DAGUPAN CITY – Senator Ralph Recto today urged Malacanang to “cut your losses” by abandoning its plan for the holding of a plebiscite to ratify the proposed parliamentary shift that will in effect extend the terms of office of incumbent officals.
In a phone interview over Aksyon Radyo Pangasinan, Recto said that it will be more embarrasing if Malacanang loses in the planned plebiscite, which will be held early next year.
Malacanang, he said, already lost twice in the Supreme Court in its bid for Charter change (Cha-cha) through people’s initiative and it might lose again if it insists in convening a constituent assembly (Con-ass) without the Senate.
“My advice to Malacanang is to cut your losses. Di baleng matalo ka na sa Supreme Court, huwag ka lang ma-rebuke ng taong-bayan (It’s better to lose in the Supreme Court than be rebuked by the people),” Recto said in an interview over Aksyon Radyo Pangasinan.
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DAGUPAN CITY—MANGROVES growing on riverbanks and fishpond dikes here are fast vanishing, literally, as residents have been cutting these trees for firewood and charcoal, according to a local environment group.
“At the rate [the cutting] is going, it is very alarming,” said Teddy Villamil, executive director of the Dagupan Estuarine Aquaculture Fisheries Growth and Technology Linkages Inc. (Dagat).
He said residents in Barangay Pantal had felled an entire strip of mangroves on a fishpond dike. “Nobody was arrested. In fact, in the last 10 years I do not know of anyone having been arrested or fined for cutting mangroves,” he said.
Under the Dagupan City fishery ordinance, people caught converting mangroves into fishponds and for other purposes will be asked to reforest the area converted and pay a fine of not less than P5,000.
Read full story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
DAGUPAN CITY—The ongoing battle between software developers and pirates in the country has continued to escalate, with no foreseeable victory for the government in the near future, an official of software firm Microsoft Philippines said here.
Jojo Ayson, Microsoft Philippines senior product manager, said software piracy in the Philippines is still rampant despite the government’s efforts to stop it.
“It’s still rampant [because] a lot of people still don’t see the value of intellectual property and it’s so easy to [buy] pirated software,” said Ayson during the local launch of the Windows Vista and Office 2007 last week.
He blamed the people’s mentality of settling for copied versions of software products than buying the original.
Read full story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
DAGUPAN CITY – Archbishop Oscar Cruz said here Friday former President Fidel Ramos did a “misguided reading” when he blamed the Catholic Church for the government’s weak population policies.
“The equation used is that if you have less population, therefore, you are better off, you are richer; you are more developed. And the more population you have, the poorer you become, the more miserable you are – which is disproved by facts,” Cruz, archbishop of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese here, said.
In his speech at a population management forum at the Asian Institute of Management, Ramos criticized the Arroyo administration’s population policy “as flip-flopping, perhaps due to unwarranted subservience to the Catholic Church.”
Ramos had urged the government to take a more aggressive stand on population issues in order to further boost the economy and dramatically reduce the incidence of hunger in the country.
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DAGUPAN CITY — Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz described as “desperate” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s endorsement of Charter change through a constituent assembly in her administration’s bid to bring about the shift to a unicameral-parliamentary system.
“It’s really a desperate move and she’s pushing it to be able to cover up a lot of problems, specifically with reference to her impeachment cases and her legitimacy [as president],” Cruz, a former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said on Friday.
The bishop said he remained skeptical of the government’s campaign for Charter change because people who had come out strongly for it were perceived to have vested interests.
“And we know that the constituent assembly is the initiative of President Macapagal-Arroyo, Speaker (Jose) De Venecia, and former President (Fidel) Ramos,” Cruz said.
Read full story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
BONSAI raisers and enthusiasts in Pangasinan are in a mad hunt for a tree locally called the bantigue. So mad that they are willing to risk their lives just to get hold of the prized species.
And for good reason: Not only does the bantigue make a good bonsai but it also commands a very good price.
Michael Morden, president of the Pangasinan Bonsai Society, said five bonsai raisers in the province and another in neighboring La Union had been sending out teams five months a year to look for the trees in their natural habitat.
Read full story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan – Police Regional Office 1 Director Chief Supt. Leopoldo Bataoil lauded the serious awareness and information campaign on the dangers of illegal drugs by retired Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco through the Kabataang Panlalawigan Laban sa Ipinagbabawal na Gamot (KAPANALIG) project.
In an interview with local newsmen after the formal start of Victorey Tour de Tercero (General Reynaldo Velasco Cycling Classic) last October 29 where Bataoil served as one of the special guests, the newly-installed Ilocos-Pangasinan police director vowed to fully support the KAPANALIG project through the conduct of more anti-drug seminars in Pangasinan and the Ilocos region.
Unknown to many, Velasco with the support of the Philippine National Police’s Community Relations Group headed by Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao has already conducted more than 10 KAPANALIG anti-drug seminars in the towns of Sta. Barbara, Calasiao and Lingayen participated in by close to 500 youth leaders from the towns of Mangaldan, Bayambang, Malasiqui, San Fabian, Basista, Mapandan, Calasiao, Sta. Barbara and the cities of San Carlos and Dagupan.
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