Juan P. Dayang, president of the Publishers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PAPI), has urged the decriminalization of libel to avoid its being used to muzzle the press in performing its solemn duty of providing adequate and truthful information that affects the well-being of our people.

“Persons or organizations guilty of libel should suffer a reasonable fine, depending on the gravity of the offense, but they should not suffer imprisonment.” Dayang explained to the joint Senate committees on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws chaired by Senaator Richard Gordon and the Public Information and Mass Media chaired by Senator Bong Revilla.

In a position paper, Dayang informed the Senate committees that the threat of a libel suit is often used to prevent the media from reporting or discussing issues that are of paramount interest to the public.

Dayang’s sentiment was earlier acknowledged in a recent message made before the International Conference on Impunity and Press Freedom by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Reynato S. Puno who said that international  organizations had identified two threats to freedom of expression and the free flow of information and ideas: censorship by killing and the abuse of restrictive defamation and libel laws. Read more

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - Governor Victor E. Agbayani is pushing the completion of various housing projects as part of his administration’s thrust to provide decent and affordable shelters among low-income families.

“We should intensify efforts to provide socialized housing units to employees, market vendors, drivers, policemen and those belongingto marginalized sectors of the community,” Agbayani said.

Engr. Alvin L. Bigay, head of the Pangasinan Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Office, disclosed that construction of 300 housing units under the Maniboc Socialized Housing Project will soon start. 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

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - Public safety first before profit.

This is the gist of a resolution filed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Majority Floorleader John Agerico B. Rosario urging concerned government agencies to come up with accreditation guidelines for private vans for hire in Pangasinan.

Rosario noted an increasing number of private vans which doulbe as public utilty vehicle even without the necessary franchises or authorization.

These private vehicles ply different routes inside and outside the province and raking in money in direct competition to legitimate operators who pay franchise fees and other obligations to the government, he pointed out. Read more

TAYUG, Pangasinan - A judge of the Regional Trial Court here is facing an administrative case filed before the Supreme Court in connection with the still unresolved slaying of Pasay City RTC Judge Estrellita Paas in September last year in Natividad town.

The complaint against RTC Judge Ulysses Raciles Butuyan of Branch 51 was filed by Renerio Paas, husband of the late Judge Paas who questioned the refusal of Judge Butuyan to issue warrants of arrest against the two accused who eventually dismissed the case for murder and theft filed against them. Read more

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan - Most courts have many cases pending for decision. However, Judge Joven F. Costales, presiding judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 45, Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, has no pending cases for decision as of the end of June. Likewise, all motions are resolved.

The matter was related by the Branch Clerk of Court Atty. Max G. Pascua to the Committee on Zero Backlog of Cases headed by Justice Reynato S. Puno of the Supreme Court this month.

Costales, known as the “Hanging Judge of Pangasinan”, works even after taking his lunch, on the bus and at home on Saturdays and Sundays. He makes it a point to dispose cases within the time the Supreme Court imposes for a case to be disposed of. He was twice a candidate for judicial excellence.

Incidentally, Costales has sentenced to death 26 accused and more than 30 persons for life imprisonment.

by Ed P. Ferrer

URBIZTONDO, Pangasinan - An outstanding legislator from Pangasinan has strongly urged that “the Senate be abolished.”

This was the strongly-worded message of Representative Amado T. Espino, Jr. (2nd district, Pangasinan) during the inaugural rites and blessings of the newly-constructed municipal hall and this town’s new public market.

Apparently, the 2nd district solon has been long disgusted due to the inaction of the Senate ’sitting’ on the many vital legislative measures coming from the Lower House. Read more

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan - Police authorities must coordinate closely with owners of local junk shops for possible arrest of cable and wire thieves operating in the province.

Board Member Danilo Uy made the call on the provincial police command through a resolution he filed before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan after noting an escalation in cases of theft of electrical and cable wires, which oftentimes disrupt the services of the affected public utilities.

“With the police working closely with junk shop owners, persons responsible for the theft of cable and electrical wires will be deprived of their market,” he said. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY - False report destroys all presumptions.

With this statement, the City Prosecutor’s Officer here on Monday (July 31) determined that the Lyceum Northwestern University was a victim of an untrue and unfair publicity and gave due course to a libel case filed by LNU president Gonzalo Duque against high-ranking officials of the Commission on Higher Education and a reporter of a national daily.

In a resolution, City Prosecutor Pelagio Palma indicted for the crime of libel Dr. Catherine Q. Castañeda, assistant director, Office of Programs and Standards (CHED); Dr. Fely Marilyn Lorenzo, chairman, Technical Committee on Nursing Education (CHED); and Jonathan M. Hicap, reporter of the Manila Times.

CHED chairman Dr. Carlito S. Puno and Dr. William Medrano, executive director of the Office of Programs and Standards, were earlier included as respondents but Duque withdrew the complaint against them for insufficiency of evidence.

The Manila Times publisher and editor-in-chief Fred dela Rosa, escaped indictment after Palma found no sufficient evidence against him.

The case stemmed from the publication of a news story in The Manila Times last March 15, 2006 that quoted CHED officials as saying LNU was among the 37 “very low performing nursing schools and among those whose nursing courses will be gradually phased out. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY - There is really no stopping the hurricane herself in the legal profession as Atty. Katrina Legarda with her colleague, Dr. Bernadette Madrid came to Dagupan City to lecture on Child Abuse for the Five Pillars of Justice last July 14, 2006 at the Leisure Coast Resort, an activity organized by the office of Councilor Farah Marie G. Decano, the Women Lawyer’s Association of the Philippines (WLAP) Pangasinan Chapter and the Innerwheel Club of Dagupan.

Despite the floods all over Pangasinan and Dagupan City, the seminar pushed through and turned out to be very successful with an unexpectedly high turn out of attendance. All the invited dignitaries came incluiding Executive Vice President of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Atty. Feliciano Bautista, who came from the inundated town of Sta. Barbara, Pangasinan, along with Atty. Joven Maramba, the president of IBP Pangasinan Chapter. Read more