Giant Restos, Supermarket, Hospital in Bugallon to Snare Market Shares

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

WHILE  waiting for the hundreds of millions of pesos of business taxes the first class town could be collecting from the two energy providers whose solar power plants are still being constructed at the 1,200 hectares’ industrial lands, the administration of Mayor William Dy in Bugallon, Pangasinan has been frantic to host giant franchise fast food stores’ Jollibee, McDonald, and Mang Inasal and the supermarket’s Puregold.

The urgency, according to a source inside the town hall, is to snare the market in the eight municipalities 2^nd District.

Urdaneta Mayor Courts Suit In Case He Appoints 7 Dads

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

DO the five remaining lawmakers of Urdaneta City and the newly installed mayor Blesildo "Doc Bles" Sumera considered the various legal scenarios I cited below why until now they still don’t have the five recommended solons for the Sangguniang Panlungsod for the mayor to appoint as mandated by the city’s 1998 Charter.

After former Mayor Julio “Rammy” Parayno III, Vice Mayor Jimmy Parayno, and Councilors Franco Paolo Del Prado Sr., Warren Andrada, Aurelio Agsalud, Franklin Villanueva, Jhan Hero Sumera and Alfonso Del Prado received on October 15, 2026 the order from the Ombudsman of their dismissal from the government service, perpetual disqualification from public office, and forfeiture of retirement benefits for Grave Misconduct (for the two Paraynos) and Gross Neglect of Duty (for the councilors) , I wrote on my blog:

U.S Pays Obeisance to “President Baste”

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 U.S ​Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton visited recently Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte. The envoy met there too Senator Robin Padilla – in a Muslim dress and an Indonesian Sonkok hat - and Senator Bong Go – all rabid allies of the Duterte family from former president Rodrigo Duterte, Vice President Sara Duterte, and the present Hizzoner of the Durian City. The Dutertes are friends too of America’s economic and military rival China in the Indo-Pacific Region.

PHOTOS BELOW from left to right: 

US Ambassador to the Philippines Lee Lipton (far left) visited Davao City on October 22 and shook hand with Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte at the Davao City Hall; Vice President Richard Nixon met with Cuba El Jefe Maximo (The Supreme Leader) Fidel Castro in April 1959; Cuban leader Castro, left, and Communist Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev hug at the United Nations in September 20, 1960.

Was Ambassador Lipton playing “Larong Pinoy Intsik” in the geo-military politics that shrouded the affairs since the Cold War? Playing “Intsik” in the Pinoyland means a Filipino-Chinese oligarch gives financial contribution to all the presidential rivals so he can still get the goodwill for his business of whoever wins the electoral derby.

The Dutertes are very popular before the eyes of the Filipino despite the pro-U.S President Bongbong Marcos and his cops sending the “Butcher of the Drug War” former President Digong Duterte to the slammer in the International Criminal Court in the The Hague because of the vitriol and seditious statements the ole’ man had ranted against the “narco addict” Marcos when he was still in the corruption besieged country. That was political survival for McCoy Jr. not to mention the warrant of arrest from the ICC against Duterte because of his Crime Against Humanity.

POPULAR

Vice President Sara got 50% against probable presidential rivals Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo (26%) and Senator Raffy Tulfo (12%) in the September 17 to 24, 2026 in the poll of Pulse Asia Research, Inc. Duterte allies like Senator Go led the vice-presidential race with 31% and followed by Sen. Padilla with 19% in the same survey outfit.

Did the Yanks accept the truth that despite the inevitable impeachment of La Sara, Baste can take over and become president of this forsaken country?

Were the Americans play chummy with the family they see as Manchurian candidate but could not do anything but to befriend them lest they could hail them to their side against the menacing power of the Sino in the region?

WILL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

The Yankees had fallen to this pitfall when the friends they thought pivoted to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Nation leaders come to my mind: The rabble rousing Cuba’s Fidel Castro, the tall sartorially elegant western liberal former Lt. Colonel and Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Somalia Major General Mohamed Siad Barre.

Let’s just talk about Fidel Castro – whom my bookworm military father once in a while cited to me in highschool how he duped U. S President Ike Eisenhower:

n  The United States immediately recognized Castro provisional government on January 7, 1959, just six days after he ousted the corrupt and brutal President Fulgencio Batista – a lowly Sergeant Stenographer who became an Army Chief of Staff, sanamagan! - who fled Cuba for his life.

n  During the revolution and the immediate months following his victory, Castro publicly denied being a communist. He framed his movement as a nationalist, democratic revolution meant to restore Cuba’s 1940 constitution and end corruption. He frequently invoked Abraham Lincoln and the U.S. Founding Fathers during his initial interviews. Susmariosep, I remembered my Bible teacher Mom Daisy telling her students at the Protestant college in rustic M'lang , Cotabato: "The Devil quoting the scripture from the Bible".

n  U.S. companies held massive investments in Cuba, dominating the island's sugar, cattle, utilities, and oil industries. The Eisenhower administration believed that promptly recognizing and working with the new government was the best way to safeguard those extensive economic assets.

n  Castro was a charismatic celebrity who enjoyed overwhelming support from the Cuban public and favorable coverage from the American media. In April 1959, he embarked on a wildly popular charm offensive tour of the U.S., speaking to journalists and meeting with Vice President Richard Nixon.

n  El Commandante Castro diplomatic "friendship" with the Gringos (Psst Americans!) was short-lived. Within months, relations soured as Castro began conducting summary executions of Batista loyalists, delaying promised free elections, nationalizing American-owned properties without compensation, and aligning Cuba with the Soviet Union. By late 1960, the U.S. responded with an economic embargo, fracturing relations completely until now under the gung-ho administration of Pres. Donald Trump.

Would Uncle Sam be conned again if a Duterte wins the presidential diadem in the 2028 election?  

What say you my dear readers?

______

WRITER is a political science and history professor.

P600M 2027 AIP for Mangaldan

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANGALDAN, Pangasinan – The burgeoning landlocked town has P590, 417, 217.00 Annual Investment Plan (AIP) for the fiscal year of 2027.

The AIP is the one-year work and financial plan of a local government unit (LGU) in the Philippines that details the specific programs, projects, and activities (PPAs) to be funded in the upcoming annual budget. It acts as the mandatory precursor to the LGU's Annual Budget and Appropriations Ordinance. Public funds cannot be spent on items not listed in the plan.

P9.3B Badyet ng Prov’l Gov’t sa 2027

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan- Nagpapanukala ang pamahalaang panlalawigan ng Pangasinan ng badyet na hindi bababa sa P9.3 bilyon para sa taong 2027, mas mataas ng 10.18 porsiyento mula sa higit P8.3 bilyon sa taong ito.

“Malaking bahagi ng ating budget ay para sa serbisyong pangkalusugan, habang maglalaan din tayo ng humigit-kumulang ₱600 million para sa paghahanda at pagtugon sa mga sakuna, kabilang ang banta ng Super El Niño,” ani Gobernador Ramon V. Guico III matapos niya maisumite noong Lunes ang panukala sa mga mambabatas ng lalawigan na pinangungunahan ni Vice Gov. Mark Ronald Lambino.

P1.07B Circum. Road to Ease Traffic in Dagup, Cal, Mangaldan

  By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY - Travel time that takes one hour and thirty minutes from Calasiao, Dagupan City, and Mangaldan  will be shortened to forty minutes  next year after the final appropriation of P427,765,000.00 for 2027 has been provided to the Department of Publics Work and Highways (DPWH).

Are Celeste, Estrella Running Against Guv Monmon in 2028?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

A seasoned politician (a former long reigning town mayor) told me on condition of anonymity two weeks ago that Pangasinan First District Cong. Art Celeste was being egged by somebody influential and moneyed to run against Governor Monmon Guico on the May 8, 2028 election.

“But how could he (Celeste) run against the Governor, the latter told me in July that he would pick as a tandem the congressman’s son and Alaminos City graduating mayor Arth Bryan as his vice governorship tandem in 2028,” I told the politician and now businessman.