistake, you tasted your own medicine that nobody did to you before. You haven’t seen anything yet. Every time, somebody like you post in the Forum, its open season. I cannot allow your kind to run rough shod on anybody.

 Was I ticked off or felt jealousy on your added acronym FACS? Hell, no! To me, it’s just an embellishment. You can do that to your friend Velasco who lives in the Philippines. I live in Chicago, doc, you hit that hard on your head not like you deep in the Hillbilly Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania.

And if I am looking for a doctor I won’t even bother to call you. Thanks but no thanks. I have doctors here with PhDs in medicine who never wasted time adding that self-serving FACS to their names. These doctors, most of them, teach at Rush University or Northwestern University School of Medicine. They don’t practice in the ghetto.

Leopoldo A. Cabrera, md faap
29 Mar 2007

 

Oscar, you made the right decision to run for governorship. Of all the candidates, you are most qualified to lead Pangasinan to the next upheaval. The Cabrera clan of Mangaldan and their followers will be supporting you candidacy. My late brother Rolly will be happy to see you as governor of Pangasinan.

I remain,
Doctor LEO

Van S. de Leon
29 Mar 2007

 

Dear Mayor Braganza,

I read in a Sunday Punch article that one can adopt an island in Hundred Island. I would like to adopt one. Enlighten me how to go about this. Thank you so much. What is your over all long term plan/vision about the Hundred Island?

Thank you, sir.

Fernando P. Estrada, M.D. FACS
28 Mar 2007

 

Dear Mr. Eduardo Pontaoe,

It was very interesting and entertaining to read your letter to me. Your remarks were indeed hilarious and ludicrous bordering on lunacy. You certainly wanted to light a fire for SUNDAY PUNCH and deliver a hard PUNCH on the face.

I don’t know who you are like Mr. Magsano other than realize that you are listed as one of the sustaining members of the Sunday Punch Kabaleyan Club. Is that good? Perhaps? You indeed dipped your dirty finger in a hot bowl where it does not belong. Ouch! You are indeed meddlesome and seem like a paramour in a LOVE TRIANGLE. The only difference is there is no LOVE involved. It reminds me of Rosie O’Donnell arguing with Mr. Donald Trump! I am certainly not Miss Rosie O’Donnell! You are intelligent enough to figure that out further. I am not going down to that level.

Let me state clearly that my criticisms about Mr. Magsano’s inaccurate “facts” are to use your own words “incompatible with the truth”. The clarification I wrote in my letter to Mr. Jun Velasco stand as the truth and nothing but the truth. I am not sure if you are defending Mr. Magsano because you are his lawyer or a salaried employee of his business. If that’s the case then it is okay. Nevertheless, it is still worthwhile to just sit back and relax and put your mind in other serious issues that are more relevant for the good of the community where you come from.

Freedom of speech is excellent and healthy but meddlesome attitude is not good and does not show good character. Again, it speaks of real bad culture and I hope you can help me change that. Why don’t you just let Mr. Magsano respond and let him speak for himself? If Mr. Jun Velasco made a mistake he should be forgiven. I am certainly not clamoring for fame and publicity! I have earned enough reputation where I practice and I do not need more of it. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder!

Did I raise an eyebrow or ticked you of with the acronym FACS. Or are just jealous about it? Let me tell you that FACS is a hard-earned title starting from medical school all the way to three certifications by the American College of Surgeons. You certainly will not allow yourself to be operated on by an incompetent surgeon who cannot get that title. Using that title next to my name is part of me since I earned it. It is not a shame to use it for legitimacy and prestige. I intend to use it over and over again whether you like it or not. I will carry it in my grave and even mark it in my coffin!

If you have problems with Mr. Jun Velasco, talk to him or write to him. To me he is an honorable person whom I respect and have a high regard for. Please don’t criticize Mr. Jun Velasco by writing a ridiculous letter to me. I am certainly not patronizing Mr. Jun Velasco because he published my name in the local paper! My name and my reputation will speak for itself! I will close this discussion and rebuttal to your letter. I am too busy in my practice to worry too much about you and Mr. Magsano.

And by the way, if you happen to drive down or fly to Pennsylvania from Chicago, please pass by and visit St. Luke’s Hospital Health Network and check out the place and my office. You are welcome to be treated here also if you desire. You might need a good doctor someday! We have nice restaurants too for a good dinner just like Chicago. Good luck to you and enjoy yourself and your letters! They are quite amazing!

Sincerely yours,

Fernando P. Estrada, M. D., FACS

Eduardo Pontaoe
28 Mar 2007

At long last, The Benjie showed his cards. Aces and Eights, a dead man’s hand. The demagoguery of such an ambitious shift has only proven the mediocrity of his politics. He’s up against the best in the business… Joe de V… Machiavelli in the flesh.

The Benjie’s addled push won’t mean anything. It wouldn’t show the people of the 4th district he’s the man, a dog who can bark and protect their interest. With all the scandals he is leaving behind, it could be the most unimaginable stupidity the people can do to themselves if they vote for him. A vote for The Benjie is a vote for the Devil.

We should ask ourselves, is it an act to duped Machiavelli? A subterfuge? A Lomibao? What will stop him from running? The price of “supreme sacrifice”, what it will be? Machiavelli wouldn’t fall to such a trap. He’s too smart for that. This is how Machiavelli would deal with such eccentricity.

Let The Benjie cook in his own fat. Hammer on his head he can’t swim upstream. Let him know his kind of politics is all but dead. Let him learn in politics rules are followed and discipline enforced. And when Machiavelli is done, let him hung to dry and goes with it the ambitions of The Little Benjie who has no place in Dagupan.

The Benjie and all he represents, is history… like those footprints in the sand at Bonuan… erased and carried away by the waves of change.

Eduardo Pontaoe
28 Mar 2007

A toast for the future… for change… for good governance… for truth… for Dagupan. The embodiment of hope is here. The tandem of F-F is a master stroke in political maneuvers. Old hand Alipio’s expertise and Belen’s business oriented mind will make the city run like a Rolex. No hunky-punky not what we’d seen in The Benjie’s court of selected scoundrels.

The line up for the Clowncil…oops! the Council is excellent. Joey Netu Tamayo… Alex de Venecia… Farah Decano… Michael Fernadez are the Four Horsemen who challenged the vainglorious and monarchic rule of The Benjie. The city is fortunate to have them serve with F-F.

Sigui Dagupan!