SAN FABIAN, Pangasinan - A former private rest house of then President Ferdinand Marcos and his family taken over by the government through the Philippine Tourism Authority months after the Edsa Revolution in 1986 has not lost its magic charm even if it is now run by the municipal government.

Turned over to the San Fabian municipal government by the PTA in May this year with the concurrence of the Presidential Commission on Good Government was the San Fabian PTA Beach Resort in barangay Bolasi, a class ‘AA’ resort facility by the Lingayen Gulf.

Many said the complex once played a significant role somewhat in the political history of the country by serving as a hideaway of the Marcos family whenever they wanted to escape the intense heat and doldrums of Metro Manila.

San Fabian Mayor Mojamito Libunao who sought that the 9.5 hectare complex be turned over to the host municipality, said since this was managed by the municipal government barely five months ago, revenues every month exceeded those raised when it was still operated by the PTA. Read more

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan - The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has not found any evidence yet confirming that the political killings that happened in some parts of the country had the indirect blessings of the government.

HRC Commissioner Wilhelm Soriano, in a talk to newsmen at his residence here last Saturday, disputed assertion made by Archbishop Oscar Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan Archdiocese that the government gave its indirect blessing to all these political killings.

“We have been conducting investigation on the political killings for a year and we have no concrete evidence gathered so far that showed that we can declare things like what was alleged by Bishop Cruz,” Soriano said. Read more

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan - The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has made it clear that it can not compromise its independence even as it attributed the bigger number of the country’s human rights violations to pro-government forces with the New People’s Army as second top violator.

CHR Commissioner Wilhelm Soriano told newsmen here recently that his office is a constitutional body and is “supposed to be independent”. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY - Mayor Benjamin S. Lim called the attention of Liga ng mga Barangay presidents Eric Munoz to the collective complaint of members of the different barangay councils and punong barangays of Dagupan regarding his perennial absence in the meetings of the Liga, and in the Sangguniang Panlungsod sessions.

“More alarming is your failure to call for quorum in the Liga meetings. It seems taht you have lost moral authority over your constituents,” Mayor Lim said in a letter dated September 6 to Munoz.

Lim stressed that not only the Liga ng mga Barangay, but the public as well, has started to notice Munoz’ shortcoming and worse, they now see him as incapable of performing the duties and functions of the head of the reorganization. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY - The first of its kind recall electin in Northern Luzon and possibly in the entire country was held last August 26 in barangay Herrero-Perez East under the supervision of the Commission on Elections to fill out one of the six seats for kagawad (councilman).

The recall election was held even if the barangay elections would be made one year from now possibly after the local elections slated in 2007. Read more

by Ernie Martinez - Straight Talk

POLITICAL pundits think the relationship of Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Jr. and City Mayor Benjamin S. Lim is a the bottom and things could not get any worse. For all the talks about grudges of the two politically succesful men quarrel like this doesn’t happen by accident.

Theirs, was a spontaneous feeling to the way the whole thing unfolded, fueled by an upsurge of negative statements by both camps that continue to this day.

For one, they have clashed over the circumferential road of the Pantal-Dawel-Lucao project. Mayor Lim does not need much convincing that Speaker de Venecia is calling the shots in this project and has a hand in the construction which was allegedly off course and beyond the proposed road line as originally planned.

The crack in their relationship aggravated further at what Mayor Lim thinks were JDV’s tactics, deliberately withholding support from his Bangus Processing Plant project. Read more

by Diego B. Ledda, Jr. - Freeliner

OUR COUNTRY is in disarray.

Our people do not trust the government. Our politicians keep on quarreling with each other from time to time. We are a nation divided by the wrong principles of our politicians.

Our economy fails to uplift the lives of the Filipinos. Poor people are suffering from endless poverty, while the rich people continue to gain more. Where does a Christian country like the Philippines go from here? Why are there partial and impoverished Christians? Does God allow it to happen to His people? Why is there social and economic discrimination? Is this His will to His people? Read more

From the Saltbeds by Restituto C. Basa

WE used to celebrate our independence day on July 4, the same day the Americans celebrate theirs.

When Diosdado Macapagal, father of our incumbent president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was president, he issued a decree that we celebrate Philippine independence day on June 12.

Our July 4 independence day celebration was imposed upon us by the United States of America. This was because we used to be a colony of the United States (from 1900 to 1946).

On July 4, 1946 America granted us our independence.

Macapagal changed our independence day celebration from July 4 to June 12. Since then, we have been celebrating our independence on June 12. Read more

BAUTISTA, Pangasinan - Rep. Mark Cojuangco of the fifth district of Pangasinan has expressed his disappointment over the non-passage of the Philippine Senate of the more than one trillion peso national budget this year.

Speaking during the town fiesta here, Cojuangco said congressmen labored hard in order to approve the national budget which was reduced by P64 billion by the Senate, thus becoming unacceptable to the Palace. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY - The national president of the Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas (LBP) stressed here that loss of confidence is not one of the grounds for removing any official from the league’s 1,700 chapters all over the country.

James Marty Lim, president of the League of Barangays of the Philippines told the city council her on Monday that there are 14 grounds where an officer of the barangay leagues may be removed but loss of confidence is definitely not one of them.

These grounds are specified in the constitution and by laws of the national barangay league that was adopted based on the Local Government Code and the constitution, he intoned. Read more