Belen, out to revive ailing Malimgas Market

By Gerry Garcia

Plans are afoot in the incoming city administration of come-backing former Mayor Al Fernandez to stir business in the ailing 3-year-old Malimgas baby of out-going city Mayor BSL.

Newly elected Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, proven business entrepreneur in Pangasinan and Northern Luzon, recently bared introduction of innovations to make the Malimgas Public Market earn more than its current dismal revenue which is not enough to help meet its P300 million loan obligation from Land Bank of the Philippines.

The vice mayor said that part of the plan being backed up by the officials is to set up the 2nd and 3rd floors of the MPM for wet market and leave the 1st floor to dealers of dry goods.
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Fast changing times

By Jun Velasco

THIS crisp broadsheet, Asian Journal, must be today’s largest Fil-Am broadsheet circulating in the US and parts of the Asia Pacific, with something like 50,000 copies of news articles about the Philip-pines.

So what of it? Well, the paper is printed somewhere in Pangasinan. Yes, somewhere in the press row of our beloved province. Publisher Roger Oriel, is a Binalonian, about 50 and the son of our late friend, Jovita Oriel, a woman activist, who was a critic of the municipal government of Binalonan.  She became a friend however of Mayor Monching Guico.

In Los Angeles and San Francisco, you’d never think the paper is printed in Pangalatok country.  Which goes to show that publishing-wise, the presses in the woodlands of the Philippines could produce modern newspapers.
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Watch out for Belen Fernandez

By Gonzalo Duque

I WANT to felicitate the new officers of the Rotary Club of Uptown Dagupan headed by Dr. Lucy Honrado, the winningest of them all, on their induction recently at the newest and the biggest Jimmy Fernandez Convention Center in Barangay Lucao, Dagupan City.

The center, by the way, was named after Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez’ father and is reportedly the biggest north of Manila, which can house more than 7,000 people at one time.

The induction of Honrado and company was very enjoyable, what with the vivacious Edna Torio, past president of the club, as life of the party. In case you have forgotten, yours truly was the charter president of the club.

Back to the center’s being the biggest in Northern Luzon, the convention center now can properly give the city the tag, Convention Centre City. I remember former Mayor Benjie Lim openly wished to build one like it in Tondaligan Park. It did not push through.
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Mangatarem’s 2 lotto winners

By Al S. Mendoza

MANY reacted to my lotto column last week.

Some said, it’s but right to keep the identities of lotto winners to protect them from harm.

“They might get kidnapped, or get killed, for their wealth,” they said.

Some said, yes, they should be identified and introduced to the public.

“That way, we know the lotto in the Philippines is genuine,” said several others.

Still others said, the lotto winners here must also form a club, which they will call, “The Millionaires Lotto Club.”
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Barbarism

By +Oscar V. Cruz D. D.

It is not easy to accept that in this civilized age of well advance science and much developed technology, there are still downright barbarians in this country. It actually has no reference to race, color and creed. Barbarism is in reality a sick mind frame and a sickening actuation pattern in civilization, no space in decent society, no reason for being.

It is not enough for them to kill people. They consider necessary to still decapitate them. They even felt the need to desecrate the bodies of their dead victims. This is inhumanity at its worst. This is barbarism at its best. Even people in the deep far jungles of distant parts of the word are already becoming gradually conscious of how they should relate with one another for their own good and their common welfare.
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Fireworks in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan

By Eva C. Visperas

Will it be a better Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) this time? This is the question newsmen covering the session at the provincial board have been asking the past two weeks. (From Friday afternoon, the schedule for their regular session was moved to Monday afternoon).

In the previous set of SP officials, I noticed a “harmonious” relationship among the board members. Once at the session hall for their deliberations hardly was there a heated argument or discussion. Maybe they were good at ironing out kinks.

Veteran Board Member Alfie Bince is back. He said he will be a real minority leader in the SP. We hope he will be up to it to the very end. We all know he is a brilliant lawyer, an articulate legislator. Sana huwag niyang ipikit ang mga mata niya sa katotohanan, a friend whispered.
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Parasites help control rice black bug

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

The rice black bug may be considered one of the most difficult rice pests to control, but it should not be so much concern in transplanted rice if only parasites are properly managed, results of studies conducted in Agusan indicated. 

This pest infests the rice plants at all growth stages, most especially from maximum tillering to ripening stage.

In studies led by PhilRice crop protection specialist Eliseo H. Batay-an, it was observed that soon after the black bug egg mass population reaches its peak, egg parasitism subsequently reaches its peak also.  This indicates that the pest cannot do much damage if much care is done to protect the parasites from chemical sprays.
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Sports buff Nerez

By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

AFTER the very successful staging of the first “PD Marathon” last July 7, our provincial  Police Director Sr. Supt. Isagani Nerez is thinking of holding other sports activities in the province like chess, scrabble, martial arts and even a writing contest for children, but most especially Pangasinan’s favorite sport ‘cycling.’

During our dialogue with him in his office last Wednesday with some media men including Jun Velasco, Jaime Aquino and Ronald Allan Sison,  Nerez  confirmed to us that the one-day bikefest dubbed as “PD Cycling Challenge” will be staged on August 26 with P96,000 in cash prizes, trophies and medals up for grabs.
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Cattle and the communists

By Marifi Jara

We, the so-called Generation X - roughly those who are in their 30s now and early 40s -do not fully comprehend the implications of the Martial Law era. We were newborns or toddlers when its dark hand took hold of the country beginning in September 1972. We only hear of stories about the underground movement in the 1970s and 1980s from those who came a generation ahead of us; these are not our generation’s true tales.

But the progression of our political awakening starting with the murder of Benigno Aquino, Jr. in 1984 and the consequent 1986 EDSA Revolution - THE original EDSA revolution - still binds us deeply to the reality of Martial Law. For some of us, the ties are as close as to the loss of a parent we never got to know or other immediate relatives or close friends of our parents who were victims of the countless disappearances during those dim days in our country’s history.
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Truth is a lie is the truth!

By Emmanuelle

Surely, you know about Mary, Mary quite contrary? She contradicts herself beyond belief. Probably, when she says “Yes!” she shakes her head furiously from side to side. Possibly, when she says “No!” she nods and nods and nods.

Have you read of the little boy who kept warning his village about a pillaging wolf? He cried “Wolf!” too often when there was no wolf in sight. What happened to him? He   lost and was found - meaning, he lost his credibility; at the same exact time the wolf found him.
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