DAGUPAN City – Project PROMISE distributed various gadgets yesterday to eight pilot barangays here to enhance their disaster readiness capability.
“The provision of pilot devices will empower our barangays and equip them for any eventuality caused by hydro-meteorological hazards,” Mayor Benjamin Lim told People’s Journal.
Kevin Donahue, a USAID representative, and Lorna Victoria, vice president of the Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP), turned over the gadgets.
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LINGAYEN — The rebuilt Domalandan Bridge here was inaugurated and opened again to motorists after almost six years of reconstruction work.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the inauguration rites. She was assisted by House Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and Lingayen Mayor Ernesto Castañeda.
Present were Second District Representative Amado Espino Jr., Pangasinan Governor Victor Agbayani, Vice Governor Oscar Lambino and Public Works Region 1 Director Fidel Ginez.
After the inauguration, Castañeda presented to the Arroyo a Municipal Council Resolution 189-2006 making her an adopted and favorite daughter of Lingayen.
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LINGAYEN, Pangasinan— President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said today the P745.5-million Domalandan Bridge here is just one of the many benefits the Filipino people are getting out of the tough economic reforms her administration implemented to rev up the economy.
In her brief message during the inauguration of the 600- meter long Domalandan Bridge linking Lingayen and Dagupan City to the western towns of Pangasinans, the President said the benefits of an improved economy are beginning to trickle down to the grassroots as part of the social payback to the people.
“This bridge (Domalandan Bridge) is for me just one of the social paybacks as a result of our efforts in improving our economy and putting our fiscal standing in order,” the President said in the Pangasinan dialect.
She said the improved economy has brought back the confidence of the international financial community on the Philippines and is now resulting to more investments and jobs for the Filipino people.
Read full story in the Office of the Press Secretary website
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will fly to Pangasinan on Saturday to inaugurate the newly-completed Domalandan bridge in Lingayen costing more than P700 million.
The bridge, a vital span between eastern and western Pangasinan across the Limahong channel that empties its water into the Lingayen Gulf, measures more than 600 meters and is one of the longest bridges in Pangasinan.
The new bridge replaced an old structure that was destroyed by a big flood in 1999 during the administration of former President Joseph Estrada.
However, construction of the new bridge started only in 2001 when President Arroyo took over with the funding coming from part of the yearly budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Read full story in the Philippines News Agency website
DAGUPAN CITY – The garbage generated in this city has been drastically reduced by 80 percent, according to the city government’s waste management division.
Reginaldo Ubando, WMD chief, said that his office used to collect about 400 cubic meters of solid waste every month in 2005. But last year, he said, it collected only about 80 cubic meters a month.
“This is really a big waste reduction and it gave us big savings and allowed us to do more work,” Ubando said.
He attributed the solid waste reduction to the city’s “serious” implementation of RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
The law mandates, among others, waste segregation in every household; the recycling and composting of wastes in the barangay level; and the collection of residuals– wastes that cannot be recycled or composted—by the municipal or city government.
“I think is only our city that was able to implement the law on a citywide scale,” Ubando said.
As a result, he said, the city government also saved on diesel fuel for its garbage trucks and other equipment used in the operation of its controlled dumpsite in Bonuan Tondaligan here.
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ROSALES — Two new municipal halls in Pangasinan will be inaugurated this January. One is of historical heritage while the other is of ultra modern in architectural design. Both buildings are beauties or sights to behold.
On January 5, the restored Rosales Municipal Hall will be inaugurated. Mayor Ricardo Revita said the program will be held early evening after the sun had set.
The balikbayans and local residents will be serenaded by violinists who will be playing classical music at the verandah of the presidencia. To be invited are immediate heirs of former mayors in the town.
Read full story in the Sun.Star Online
ALAMINOS City, Pangasinan – Two tricycle drivers were killed by unidentified suspects at dawn yesterday.
Police said Orlando Daleng Celeste, 25, a tricycle driver of Rabago Street here, was shot dead in Barangay San Roque.
Initial investigation showed that the victim parked his tricycle at the corner of Quezon Avenue and Carlos Garcia Street waiting for passengers when an unidentified man boarded.
Minutes later, Celeste was found dead in the middle of the road with gunshot wounds.
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INFANTA, Pangasinan — “Madam President, please help us.”
This is the collective appeal of more than 200 fishermen from Barangay Cato here who had survived several days in the high seas after big waves destroyed their motorboats when they went fishing off the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea last Dec. 16.
Charlito Manigo, Barangay Cato chairman, and Infanta Mayor Ruperto Martinez wrote President Arroyo through Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr., a Pangasinense, on Dec. 30, appealing for financial assistance to (help the fishermen) start a new life.
Read full story in the Philippine Star
DAGUPAN CITY — Malacañang has created a “monster” in former election commissioner Virgilio Garcillano that it has no choice now but to support him in his congressional bid in Bukidnon province in next year’s elections, according to Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.
“If Malacañang will not support him, he might spill the beans and the [political] opposition would feast on that possibility, which, to me, is a real possibility,” Cruz told the Inquirer Thursday.
Read full story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer
An urban vegetable production seminar was held at barangay Herrero-Perez as part of the Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and zero-waste programs of the city government.
The city government encourages the establishment of nursery gardens in the barangays where the composted materials can be used.
“This program is part of our undertaking to really lessen the volume of wastes being thrown on the dumpsite,” Mayor Benjamin S. Lim said in his message.
The mayor stressed that the city government is really serious in putting order in the disposal of wastes in the city.
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