Lessons of Myanmar

By Gonzalo Duque

IT’S shocking that a very young man known for his amiability, industry and “workaholism” would die at a tender age.

Reggie Ubando, 40, who until  lately, was in charge of the city’s waste  management, succumbed to cardiac arrest while Dagupan was in the midst of merry-making at the world renown kalutan of which  he was very much a part of,  whether  under  Mayor Al Fernandez or former Mayor Benjie Lim.

Reggie’s passing is symbolic marking a passage from joy to sorrow, which could strike in seconds or minutes.

Who would ever imagine that such a young, brilliant (he was a top graduate of Lyceum Northwestern University), well-meaning guy would leave this world too soon!
Read more

Do you know the way to Baguio?

By Al S. Mendoza

I WAS in Baguio only a while back and guess what I saw: A totally altered traffic in the City of Pines.

Has Mayor Bautista become a sudden fan of Bayani Fernando?

Fernando is that favorite bloke of Ate Glo - the favorite son of Marikina City whose penchant for roads and traffic is rivaled only by his obsession for everything pink.

Pink overpasses. Pink foot bridges. Pink public urinals. Pink bus/jeepney/taxi stops. Pink road railings.
Read more

NSIC releases 2 hybrid rice varieties

By Sosimo Ma. Pablico

THE NATIONAL SEED INDUSTRY COUNCIL (NSIC) has again released for commercial planting two hybrid rice varieties bred by private seed companies but developed with the national Rice Varietal Improvement Group (RVIG) led by PhilRice (Philippine Rice Research Institute). 

The new varieties are PSD 3 of Syngenta Phils. and BCS 064 of  Bayer Crop Science, which now carry the names NSIC Rc166H (Mestizo 10) and NSIC Rc168H (Mestizo 11), respectively.  In the national cooperative tests (NCT) in four cropping seasons from the 2005 dry season to 2007 wet season, both varieties produced an average yield of 130 bags a hectare (ha). 

Both are recommended for transplanting culture in irrigated lowland areas throughout the year, but preferably during the dry season.
Read more

Resign

By +Oscar V. Cruz D. D.

There are not only many individuals but also a good number of organizations that have been all saying the same thing by words and statements, through placards and effigies, by way of rallies and marches: “Resign!” Needless to say, all these verbal, written and action driven moves are addressed to one and the same national figure whose over-all credibility and approval ratings are far from enviable. Mere perception or reality, repeated credible national surveys all come out with the same conclusion: The Malacañang occupant should go and be gone—even before 2010.
Read more

Adopting buro

By Glaiza Bernadeth Pinto

It was April 1997… I still remember that month as if it was only yesterday. We arrived in the town of Alcala from Mambusao, Roxas City in the Visayas.

It was summertime then but it seemed to be the beginning of the season of rains, when water from the heaven brings forth nourishment upon the earth, removing the thirst of the soil.  But my ten-year old heart remained dry; the rains failed to bring new life into my heart for I was a stranger in a strange, new land.

Our family — my mother, two brothers and myself — tried to accustom ourselves to this new place, to fulfill my father’s wish that we also learn to love the place that holds his roots.
Read more

Re-evaluating our values

       (Conclusion)  

By Emmanuelle

Not to be confused with its numerical successors, the first EDSA revolution will always remain a phenomenon in the perception of the international community. The personal experience, however, had awakened us Filipinos to the surprise that the values we had looked for, or had presumed long-dead and buried, were there smoldering within ourselves all the time - courage, pagkilala sa tama o mali, pagkalinga sa katarungan, pagkakaisa or solidarity.

Since EDSA I of February 1986, social scientists believed that the Filipinos thus remain re-awakened, watchful, restive even.

It is not yet a cauldron boiling over. It is, though, a huge kettle simmering, bubbling in spurts and hot bubbly puffs. Waiting for more stuff to ignite, to heat it up, tipping  its  temperature from puede pa siguro to sobra na talaga. Again.
Read more

BLACK PROPAGANDA BLAMED

China funding eyed instead

URDANETA CITY—It’s goodbye finally to the proposed P2.5 billion re-regulating pond below the San Roque Multi-Purpose Project in San Manuel after the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) had a change of heart.

National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Regional Director John Celeste confirmed that JBIC withdrew its funding support for the project earlier set to be implemented by NIA.

Celeste said JBIC’s decision was largely a result of the black propaganda waged in Japan and through the internet by original oppositors to the dam who sought the withdrawal of the loan due to the unsolved slaying of farmer- leader Jose Doton, president of the Tignay Dagiti Mannalon a Mangwayawaya ti Agno (TIMMAWA) about two years ago.
Read more

Open sesame!

This was the call made last week by members of the Dagupan City council who, like the rest of the citizenry in the city, have become excited yet anxious over the continued delay in the opening of the Dawel-Pantal-Lucao Road to the vehicular traffic.

Councilor Jose Netu Tamayo, in a privilege speech, sought an explanation from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) why the new road has not yet been opened despite the completion of the bridge-road project.
Read more

THIS year’s Bangus Festival scored the highest in visitor arrivals and boosted revenues of big and small business establishments in the city.

Dagupan Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez, who chaired the executive committee for the celebration, said the business sector reported brisk sales and increased revenues for the duration of the festival period.

Most establishments cooperated and offered discounts to make the ‘Great Dagupan Day Sale’ a truly shoppers’ holiday.
Read more

Senator Rodolfo Biazon, who visited Umingan town on May 2, said he is initiating a Senate inquiry on the delay of the construction of the irrigation component of the San Roque Multi-Purpose Dam.

“I’m going to ask irrigators why San Roque Dam has not delivered the irrigation component,” Biazon said.

The irrigation component, he said, is a crucial factor in seeking to increase rice production in the province by providing water to 83,000 hectares of farmlands.
Read more