There is a heated discussion now on where to build an international airport in Pangasinan. Mayor Nani Braganza wants it in Alaminos City and has in fact gotten the approval of President Macapagal-Arroyo. But Mayor Rey Velasco wants it built in Santa Barbara, as an alternative to the Loakan Airport in Baguio and because his town is nearer the key business centers of the province. Gov. Amado Espino Jr. is instead rehabilitating the Lingayen airport. Where do you think should the Pangasinan airport be built? Just asking.
Archive for December, 2007
Did you know that the Communist Party of the Philippines was born in Alaminos City 39 years ago? CPP founding chair Jose Ma. Sison confirmed this in an interview.
The following story was published on the front page of the Dec. 26, 2007 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Joma Sison recalls birth of CPP in Alaminos
By Gabriel Cardinoza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
ALAMINOS CITY, Philippines–The Communist Party of the Philippines marks its 39th anniversary Wednesday, but few residents of this bustling coastal city in western Pangasinan know that the CPP was born in one of their upland barangay or villages.
Mayor Hernani Braganza, a former member of the Kabataang Makabayan, a leftist group that went underground when martial law was declared in 1972, said he learned about this fact only in 2001. He was then the agrarian reform secretary and member of the government panel engaged in peace talks with the CPP’s political arm, the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Braganza said it was CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison who told him about it during a meeting in the Netherlands, where the latter has lived in self-exile since the late 1980s.
Sison, the chief political consultant of the NDF, confirmed in an e-mail to the Inquirer that it was in a “barrio” in Alaminos where the CPP “congress of reestablishment” was held on Dec. 26, 1968.
According to Braganza, that barrio is the remote Barangay Dulacac at the tri-boundary of Alaminos and the towns of Bani and Mabini.
I received more than a hundred text messages on Christmas eve and on Christmas Day. I am posting here a few of them. Some messages were outright funny; others were serious and still others were inspiring. Instead of texting them all to you. let me just share them in this corner.
This Christmas season, may you be showered with girls, or showered by girls, or with girls in a shower …
It’s Christmas! Rejoice, for God is with us Praise and thank God for the everlasting gift of Christmas! Indeed, ‘Man will live forevermore because of Christmas Day!’ A blessed Christmas to you and your family! God Bless!
Maalab na Pasko at Mapagpalayang Bagong Taon po sa inyo at sa inyong mga kasambahay at katoto!
I want too keep three things: the sun, the moon and my friends. The sun for daytime, the moon for nighttime and my friends, for lifetime. Happy holidays, my friend! God bless.
Our merriest Christmas wishes for you and your loved ones. May we all have peace in our hearts as we reflect on the true meaning of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
May you and your family enjoy a meaningful, joyous celebration of the child Jesus! A safe and peaceful night ahead! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas! May the Lord reward each thoughtful deed you do and hear each prayer you say. May He bless you and your family with His graces all through your life.
Fulfillment doesn’t merely mean achieving your highest dreams in life, but also living a life that has made the lives of others worth living. Merry Christmas!
(The following article was on the front page of the Dec. 22, 2007 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Unfortunately, this was not posted in the paper’s online edition.)
By Gabriel Cardinoza
Inquirer Northern Luzon
DAGUPAN CITY — Somewhere in cyberspace, Pangasinenses around the world converge.
Pangasinan Online (www.pangasinan.org) has allowed them to connect and interact with their loved ones, find long lost friends, and organize help for the poor in their hometowns.
Thanks to Fernando Mariñas, a San Diego-based network system administrator of a US government agency, who created the website six years ago. Mariñas is from Tayug town in Pangasinan.
“This site is dedicated to the people of Pangasinan, Philippines and those who trace their roots, or who have studied, worked, lived in there or just simply love the place,” said the website’s home page.
To date, Pangasinan Online is the most visited Pangasinan website in the World Wide Web. Its hit counter has registered more than 3.3 million visitors.
“Many more are going through the backdoor, meaning they create a shortcut going straight to their hometowns or school pages, by-passing the site’s counter,” Marinas said.
According to Alexa (www.alexa.com), a website that provides web traffic information, Pangasinan Online visitors far exceeded those that visited the Pangasinan provincial government website (www.pangasinan.gov.ph), which was launched in 1997.
‘Bridging the distance’
Marinas said he started the website in 1999 as Tayug.com, a site “with the sole purpose of bridging the distance” that separated his town mates around the world.
Inspired by the growing Internet technology in 2001, Marinas said he created Pangasinan Online that included all towns of Pangasinan. He adopted a simple, easy-to-navigate web design.
There has been a raging debate over Aksyon Radyo Pangasinan on the need to have a Pangasinan Day. Since time immemorial, Pangasinenses had not had a real Pangasinan Day celebration. A listener even phoned in to say that what he thought as Pangasinan Day was the Pistay Dayat.
Others said that what they thought as Pangasinan Day was the provincial non-working holiday every Nov. 13. Of course, Nov. 13 is Speaker Eugenio Perez Day. Historian Rosario Mendoza Cortez said Pangasinan became an alcaldia mayor in 1580. An article in the Wikipedia said Pangasinan was declared a province in 1611.
But to date, no official documents yet have been found that would indicate the exact date. Lawyer Gonzalo Duque has suggested that the provincial government should declare a temporaray date as Pangasinan Day until such time that the founding day of the province is finally established. Local historian Resty Basa agrees.
What do you think?
