DAGUPAN CITY – “Where’s the attack, insult or offense?”

This was asked by Archbishop Oscar V. Cruz of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese, reacting on the furor over the lecture of Pope Benedict XVI on September 12 at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

Cruz, former president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, reviewed the lecture of the Pope and came up to the conclusion that the focus of this was the relationship between faith and reason.

He stressed that the substance of the Pope’s lecture is a threefold truth. First, faith and reason are compatible, second, faith illumines reason functions, and third, reason affirms faith acts. 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 city government is seeking to re-employ some of the 150 emergency workers it laid off effective August 31 as attendants in parking areas in the city to be operated by a private contractor.

Otherwise, it would be a bleak Christmas and New Year for these workers and their families because they were terminated even if the city government is yet to provide their wages from July 16 to August 31 this year.

The city government was spending P1.7 million a month for its emergency workers alone. The 150 employees laid off meant savings of P1 million per month.

It is still four months to go before December 31 and yet the city government now appears to be running out of cash. Read more

DAGUPAN CITY – Health authorities believe that dengue fever in Pangasinan is now under control as there are now fewer cases being registered this month of September as compared to the cases registered in August and July.

Dr. Anna de Guzman, deputy provincial health officer, said records from Sept. 1 to 11 showed that there were only 59 cases that were registered.

De Guzman also maintained her previous statement that there is no valid reason for them to declare that Pangasinan is under the spill of dengue fever outbreak as there were only 925 with 13 fatalities that were registered since January this year. Read more

VILLASIS, Pangasinan – Two of three armed men who exchanged gunshots with members of the Tayug police in barangay Sto. Domingo, Tayug on Saturday evening were arreted while undergoing treatment of their wounds few hours later at the Polymedic Hospital and Trauma Center here.

The suspects were identified as Rommel Samonte, 23, a native of barangay San Anton, Munoz, Nueva Ecija but residing in Sta. Maria town, who had a gunshot wound in the right palm, and June Samonte, 28, who was wounded and being treated in another hospital. 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

BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan – A public school teacher is in hot water after he locked up 12 pupils inside a classroom for two hours last September 8.

The parents of the Grade VI pupils of the Bayambang Central School all trooped to the police to complain agaisnt the teacher, Von Ryan Cayabyab, for illegally detaining their children.

Cayabyab is now facing a complaint for illegal detention and violation of Republic Act 7610 or the Child Abuse Law before the city prosecutor office in San Carlos City, filed by parents of the pupils.

The pupils were identified as Maika Mae Buttong, Ana Marie Reyes, Rollie Coincina, Glen Basada, Nikki Isabelle Buizon, Benjie Bulatao, Ramil Eslabra, Solfrino Ignas, George Tucker Gonzales and three others.

The parents of the pupils told the police that they were constrained to file the complaint because they can not let the injustice committed by the teacher agaisnt their children to pass.

The pupils were locked inside the room from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and only got out when they called a passing teacher to open the door which was locked from the outside.

The pupils said they had no class beginnig at 8:00 a.m. but Cayabyab, who was not their teacher, put them into a room and locked it, with no chance for them to get out to take their snacks or to answer the call of nature. (PNA)

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – Governor Victor E. Agbayani has enjoined all government employees to support the nationwide celebration of the 106th anniversary of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) with this year’s theme “Katapatan ng Lingkod Bayan…Pahalagahan” which formally kicked off last September 4 at the Capitol grounds here.

“As government servants, it is our responsibility to become part of the various development efforts not only for our province but for our country as well as by doing our job with utmost honesty and dedication,” Agbayani said. Read more

IT is said that Helen’s beauty sparked the Trojan war.

In the case of Anda, a maiden’s beauty moved the poblacion from Segat, now Namagbagan to Araub, the present townsite.

This narrative was based on two sources: One is the written history of Anda; two is a love tale narrated to me by Pastor Jose Q. Raguindin, a Methodist minister and a native of Anda.

Pastor Raguindin, at time I interviewed him, was 80 years old. He probably is the oldest citizen of Anda at this time (circa 2006).

From the written history of Anda, we gather that the town was founded as public in 1849. It started as a barrio (barangay) of Bolinao. This is the reason why the residents of Anda speak the Bolinao dialect. Read more

SEASONS by MITA Q. SISON DUQUE

WHILE going through old family pictures and papers, this columnist found an unmailed letter, type written on yellowed and brittled onion skin paper. Dated February 28, 1966, it was wrtiten by one who was at the time, young, and as they say, just “wisp-of-a-girl”, addressed to a known female newspaper journalist, one of the first woman suffragettes in the country, a strong pioneering newspaper woman, a rarity at the time. It was indeed a revelation, but how youth can be impressionable, easy to passion and vulnerable to lessons.

The letter was addressed to the prospective recipient who was a columnist of the Pangasinan Courier, Dagupan City. The letter referred to a particular column where the columnist admits to not recognizing the two easily recognizable people in this still small town who came to her newspaper office as they occasionally did. Referring to a college dean and his popular politician wife, that afternoon when straight from law school at the young DJC (Dagupan Junior College now “Dagupan Colleges”, today the University of Pangasinan dropped by her office before driving home to Lingayen after classes. In her column she particularly mentioned not recognizing the lady, no big deal, but nay, without a trace of unintended casualness, she has grown older, she wrote. Read more