SO near yet so far.

This may well be the case as even Dagupan Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. could not say when the Dawel-Pantal Road will finally be opened.

The much-awaited highway, now in the final stages of construction and earlier announced to be completed by March 15, passes through Pantal and Poblacion Oeste, with a long bridge in the middle.

Fernandez told The PUNCH that the project will still have to be turned over by the contractors to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Read more

Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada is coming to town to meet with Pangasinenses.

Following an invitation from Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a staunch critic of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the star witness in the NBN-ZTE broadband scandal will be in Dagupan City on April 4 for a “Mass for

Truth, Justice and Peace”.

In an interview with The PUNCH, Cruz said he extended the invitation so Lozada could “also share his knowledge and answer people’s queries” in the province about the controversial deal that has been hounding Arroyo.
Read more

THIS year’s Bangus Festival will not just be a tourism spectacle but a big business promotion event.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, chairman of this year’s celebration, told local newsmen that the line-up of events had been finalized, all of which are geared towards providing entertainment and showcasing the city as a prime business and tourist destination.

Fernandez said the festival opens on April 16 with a “big bang” through the Gilon Gilon ed Baley street dancing competition highlighting the bangus as the city’s most well-known product.
Read more

NO RICE CRISIS IN PANGASINAN

LINGAYEN–All agencies of the Department of Agriculture were mobilized by Governor Amado Espino Jr. on Monday to assist farmers in increasing rice production to avert a supposed looming rice crisis locally.

Espino, stressing the urgent need to marshal all forces in order to intensify rice production, said there is also a need to produce corn, vegetable, meat and fish because “man cannot live by rice alone”.

However, the Department of Agriculture, through Regional Executive Director Cipriano Santiago, assured that there will be no rice crisis in the province, the third largest rice producer in the country after Nueva Ecija and Isabela. (Only 20,000 metric tons separate Pangasinan from Isabela).
Read more

MAYOR Alipio Fernandez Jr.has reiterated his declaration that his administration is firm in its stand to cancel all tax declarations issued to private individuals now claiming portions of public lands in Bonuan Binloc.

“I don’t even know how these people were able to secure such,” he said.

The tax declarations are now being used by different individuals, most of them affluent and influential, to claim portions of public lands as their own.
Read more

VILLEGAS KIDNAPPING

LINGAYEN— More than a week after the abduction of barangay chairman Roland Villegas, lawmen are still in the dark as to the motive for the disappearance of the former Councilor.

Even Governor Amado Espino Jr. has expressed serious concern over the absence of any progress in the investigation by the provincial police. Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, police provincial director, has been tasked to brief him regularly on the progress of the investigation.

In an interview, Espino said the police cannot believe that Villegas, a defeated mayoralty candidate of San Fabian and now serving as chairman of Barangay Anonang, was driving alone the morning he was taken since he is known to be regularly accompanied by a group of bodyguards when moving around.
Read more

Governor Amado Espino Jr. and Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. underscored the significance of the outstanding achievements of fifteen awardees honored by a radio program on March 23.

Espino, in a speech read by his consultant Cesar Carpio, himself an awardee, pointed out that “we need role models in these crucial times.

Fernandez, on the other hand, said “the progressive evolution of societies has been indirectly guided and influenced by outstanding leaders and their work.”
Read more

ALAMINOS CITY-The homeless and landless here will soon have a place to call their own.

A Gawad Kalinga (GK) eco-village will be built in Barangay Pandan here, located within the vicinity of Bolo Beach, an alternative eco-tourism destination in this city where the Hundred Islands National Park is located.

GK Community Development Foundation Inc. national president Antonio Meloto, Mayor Hernani Braganza and Lyndon Bonzon, GK regional coordinator, recently inked a Memorandum of Agreement for the project.
Read more