DPWH-Pangasinan reactivates ‘Lakbay Alalay’ program for All Saints’ Day

DAGUPAN CITY– To ensure safe travel for motorists during the observance of this year’s “undas,” the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reactivated anew its motorist assistance desk located in four strategic places in Pangasinan.

Bernardo Caronongan, information officer of DPWH-2nd Pangasinan Engineering Office, said the motorist assistance program will start on October 28 to November 2 to provide assistance and guide motorists, tourists and vacationers traversing along major thoroughfares in the province during the observance of this year’s All Saints’ Day.

He said the DPWH has assigned at least six personnel with one team leader to each of the four motorist assistance desk strategically located along Mangaldan-Manaoag-Binalonan Road, Pangasinan-La Union Road, Pangasinan-Zambales Road and Pangasinan-Tarlac Road.

“The motorist assistance desk are located in Barangay Guibel in San Jacinto town, Barangay Longos in San Fabian town, Barangay Manat in municipality of Binmaley and Socony Section in Bugallon town,” Caronongan said during the “Pantongtongan Tayo” radio program of Philippine Information Agency (PIA)-Pangasinan on Tuesday.

The motorist assistance group will serve on a round-the-clock shift or 24-hours duty and provide assistance to all motorists in normal and emergency situation, he said.

Likewise, Engr. Fernando Bugarin, assistant chief of the DPWH-2nd Pangasinan Engineering Office Maintenance Division, added that their office has instructed two weeks ago all contractors to fast track the completion of road projects along the national roads of the second and fourth congressional districts of Pangasinan before All Saints’ Day observation.

Bugarin also added that all ongoing construction projects that will not be completed before October 31 should be stopped temporarily and proper signages including warning signs within the clear and safe distance of the project must be installed.

He said that the department also ensured that all major routes leading to cemeteries are free from potholes and properly maintained before the ‘All Saints’ Day’ observation to ensure safety of all travellers in the province. (PIA-1, Pangasinan)

Pangasinan gov’t, PVAO to sign pact on veterans’ healthcare

LINGAYEN– The provincial government of Pangasinan will soon sign an agreement with the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) to cater to the medical needs of Pangasinense veterans and their beneficiaries.

On Monday, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan here approved a resolution authorizing Governor Amado Espino III to enter into and sign a memorandum of agreement with PVAO for the implementation of hospitalization, medical care, and treatment programs to veterans and their dependents concerning 10 Pangasinan government-run hospitals.

Board Member Agerico Jeremy Rosario, sponsor of the resolution, said the PVAO has chosen Pangasinan through provincial government-operated hospitals to be among its accredited hospitals that will extend healthcare benefits to all veterans.

POLITICAL CARTOON

Are Filipinos benefiting on the military exercises with the U.S?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

During the official visit of the Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to Japan, radio listeners and Face Book Live Feed’s viewers were treated about my narration with co-anchor Harold Barcelona on my nephew (father was Japanese) who was anointed by Japan Emperor Akihito to be the lead samurai or powerful military caste of the Imperial House or Koshitsu of the Nippon.

Author (extreme right) sports with the helmet and vest
used by the U.S Marines who manned the High
 Mobility Artillery Rocket System  (HIMARS)
they used during a military exercise with
Philippine military.

Here’s what I told Harold when I went in 2014 with my nephew at the Koshitsu for the contest where my nephew Maraki Akin-ari, 21, was pitted with contestants from Tokyo and Nagasaki about their quickness and deft in handling a samurai’s sword.

When Akihito threw a fly above, the Tokyo guy unleashed his sword and struck the fly by slicing it into two pieces. 
Spectators applauded.

When the Sun-God of Japan, threw a fly above, the Nagasaki guy rapidly hammered it twice with his sword and the fly was sliced into four pieces.

Spectators went wild.

When it was the turn of my nephew who grew up in Tondo and not Tokyo as previously described by the media, the Emperor threw the fly above and Maraki Akin-ari attempted to hit the fly  20 times but to no avail. The fly still flew and nagalit si Akihito.

“Wala kang kuwentang Samurai, 20 times mong tinaga ang bangaw, walang nangyari. Hindi ka puweding maging Lead Samurai dito sa Imperial Palace,” he chided my nephew.

My nephew whom I trained, during our drinking spree with Kuatro Kantos, on the Art of Reasons emphatically told the Emperor in Pilipino that was immediately translated into Japanese:

“Mahal na hari, hindi ibig sabihin na sa 20 times kong pag hampas ng espada ay pumalpak na ako. Kumuha kayo ng microscope o magnifying glass para makita ninyo kung paano ko tinuli o ni circumcised ang langaw”.

***

My daughter Alex, 9, Grade 4, asked me how to pose questions in a mock press conference after she became a member of the editorial staff of her school newspaper.

Sabi ko ito ang pagtanung: "What is your take on your visit to Japan?" (If the interviewee is an imagined President Duterte).

Then I told her some of my “anecdotes” interviewing dignitaries;

ME: Senator Pacquiao what is your stand on K-12?

PACQUIAO: (who was sitting): I don't want to stand, I want to sit. I don't want K-12, I like K-9.

ME: How's the violence here in Maguindanao?

MAGUINDANAO GOVERNOR ANDAL AMPATUAN: (Who finished only Grade 3) Violin? I could not even play guitar. You asked me about violin goddammit!!! You want me to kill you?

***

I saw recently a column that reads the Philippines did not benefit to Balikatan or military exercise with the U.S.

I disagreed of course.

Here were the advantages of having military exercises with a super power based on my conversation with the U.S Marines at Clark Air Base in Pampanga early this year that manned the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
ME: How can the guided rockets of HIMARS hit with accuracy the Chinese warships if one of this is posted at one of the islets of the Philippines at the South China Sea?
US MARINE 1: They would be GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) guided.
ME: Oh, just like what the C.I.A backed Colombian government had done with the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) guerillas when the Cessna propeller powered plane dropped a GPS guided 500- pound bomb at the guerrillas whose fire they used in cooking food betrayed them in nighttime.
ME: Is the price of this monster (Himars) $5.1 million apiece?
MARINE 2: Naah, its $6 million apiece now.

Despite being allowed to fish, Ph fishermen's leader hopes Chinese Coast Guard leave

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Chinese Coast Guard ship in the Philippines' territorial water.
Photo Credit: Bangkok Post

"Nakaka pangisda na Kami sa Scarborough," declared by Jowe Legaspi, leader of the Filipino Fishermen who used to be driven out by the Chinese Coast Guard in the disputed Shoal. "Sana umalis na sa"Karburo" mga barko nila ng lubusan Kasi insultong malaki Sa atin  dahil nasa pintuan lang natin Sila. Hayaan na natin yung mga barko Nila Sa Spratly, malayo iyon!" he said.
Legaspi, who lives in the coastal village of Infanta, Pangasinan led the 15 fishermen who petitioned the Chinese encroachment at the United Nations in 2015

MY COMPLETE Q & A with  Jowe Legaspi on the return of the Filipino

fishermen at the rich fishing ground at Panatag Shoal can be 

accessed by copying and pasting at Face Book the following:

 https://www.facebook.com/mortz.ortigoza/videos/vb.569334707/10154780131354708/?type=3&theater

READ MY OTHER ARTICLE: China allows Filipinos to fish at Scarborough Shoal - Fisherman

Cayetano hits U.S Envoy on interfering in Ph Affair

Cayetano to Goldberg: what’s your business in monitoring, criticizing PH officials’ affairs

Says nothing suspicious about China trip

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano shot back at outgoing US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg over the latter’s recent remark that he and Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade made an "unpublicized" trip to China prior to President Rodrigo Duterte's state visit to Beijing. 

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano (R) admitted recently going to China in June as US
 Ambassador Philip Goldberg (L) recently said. Photo Credit: GMA-7.

Cayetano on Friday (October 28) was invited as a resource person in a press briefing at Malacañang, wherein he was asked about his reaction to Goldberg’s claims. In response, the senator confirmed his trip to China earlier this year, but clarified that it was at his own discretion and not that of the President.

Cayetano emphasized that there was nothing suspicious about the trip being “unpublicized” because unlike the president, public officials are not obligated to issue departure and arrival statements every time they leave the country. 

“First of all, Sec. Tugade and myself, we’re not the President. We don’t have departure or arrival statements so what does he mean by unpublicized trips? The reality is that it is only the president’s trips that are publicized,” Cayetano said. 

“I’m a senator. I don’t need the President to tell me to do something. If he tells me to do something, I will follow. But as a senator, I can meet my counterparts, I can travel. There is such a thing as inter-parliamentary relations,” he explained. 

Cayetano further questioned what the US Ambassador’s business was in monitoring his and Sec. Tugade’s affairs. He also called out Goldberg for engaging in “rumor-mongering” and for giving false information when he made an unverified remark about Tugade’s visit to China. 

“Sec. Tugade had a lot of invitations. Any DOTr Secretary is invited by China and Japan, automatically. But Secretary Tugade… I heard him a lot of times saying, ‘I will not go abroad until I form my team. And my priority is forming the DOTr team’,” Cayetano said.

“That’s why hindi siya sumama sa mga trips until matapos ang kanyang team. And may sarili siyang plano because Secretary Tugade doesn’t want to be supply-driven… Gusto niya munang pag-aralan muna kung ano bang kailangan natin,” he added.  

The senator also echoed the remarks of foreign relations personalities whom he talked to and claimed that Goldberg’s action was considered as a breach of protocol, as it was something that “a professional diplomat would not do unless you want to do something with that country.” 

HALLOWEEN

HALLOWEEN. Workers of the local government unit (LGU) of Mangaldan, Pangasinan portrayed ghouls, witches, and zombies in a program held last Friday in front of the municipal hall.

Since she became a chief executive of the town in 2013, Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno had been celebrating yearly the “All Souls’ Day”  dubbed as “ Spooky Town’s Trick or Treat”.

LGUs and the business sector there joined the whole day program through gift giving to children who milled at the highway near the town hall. Other parts of the program were Best in Halloween Custom, Halloween Photo Booth Treat, and Open Houses of the LGU decorated with Halloween motif. PHOTOS : Mortz C. Ortigoza

List of Narc addicts, pushers come from various sectors – Mangaldan COP

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 MANGALDAN – The inclusion of a dangerous drug personality in the list of the police was a consolidation by reports from various entities, according to the chief of police (COP) here.

NARC FREE VILLAGE. Police Superintendent Arnold Solomon (3rd from left), Mangaldan acting Chief of Police, together with Mr Noel de Guzman (Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno’s  representative) and Barangay Anti-Drug Council (BADAC) Chairman Mario Bautista declared Barangay Macayug as Drug-Cleared Barangay in the municipality of Mangaldan.
The activity was attended by Brgy Officials, Barangay Health Workers (BHW), Civilian Volunteer Organization/ Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team (CVOs/BPATs) and BADAC members.

Superintendent Arnold Solomon cited that the village chief, this town’s COP, and the police provincial office (PPO) based in Lingayen town listed who are the users and peddlers of narcotics in a village.

“Consolidated validation, may mag pi-feed sa police, may mga listahan. Iyong barangay sa barangay bina-validate din po iyon. Tapos sa PNP bina-validate din. Then papunta uli sa provincial office ba-validate din,” Solomon, a member of the Philippine National Police Academy’s Class of 2000, stressed when he was asked that a barangay chairman and his officials could incriminate a suspect because he is a perceived political enemy.

POSO TO PUT ENTIRE FORCE IN THE STREETS ON NOVEMBER 1

DAGUPAN CITY – The Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) under retired SPO4 Carlito Ocampo will put its entire force in the streets on November 1 during the observance of All Saints Day, called locally as "Undas".

Ocampo disclosed that POSO has 76 personnel, who will all be on duty in their respective posts or areas of responsibility till "Undas" is over.

During the implementation of “Oplan Kaluluwa”, at least 20 POSO personnel will be deployed along the Eternal Garden area, 22 at the public cemetery area, nine in the downtown area, 19 in other strategic areas along Perez Boulevard up to Arellano Street while two personnel to serve as radio operators will stay at the POSO office.

According to a traffic re-routing plan prepared by POSO, all east and north bound public utility vehicles must take Galvan Street, which will be a one-way traffic from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 in the evening.

All west and south bound public utility vehicles must turn left at Zamora Street, which will also be a one-way traffic from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 in the evening.

Only private vehicles will be allowed to pass through Burgos Street, which will also be a one-way traffic area, from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 in the evening while its east portion will be utilized as a parking area.

Careenan Street will be one way from North going to South and motorists can exit either at Amado Street or Malta-Tapuac road.

Amado Street going to Malta-Tapuac will also be one way.

DAGUPAN LAUNCHES BATANG BELEN FEEDING PROGRAM

DAGUPAN CITY – The City Health Office (CHO) and the City Nutrition Office (CNO) launched the city’s Batang Belen Program for 712 malnourished kids in the barangays in a kick off program held Oct. 26 at CHO.

BATANG BELEN PROGRAM – Mayor Belen T. Fernandez (2^nd from right) administers Vitamin A to one of the 64 malnourished children from Barangays Herrero-Perez and Mayombo during the launching of the Batang Belen Program for 712 malnourished kids in the city in a kick off program at the City Health Office on October 26. Joining Fernandez were Dr. Ann Paragas (right), Batang Belen focal person and medical consultant at the CHO and Dr. Sheila Sabado (2^nd from left), OIC-City Health Office. (CIO photo by Jojo Tamayo)

The launching was graced by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez who led the feeding and the administration of Vitamin A to at least 64 malnourished children from Barangays Herrero-Perez and Mayombo.

Dr. Ann Paragas, Batang Belen focal person and medical consultant at the CHO,  disclosed that the program aims to  minimize the number if not fully eradicate or control the number of malnourished kids in the city in a span of four months or 120 days.

“We will make sure that our malnourished children in the barangays are busog at malusog sa tamang nutrisyon under our 120-day feeding program which will start in November,” said Paragas.

CNO records showed the 712 malnourished kids who will be the main recipients of the Batang Belen Program are from 6 years old and below.

These children will be monitored monthly by the city’s Barangay Nutrition Scholars (BNS) under the guidance of the CNO as the children will undergo weighing regularly every month within 120 days.

The children’s progress will be recorded in the growth chart of the Batang Belen Program.

“Each barangay will have a growth chart which will serve as our indicator in evaluating the progress of the children,” said Gina Tamayo, Midwife II at the CHO and works for the Batang Belen Program under Paragas.

2nd Coal Power Plant in Sual, P'gasinan

Let's continue the killings

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I felt vindicated when the killer of an architecture student Nick Russel Oniot, 18, was extra judicially executed, er, killed by policemen when he grabbed the gun of one of the cops after they arrested him.

Photo Credit: Philippine Star

 My feeling of relief on the death of Marvin Bernardo, a recidivist and a parolee for murder, epitomized the feelings of the majority of the Filipinos who are tired already seeing on television habitual delinquents and other criminals preyed on defenseless victims.

Bernardo, and his effeminate companion Reynold Clave alias Sakura, attempted to rob Oniot when the Adamson University’s student was walking recently for home at dusk in Taguig.

Instead of yielding to the duo, Oniot fought back by hitting them with his knapsack.

Bernardo, to neutralize Oniot, stabbed him 18 times.

The graphic scene seen by millions of Filipinos on the TV evening news scandalized many of us. It was heart wrenching since after those volley of stabs and after the accused left, the teenager still stood and managed some paces while he hailed passing vehicles to bring him to the hospital.

With blood oozing from his wounds and bloodied his white polo uniform and some vital parts of his organ cut by the knife, he collapsed on the street without anybody from the kibitzers lifting a finger.

 Pathetic!

Since Bernardo and Clave who were identified by the security camera of the village casually walked from the crime scene, the police arrested the duo that followed the execution of one of them.

 This kind of killing, although laudable to many Filipinos, could not continue.

The use of tit-for-tat or ngipin sa ngipin against hard core criminals like Bernardo has downside.

What if those arrested and summarily killed were just suspects and later found to be innocent?

We could not resurrect them anymore.

Although these mode of getting rid with the rising numbers of criminals made President Rodrigo Duterte famous  we should continue killing the criminals by Congress passing a law re-imposing the death penalty for heinous crimes like murder, rape, narcotic peddling, and others.

Congress should hammer a law that would increase the budget   of the judiciary so it can create more Regional Trial Courts, try heinous crimes with speed, imposed the death sentence, and burn them in an electric chair or pin them down in a plaza with a bullet in their heart from one of the rifles of the members of the firing squad to make it as deterrence to would be criminals.

Get rid of those lethal injections son of a gun, they still look humane and make death not gruesome!

At least this is a government sanctioned killing with the benefits of due process while we avoid snuffing out the lives of innocent victims because of arbitrariness.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

Let's continue the killings

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I felt vindicated when the killer of an architecture student Nick Russel Oniot, 18, was extra judicially executed, er, killed by policemen when he grabbed the gun of one of the cops after they arrested him.

Photo Credit: Philippine Star

 My feeling of relief on the death of Marvin Bernardo, a recidivist and a parolee for murder, epitomized the feelings of the majority of the Filipinos who are tired already seeing on television habitual delinquents and other criminals preyed on defenseless victims.

Bernardo, and his effeminate companion Reynold Clave alias Sakura, attempted to rob Oniot when the Adamson University’s student was walking recently for home at dusk in Taguig.

Instead of yielding to the duo, Oniot fought back by hitting them with his knapsack.

Bernardo, to neutralize Oniot, stabbed him 18 times.

The graphic scene seen by millions of Filipinos on the TV evening news scandalized many of us. It was heart wrenching since after those volley of stabs and after the accused left, the teenager still stood and managed some paces while he hailed passing vehicles to bring him to the hospital.

With blood oozing from his wounds and bloodied his white polo uniform and some vital parts of his organ cut by the knife, he collapsed on the street without anybody from the kibitzers lifting a finger.

 Pathetic!

Since Bernardo and Clave who were identified by the security camera of the village casually walked from the crime scene, the police arrested the duo that followed the execution of one of them.

 This kind of killing, although laudable to many Filipinos, could not continue.

The use of tit-for-tat or ngipin sa ngipin against hard core criminals like Bernardo has downside.

What if those arrested and summarily killed were just suspects and later found to be innocent?

We could not resurrect them anymore.

Although these mode of getting rid with the rising numbers of criminals made President Rodrigo Duterte famous .

Bad blood between Barbers, Pichay started in local politics – Toff

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 "All politics is local, ” a famous phrase from my favorite humorous former U.S Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill where his book “Man of the House: The life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O’Neill” I kept bragging to five-time Philippines' House Speaker Joe de Venecia whenever I was in a huddle with him.

“Yah, I met Democratic Party’s Speaker O’Neill “All politics is local” when I met then President Ronald Reagan in the White House,” the rabble rousing Philippine Speaker kept telling me.

 Congressman Ace Barbers points a finger at the face of
RepresentativeProspero Pichay in a near fisticuffs that ensued
 recently at the House of Representatives seen by millions of
 television viewers. Photo Credit: ABS-CBN 

Here’s the neophyte congressman’s son of Speaker Joe when I interviewed him about the “circus” in the House of Congress perpetrated by two solons whose hatred with each other hailed from local politics that Speaker O'Neill kept blaming, son of a gun, whenever political and economic situations in the Land of the Free and the Brave went south. 

 If House of Representatives’ Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was ashamed by the near fisticuff of Congressmen Robert Barbers and Prospero Pichay Jr., a Pangasinan solon cited that there was bad blood between the duos that started in Surigao Province.

Barbers and Pichay are congressmen from the second and first Districts Of Surigao Province.

“That’s what I heard. Again, it was not firsthand information it was told to me. It also came out in the news,” declared by Congressman Christopher “Toff” de Venecia.

According to the Daily Inquirer, Pichay pitted candidates against the Barbers' clan following Robert's refusal to toe the line as member of the then ruling party Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats when he signed the failed impeachment complaint against then president Gloria Arroyo, Pichay’s ally, in the middle of 2000s..

In 2007, former Surigao del Norte governor Lyndon Barbers lost his congressional bid against Guillermo Romarate Jr., while Robert won his gubernatorial bid.

It was in 2010 that the Barbers political rule in Surigao del Norte officially ended after Robert lost his reelection bid to Sol Matugas, and Lyndon his mayoralty bid to Ernesto Matugas.

Surigao del Norte was the bailiwick of the Barbers, before the patriarch former congressman and senator Robert Barbers died of heart attack in 2005.

Robert vied for the second district congressional bid in 2013 but lost to Romarate, who finished his three terms until 2016. Robert only regained the seat in 2016 after beating Mary Anne Lucille.

Although De Venecia was reluctant to comment on the brouhaha that lowered the reputation of the August Chamber before the eyes of the tens of millions of television viewers, the new solon said he was in a meeting with Barbers early of that day.

“We have a Dangerous Drugs Committee hearing; you know I don’t comment on that”.

He said Pichay was a friend and fellow member of the Committee on Sports where they both look for the development of the athleticism of young Filipinos.