Victor, the victor

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

1996 Marlboro Tour winner Victor Espiritu added to his laurels on the same year by winning the very prestigious “Rookie of the Year” plum. He was the third cyclist in the history of Philippine multi-stage cycling racing to bag that feat. The first was Tarlaqueño Cornelio Padilla, Jr. in 1966 and our very own the late Romeo Bonzo in 1983. And at 20 years of age, he was the second youngest rider to win the Tour, next to Padilla at 19.

Prior to that achievement, Victor, in January of the same year, landed second overall in the Tour de Langkawi in the Asian category, the best that any Filipino ever achieved during their ten years of campaign.

The annual ten-day Tour de Langkawi, as many might not be familiar, is a road battle of some of the best cyclists in the world being held in Malaysia and now considered the fourth most prestigious bicycle road race on earth and the biggest in Asia, according to UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale), the world gorverning body for cycling.
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Much two much
By Emmanuelle

Dee is maybe ten, tall and lanky, mostly all elbows and legs, pig-tails flying, round eyes whirling know-it-all. Her brother Dexter is maybe three years younger. When on tip-toes, his round plump figure reaches up only to Dee’s waist.

He is sort of a whiz science genius; Dee cannot forgive him for that.

What’s that? Dee points her index finger at Dexter’s chest. Seeing her eyes alarmingly wide, her nose fearfully quivering, Dexter looks quickly down to where her finger points. The moment he bent his head low, Dee slashes her stiff pointing finger upwards. The finger slices through his loose lips, pokes through a hole of his button nose. The finger tops the act with an arrogant shove on his forehead. Gotcha! she says.

Napikon, Dexter’s hands reach angrily for his sister wherever. Dee opens her eyes wider. She points to his chest again. What’s that? she shouts. Dexter looks down. Dee’s finger cuts through his face for the second time, naughtier and haughtier, as if to say bobo ka pala talaga. Dexter blubbers wildly. He jumps up and down, his fingers clawing Dee’s shirt, neck, face.
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Sonito 52: Basingkaoel
By Santiago Villafania

arap-arapen la’y basingkaoel
alioedoeran da’ra’y dika’y dalin
mansisiiman ira’y binoluk
nagsitayak ira’y talabutob

kua’y sakey ditan ag la ombatik
magana’y inkalangsot to salo
dia’d say tua oala’y pilalek to ni
mapatpatnag so kalareker to

oala’ra’y mamibilang la’y siwsiw
anggan ag ni nampusnak so nganak
say arum amarlang la’y kalutan
anggan ag ni’ra akapanbanuit

onia so kultura’y politika
dia’d bansan linmereg la ed irap

Sonito 68

“say arape’y oala’d kalangoeran
et oala’d lima da’ra’y atateng”

dia’d poseg na kuan a ripublika
ontatayak so sakit ya kanser
singa no bigis ya mamubokbok
ed saray egpang na lapag a ley

laoanan ed saray soko-sokong
mipapayabol ed dala-dalan
ilustrado’d saray subdibision
trapo’d gobierno tan Malacañang

saray nataoir na tobun-balo?
bansan asagmak ed kairapan
tan dalin a gaer la so yaman
ta pinulia’y totoon sagapet

nasabisabi iyan arapen
no anggapo’y yabig na sosiodad

NO FREE ZONE IN PANGASINAN

LINGAYEN–A decision has finally been made but the political bickering is far from over.

Vice Governor Oscar Lambino, provincial chairman of the ruling Lakas-Christian Democrat party, has been anointed to be the administration’s official candidate for governorship in Pangasinan, but Dr. Jamie Eloise Manzano-Agbayani, wife of Governor Victor Agbayani and Lakas provincial vice-chairman, is by no means backing out from the race.

An excited Lambino, calling local newsmen from Manila, said the party’s national arbitration committee has chosen him to be the standard bearer in Pangasinan as relayed to him on Thursday morning by former President Fidel V. Ramos, Lakas chairman emeritus.

The decision, however, is still subject to the final approval of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the party’s chairman.
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THE clock is ticking but not a single councilor dares to affix his signature on city council’s resolution.

Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez said the councilors who voted for the controversial resolution giving authority to Mayor Benjamin Lim to enter into a contract with the alleged winning bidder that will construct the Magsaysay Park Tourism cum Commercial Complex, continue to refuse to sign the transcript of the minutes of the special session on December 19, 2006.

Unless the resolution is signed and passed, the contract signing between Lim and Metro State Realty Corporation is on hold while the election ban for local projects is about to start.

The signatures of Councilors Nicanor Aquino, Vladimir Mata, Luis Samson Jr., Librada Reyna, Eric Muñoz, Danilo Torio, Charise Perez and Teofilo Guadiz III are necessary because based on the condition agreed upon when Resolution No. 56112-2006 was being passed, the transcript of the minutes as well as the committee report shall be made as attachments to the resolution.
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URDANETA CITY—Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr. has downplayed reports that the killing of a councilor’s son on Monday could be politically motivated but welcomed the option of putting the city under Commission on Election (Comelec) control to ease political tension and ensure a peaceful election in May.

 “Some are attributing it (killing) to politics but to my mind, I don’t think politics is involved here,” Perez told local media.

He also said the formation of a task force Tuesday to look into the gunslaying of Engr. Rene Parayno, 43, son of Councilor Julio Parayno “is most welcome”.

The victim, an employee of the National Irrigation Administration regional office, was shot dead on Monday while on board his motorcycle along the provincial highway in barangay Bayaoas.

Outgoing fifth district Board Member Emmanuel “Manoy” Carancho is being implicated by the bereaved family in the murder.
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THE City council passed a resolution on Monday asking the city legal office to file possible legal action against any person or entity in connection with the missing remnants of what used to be the Bugnay Commercial Complex on A.B. Fernandez Avenue in Dagupan City

This stemmed from a letter dated February 15, 2007 of City Legal Officer Geraldine Baniqued stating that contractor Roberto Sison, whose workers were seen tearing down the burned market, invoked his right to remain silent in connection with her official inquiry about the missing steel bars and trusses recovered from the burned area as earlier directed by the council.

Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez maintained that these fire remnants are owned by the city as stipulated in the agreement signed when the Magsaysay Park was turned over back to the city by the Bugnay Construction and Development Corporation (BCDC).

Unfortunately, not even a kilo of steel bars and trusses from the burned area accrued to the city, he said.
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Retired Police Director-General Arturo Lomibao has resigned from his post as head of the National Irrigation Administration to take a crack in Pangasinan politics, particularly to compete for the congressional seat in the fourth district against reelectionist Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and possibly Dagupan Mayor Benjie Lim, a former congressman himself.

Lomibao’s resignation has been accepted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to give the former chief of the Philippine National Police a chance to prove that he is fit to serve the country in another arena.

Lomibao’s announcement to run for congress surprised many of his followers and admirers who were considering him a “compromise” gubernatorial candidate in the face of the earlier stalemate concerning the administration’s selection of its candidate for governor among Dr. Jamie Agbayani, Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino, and Congressman Amado Espino Jr.
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HOUSE  Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. has disclosed that Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez Jr. and business magnate Belen Fernandez, president and general manager of the CSI Group of Companies, are being groomed to run for mayor and vice mayor of  Dagupan City.

De Venecia

De Venecia said the two were with him when he attended a gathering of some 3,000 members of the family of Dagupan City’s longest-serving mayor, Cipriano Manaois, hosted by the latter’s son, former Vice Mayor Teodoro Manaois III at their residence on Arellano street.

Also present in that gathering were Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, son of Alipio, and members of the city council.

That was the first public confirmation from De Venecia himself that the elder Fernandez, a former three-term mayor of Dagupan, and the lady Fernandez, a former city councilor, are likely to become the ticket bearer for Lakas in Dagupan.
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MASS WEDDING—Third District Congressional hopeful Rachel Arenas and Vice Mayor Julier Resuello stand as ninang and ninong to 540 couples who were married in a mass civil wedding ceremony on Thursday at the San Carlos City Sports and Civic Center officiated by Mayor Julian Resuello. – Punchphoto by Ray Zambrano