Cojuangco, Macanlalay Distribute Relief Goods in “Water World”

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Former Pangasinan Congressman Mark Cojuangco (black shirt) and
CalasiaoMayor Mark Macanlalay (blue shirt) ride a banca
so they could meet needy residents of a village in Calasiao
who were afflicted by Typhoons Luis and Mario.

CALASIAO – This town’s four villages have been dubbed as Kevin Costner flick’s Water World because of their being a catch basin of floodwater from different towns in the provinces of Pangasinan and Benguet.

Gubernatorial and vice gubernatorial aspirants Mark Cojuangco and Mark Macanlalay distributed recently two truckloads of relief goods in Barangays Talibaew, San Vicente, Lasip, and Banaoang after typhoons Luis and Mario scourged the province.

Former Congressman Mark Cojuangco and Calasiao Mayor
Mark Macanlalay prepare to embark to one of the dump trucks
that would bring the relief goods to the four typhoon
worst hit villages in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

Barangay Talibaew in Calasiao, Pangasinan

“Nanduon po ako sa Sri Lanka noong isang araw, nakita ko sa balita grabe ang ulan dito sa Pilipinas at nakita ko rin ang Pangasinan marami po ang nabaha dito. Kaya noong umuwi ako kahapon tumawag ako kay Mayor Mark tinanong ko kamusta ang Calasiao,” he said in the vernacular.

The former Congressman of the 5^th District of Pangasinan cited that he asked his personnel to buy bags of rice and boxes of can goods and packaged them for distribution.

“Hindi po ito gobyerno personal ko po ito na ginusto kung itulong sa inyo. Kung hindi ganoon karami pagpasensiyahan niyo po sa kakayahan ko lang po ito na personal”.

Macanlalay, this town’s mayor, said that water here could reach even above human level in some of the areas of the 18 beleaguered villages.

Barangay San Vicente in Calasiao, Pangasinan

“Ang barangay Talibaew, Lasip, San Vicente, Banaoang hanggang dibdib, lampas tao, hanggang baywang. Pinakamalalim sa Talibaew tapos Lasip banka pa rin gamit nila. Sa may San Vicente, Banaoang road not passable pa rin,” he stressed.

Each of the thousands of relief goods is composed of two kilos of rice, four can goods of pork and beans and sardines, noodles, and cloth.

Barangay Lasip in Calasiao, Pangasinan

Cojuangco, who was in the international parliamentarian convention in Sri Lanka last Saturday with former Speaker Joe de Venecia, traveled early Monday from Manila and arrived here at 9 A.M.

“He just arrived and is still resting at our guest house,” this town’s Vice Mayor Roy Macanlalay, the father of the mayor, told Northern Watch.

After the late lunch with the mayor at the municipal hall, the duo rode gung-ho in one of the two dump trucks that carried the relief goods, transferred to either the trailer-pulled- hand-tractor or banca to reach the innermost parts of some of these villages that have been under water.

Barangay Banaoang in Calasiao, Pangasinan