URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan - At least 34 families affected by the construction of a giant re-regulating pond to be built by the government for the foreign-funded Agno River Integrated Irrigation Project (ARIIP) are set to be relocated shortly.
NIA Regional Director John Celeste said at least P120 million from the Philippine government’s coffer is now being used for the relocation of the 34 families from the site to be submerged in order to make way for the re-reuglating pond.
The P120 million formed part of the 10 per cent counterpart of the Philippine government for the project that was estimated to cost P7.8 billion pesos, the amount of which is a loan now being negotiated by the country with the Japanese government. Read more
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - All is set for the first round evaluation of participants in the Search for the Cleanest Coastal Municipality (Linis Dayat program) slated from October 23 to November this year.
Now on its seventh year, the program was further intensified through the years with the revision of its criteria.
A brainchild of Gov. Victor E. Agbayani that has earned international citation, the Linis Dayat program was launched in 2001 to save the Lingayen Gulf from further degradation brought about by illegal fishing activities, pollution, destruction of mangroves and siltation. Read more
DAGUPAN CITY - An official from USAID and project PROMISE coordinators from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam and Bangladesh were impressed by the effective and expeditious implementation of the disaster preparedness project of the city during their field visit in Dagupan on October 5.
The visit to Dagupan followed after the first Annual Working Group Meeting (WGM) of PROMISE (Program for Hydro-Meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia) coordinator on October 2 to 4 in Manila.
Dagupan City is being benchmarked by the international project implementors because the city is ahead in the implementation of the project among the five implementing cities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines, PROMISE-Dagupan focal person Emma Molina said. Read more
DAGUPAN CITY - An official of the World Health Organization (WHO) tagged global warming as one of the elements that caused the upsurge of dengue not only in the Philippines but in other tropical countries.
Dr. Jean Marc Olive, country representative of the World Health Organization, told newsmen here that the other elements that gave rise to the dengue disease, include population growth, urbanization, lack of investments in public sanitation, drainage and all that come along with urban development which were not fully controlled and fully planned. Read more
DAGUPAN CITY - This one can make it in for Ripley’s Believe it or Not.
The only place in the Philippines if not the world where a dead fish belonging to the threatened and endangered species on the verge of extinction are being given a decent burial, as if they are dead humans, is in Dagupan City.
The first of its kind fish cemetery in the country if not the world is located on an 80 square meter circular lot situated inside the National Integrated Fisheries Technology Development Center in the coastal village of Bonuan Binloc here. Read more
MALASIQUI, Pangasinan - The Pangasinan provincial board is reviewing an ordinance passed by the legislative council of Bayambang town endorsing a plan to set up an 80-hectare sanitary landfill somewhere in that town.
Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino said the provincial board was proposed by a Metro Manila-based company called WINS that intends to put up sanitary landfill that could accomodate all solid wastes from all towns and cities in Pangasinan.
Based on the ordinance, the Bayambang municipal council agreed with the construction of the landfill site on a land that was already bought by the company. Read more
DAGUPAN CITY - The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) has made proposal for the construction of a new dam at Toboy river flowing into Binalonan town to make use of its excess water for irrigation purposes rather tahn flow towards central Pangasiann and cause flood there.
The proposal was made by Reynaldo Mencias, designated project manager of the P7.8 billion upcoming Agno Integrated Project (ARIIP), noting that it is the water from the Toboy river that is flooding central Pangasinan.
He said to stop the flooding in Binalonan, Urdaneta, Sta. Barbara, Calasiao and Dagupan City, a new dam must be built along the Toboy river similar to the San Roque dam that is now preventing floods in municipalities along the bank of the Agno river. Read more
DAGUPAN CITY - The Sangguniang Panlungsod recently approved Resolution No. 5529-2006 declaring the city’s full and unequivocal support to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in its program to phase out chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), harmful freon and other toxic, environmentally harmful by-products.
It was learned from the resolution that the harmful and toxic substances emitted from refrigerators and air-conditioners pose unreasonable risks to health and the environment. Read more
by RHEE Fer HORTALEZA and JOSEPH C. BACANI
BINMALEY, Pangasinan - Negotiations are now underway for the eventual conversion of a 191,479-square-meter military reservation located at barangay San Isidro Norte here into a tourist destination.
This was disclosed the other day by Mayor Simplicio ‘Sammy’ Rosario in an interview with mediamen after an ocular inspection of the area recently, even as he added that a tourist destination is something that augurs well for the town’s tourism thrusts.
Rosario explained that the area was converted into a military facility under Proclamation No. 119, which was assigned by then President Manuel Luis Quezon on December 18, 1936 or some 70 years ago. Sice then, the Philippine Army used the facility as a training camp. Read more
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - The second round of the provincewide Search for Model Barangays on Eco-Waste Management System will take off in October.
This was announced by lawyer Zoilo Andin, executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), during the two-day provincial summit on Solid Waste Management hosted by the provincial government recently.
The second nationwide search is a “follow through” of the 2004 search wherein the province of Pangasinan landed in the fourth slot with the Material Recovery Facility of Barangay Bued in Calasiao as entry. More than 1,000 barangays all over the country participated in the search. Read more