NO RANSOM DEMAND

Task force Villegas formed

SAN FABIAN- The police in Pangasinan seems to have been caught with their pants down again with yet another case of kidnapping perpetrated in San Fabian town at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The victim this time is Roland Zerafin Villegas, former president of the Liga ng mga Barangay chapter here, who ran for mayor in the May 2007 election but lost.

The kidnapping occurred barely four months after two daughters of a Fil-Chinese businessman from San Jacinto were kidnapped in Bonuan Gueset, Dagupan City on November 16.
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MALASIQUI– An official of the Department of Agriculture is confident that the Ilocos Region will be spared from an impending rice shortage in the coming months.

 Director Cipriano Santiago of the DA field office based in San Fernando City, La Union said he is optimistic that the region’s target harvest of 1.7 million metric tons of rice will be achieved in the coming wet season despite reported decreasing production of grains worldwide.

He said this expected harvest will be the region’s contribution to the national rice stockpile that could help forestall any rice shortage in any part of the country.
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CALASIAO–Puto Calasiao, so called the town’s “white gold”, will take center stage anew when the town revives its Puto Festival on May 5, coinciding with its nine-day annual fiesta.

Since puto has become a big money-earner in Calasiao, Mayor Roy Macanlalay is restoring the Puto Festival in a bid to create a bigger market for it nationwide.

The town, he said, will make one big puto as a special attraction of the festival but he clarified that the event will not be submitted to the Guinness Book.
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MALASIQUI–Barely a month since her last visit, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was back in the province, this time to launch the national government’s Food-for-School Program at the Malasiqui Central School here.

Arroyo, accompanied by Gov. Amado Espino Jr., 3rd District Rep. Rachel Arenas, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral, and Education Secretary Jesli Lapus, distributed bags of goods to daycare children.

Under the Day Care Food-for-School program, children will receive packs of rice and other food items for 45 days.
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2008 BANGUS FESTIVAL

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez and Councilor Alfie Fernandez, chairperson and vice chair person, respectively, of the 2008 Dagupan Bangus Festival, are back after an almost two-week roadshow in the United States where they promoted the festival to overseas Dagupeños.

The two officials were reportedly warmly received by members and officers of the Dagupeños associations in San Francisco, San Diego, California, and other parts of the U.S. West Coast, whom they have invited to come home for the Bangus Festival slated from April 16 to March 4.

Vice Mayor Fernandez affirmed the continued strong bond among overseas Dagupeños as shown by the warm reception accorded them wherever they went.
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Who says a policeman can only get wounded in a firefight with criminals?

PO3 Alfonso Villamil of the Dagupan police found this the hard way after losing three fingers on his right hand when a pillbox inside a suspect’s pocket exploded while frisking the latter at the city jail.

Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, city police chief, said what happened to Villamil is an eye opener to the rest of the policemen to exercise extra caution in frisking suspects.

The pillbox, about a size of a ping-pong ball, exploded when Villamil pressed it when he felt the bulge inside the back pocket of the suspect’s pants.
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URDANETA CITY—A massive manhunt has been launched for a bank security guard as the primary suspect in the killing of the bank manager of Rizal Commercial Ban-king Corporation Urdaneta branch.

The victim was identified as Maria Fe Valencia, 32, single, resident of Bora, Tarlac City, who temporarily resided at a boarding house inside the Nice Place compound in Barangay Nancayasan here.

Valencia was found dead inside the boarding house and her car and other valuables are missing.
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MALASIQUI–Rep. Rachel Arenas of the 3rd District of Pangasinan has appealed to the Department of Public Works and Highways to speed up the construction of the Calvo Bridge in Bayambang.

In an interview, Arenas said the people are now getting impatient over the sluggish pace of construction of the bridge, the only access to and fro the town of Bautista, Alcala, Sto.Tomas and Rosales.

Arenas inspected the project last week and was told by construction officers that setting up the foundation of the bridge would take a long time.
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MANAOAG–Mission impossible.

That was how Edgar Valdez, head of the Municipal Planning Development Council (MPDC), described Manaoag’s attempt to comply with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

“Parang suntok sa buwan iyan,” Valdez said and confirmed having been informed by the national government about the MDG in 2001, or a year after the commitment was signed by the Philippines under the United Nations Millennium Declaration in September 2000.
The MPDC is the local department tasked to disseminate the MDG information and to facilitate implementation of the projects.
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GRADUATION DAY

LINGAYEN-A simple graduation rite that will not require contributions from students and their parents was ordered for all schools in Pangasinan 1 school division.

Pangasinan 1 Division Superintendent Alma Ruby Torio issued the order as she announced that the graduation exercises in elementary and high school in Pangasinan 1 school division will start on March 25.

She said the holding of simple graduation rite is consistent with the policies given by Education Secretary Jesli Lapus which she relayed on March 12 to more than 700 school heads in her division.
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