Alaminos Mayor, COP sharpen police effectiveness

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

ALAMINOS CITY – The mayor and the chief of police (COP) of this Western Pangasinan City have honed the effectiveness of the police force here through the activation of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) and the procurement of additional vehicles.

Members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team
menacingly prowl an urban area for bad guys. Photo Credit:
Pinterest

Police Superintendent Benjamin P. Ariola said that he introduced lately to this City’s Mayor Arthur F. Celeste the indispensability of the SWAT thus the Refresher Training Course for his selected policemen.

“The team was activated for purposes of quick emergency response in high risk situation and crisis incident operation,” Ariola, a member of the Philippine National Police Academy's Class 2000, stressed.

SWAT, according to Wikipidea, is a term for police units which use specialized military equipment and tactics. First created in the United States in the 1960s to handle riot control or violent confrontations with criminals, the number and usage of SWAT teams increased in the 1980s and 1990s during the War on Drugs War and later in the aftermath of the terrorist September 11  attacks where thousands have died.

This city had been one of the earlier and few local government units in the 44 towns and 4 cities’ Pangasinan to have almost narcotics free villages in the province.

Mayor Celeste recently turned over to this City’s police station a new Strada Pick Up and motorcycles during the flag raising ceremony held at Plaza Braganza.

Ariola said the gestures of the mayor in his all - out support for the law enforcers were laudable.

“To expedite police response in the campaign against all forms of criminality for a safe place to live, work and do business in the City of Alaminos,” he cited the presence of the new vehicles.

P100,000 monthly from Jueteng in this region for this reporter

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I bumped into a gambling number game cobradores (agent) today and I asked him: Ano ang mas okay sa kita ninyo, noong panahon ng Jueteng ng Jueteng Lords, Jai-Teng ni Atong Ang, or itong bagong sugal ng PCSO na STL?

File photo of  Jueteng Revisadores. They check the day's
 collection and the winning numbers.

AGENT: Mas okay noong sa jueteng pa ako, ang porsiyento ko sa cobranza (collection) ay P150 sa P1000, sa Jai-Teng P120 sa P1000, maliit dito sa STL, P70 lang sa P1000
ME: Kung ang Jai-Teng o Jueteng, ang peso mananalo ng P400, magkano panalo ng peso sa STL?
AGENT: Ganoon din, P400 sa peso.
Jueteng is a P10 billion a year business in the Philippines that corrupts government officials, police, and media people.

A TV and radio personality in Manila is receiving one hundred thousand pesos monthly in a region in the north alone. And I am not yet talking about the other regions in the country that he and his colleagues, according to my sources, are receiving the illegal funds.
Jueteng revenues are much bigger than the projected P4 billion combined earning this year of food giants Jollibee and Mang Inasal.

***

For my almost a year stint as radio commentator here are some bloopers I experienced with some radio reporters.

When I was discussing about a land to be donated by a brother of a mayor to the city government as situs, er, location for the new city hall, the poser to me of a reporter was hilarious, unforgivable, and unforgettable.

 ME: Ang tax sa lupa sa BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue) ay Donor, Estate, and Capital Gain Taxes.
Halimbawa may nagbigay sa iyo ng lupa at siya ay sinisingil ng government, ang tawag sa tax doon ay Donor's Tax. Pag nakatangap ka noong lupa, ang tawag sa iyo ay DONEE (the tax on land being imposed by the BIR are Donor, Estate, and Capital Gain Taxes. For example somebody gave you a land and he was billed by the government, we call them as Donor’s Tax. If you’re  a recipient of that land, we call you as DONEE).

REPORTER: Iyan ba kasamang Mortz iyong DONEE ay iyong binibigay ng groom na Muslim sa parents ng bride para makasal sila? (Was that DONEE my pal Mortz the one given by a Muslim groom to the parents of the Muslim bride?)

ME: (I fell down from my seat but I have still the equanimity to answer him) Ang tawag doon ay DOWRY (We call it DOWRY).

Dowry, a noun, means a property or money brought by a groom to his wife on their marriage.
Its synonyms are marriage settlement, (marriage) portion, and archaicdot.
EXAMPLE: "Abdul Salsalani's dowry included a hectare of fertile pasture and two assault rifle Armalites to the parents of Zoraida Udtog".
The station's janitor, who was doing his stuff, was amused by the exchanges. He butted in and asked the difference of Donee and Dowry to the laundry's soap powder Downy.

Lot Donor of Dagupan's New City Hall Tax Exempt – BIR

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The Bureau of Internal Revenue said that in case the donation of the lot for this City’s local government will be concluded, the donor will be exempted to pay taxes as provided by law.

Facade of a modern city hall in other country.

Assistant Revenue District Office-4 Chief Trina Villamil cited that Kerwin Fernandez, the donor of the multi-million pesos more or less 1.2 hectares of land in Pantal-Lucao Road, will not be paying the donor tax as mandated by the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).

Villamil, after consulting with Tax Supervisor Marinela C. Tandoc and Examiner Jeff A. Sajones, explained that Paragraph 2 Section 101 of the NIRC cited the exemptions of certain gifts.

 “Gifts made to or for the use of the National Government or any entity created by any of its agencies which is not conducted for profit, or to any political subdivision of the said Government,” the Code says.

The BIR usually tax by 30 percent the value of the donation or gift given by the donor to donee if the duo is not relatives up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or first cousin.

Dagupan's Summer Sports Clinic ends

 

DAGUPAN CITY – The city’s biggest summer sports clinic trained 640 children in 11 sports events from May 5 to 26.

 

The 22-day summer sports clinic dubbed as Sports Kontra Droga was facilitated by the Dagupan City Sports Commission (DCSC).

DCSC SPORTS CLINIC GRADUATES. At least 640 children enrolled in 11 sports events in the
city’s biggest summer sports clinic dubbed as Sports Kontra Droga receive their certificates of
completion on May 26 at the People’s Astrodome from the Dagupan City Sports Commission.
 (CIO photo by Jojo Tamayo)

 

It was offered free for children aged 5 to 16 years under the Building The Future: Developing Our Excellence in Sports or BTF DOES program initiated by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez.

 

DCSC Commissioner Finnela T. Sim disclosed that initially there were at least 853 children who enrolled in the program but this was trimmed down to 640.

 

The 640 children completed the training with just one or two absences.

 

Most of the five years old participants showed interest in gymnastics while most of the 16 years old children enrolled themselves in  archery and wushu.

 

Out of the 640, at least 280 attended the swimming lesson, 102 joined the badminton event and 95 underwent training on chess.

 

Swimming has been the city’s biggest medal hauler in the Region 1 Athletic Association (R1AA), the Palarong Pambansa and in the Batang Pinoy National Championships since Mayor Belen started with the BTF DOES It program.

Solon lauds final approval of Dagupan's CLUP

Pangasinan Fourth District Rep. Christopher de Venecia hailed the final approval of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) of Dagupan by the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HULRB).

Mayor Belen Fernandez wants Dagupan City to be the next call
center hub Northern Luzon. Photo Credit: Politiko

Noting the value of  CLUP as guide for future land uses , De Venecia called on other local governments in his district, namely Mangaldan, San Fabian, San Jacinto and Manaoag, to follow the example set by Dagupan City by also  preparing  and adopting  their respective CLUPs.

He said it is the CLUP that investors always ask for before they decide to invest in a town or city to ensure that their investments are protected for the long term.

The congressman believes that more government assistance will pour to LGUs with an approved CLUP than those without.

He cited Dagupan which is now reaping the benefits of having a new CLUP citing the proposal of the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PESA) to make the city center for medium industries whose products can be sold abroad. .

He congratulated Mayor Belen Fernandez and other city officials and employees for incessantly working together so that the city can have a new CLUP. 

Most Pangasinenses favor Mindanao Martial Law

 

DAGUPAN CITY - The decision of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to declare martial law in Mindanao in the evening of May 23 has drawn mixed reactions from Pangasinenses. Majority, however, favor the move.

 

Provincial Director Agnes De Leon of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said the declaration is good to stop the conflict once and for all.

 

”Kawawa ang mga sibilyan dahil sila ang naiipit. Tama lang mai-declare dahil kung walang katahimikan, walang development,” De Leon told the Philippine Information Agency.

‘Gamot para sa Kapwa’ project helps Rosales patients

 

ROSALES– At least 1, 024 patients from various towns in Pangasinan received free medicines, medical and dental care services during the “Gamot para sa Kapwa” project initiated by the SM Foundation Inc.




Kristine Santiago, press relations officer of SM Rosales, said the project is in partnership with the Philippine Red Cross, Region 1 Medical Center (R1MC), Municipal Health Office of Rosales and the Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD).




“Gamot para sa Kapwa is a medical and dental mission that aims to provide quality but free medical and dental care services as well as proper and complete dosage of medicines to less fortunate citizen in the community,” Santiago said.




She said during the medical mission, the patients were given medical consultation, free medicines, x-ray and electrocardiograph (ECG) tests, random blood sugar test, uric acid test, cholesterol check-up, dental consultation and tooth extraction.

Water supply restored in Dagupan villages

 

DAGUPAN CITY - The Dagupan City Water District has finally restored water services in at least three villages of the city, ending the seven-month ‘waterless’ agony of residents and concessionaires.

 

General Manager Adelfo Valle announced that at 3:35 in the afternoon of May 24, the new  Lasip Grande Pumping Station became fully operational with a capacity rate of 21.67 liters per second and with a pressure of 15 pounce per square inch.

 

“Clean and safe water is vital for life that is why we pushed for the restoration and completion of the pumping station at the shortest possible time for the benefit of our District’s concessionaires,” Valle said.

 

It can be recalled that in mid-October of 2016, water supply and pressure weakened in Barangays Lasip Grande, Pogo Grande, Malued and in nearby villages because of the massive cave-in of sand of the Lasip Grande pumping station. Eventually, no water would come out from the pipelines during the day. Residents contented themselves by fetching water in containers at midnight till dawn where water pressure is high.

Tax spikes after BIR’s new zonal valuation takes effect

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY – The second half of this year would be a bonanza in tax collection for the three Revenue District Offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Pangasinan after the new zonal valuation would be implemented.

RDO-6 Chief Maria Isabel B. Utit said the implementation of the valuation would be this coming June.

“Hinde pa maimplement kasi wala pa publication. This April publication ngayon May or June implementation niya. Ang naaprove ay RDOs 4, 5 and 6 in Pangasinan,” the CPA-Lawyer stressed.

BIGWIGS. Bigwigs of the Bureau of Internal Revenue pose for posterity during their visit to the office of BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay in Manila. From left: BIR Eastern Pangasinan Chief Maria Isabel Utit, former BIR Region-1 Director Marina de Guzman, Current BIR Regional DirectorTeresita M. Dizon (fifth from left), and BIR Central Pangasinan Chief Merlyn Vicente (extreme right).

Assistant RDO-Chief Charmaine dela Torre said the new zonal valuation would be implemented this coming May 31.

Utit, who oversees Eastern Pangasinan, said the average increase of the new zonal valuation would be forty percent compared to the average taxes being collected in the old valuation.

Traffic Chief equivocal on Racket of Colorum Owners, LTO

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY - Are the brasses of the Land Transportation Office protects the non-franchise vans colorums that ply in Pangasinan?

Public Order & Safety Office Chief Carlito O. Ocampo was equivocal on the reason why he and some of his men were stripped off by the LTO with the power to issue Temporary Operator’s Permit to drivers of these colorums.

In this file photo fiery President Rodrigo Duterte warns corrupt LTO,
LTFRB officials and employees to be re-assigned  in war torns Jolo,
Basilan. Credit:Coolbuster.net

“Dahil alam ko may nahuli kaming dalawang colorum plying the route of Urdaneta –Dagupan last week. I don’t know if that trigger this ban,” he stressed with reporters.

Ocampo cited that the two vans they flagged down were part of the 40 vans illegally plying this city and Urdaneta City.

He cited that they do not even have a terminal here.

Ocampo smarted to reporters when LTO Regional Director Teofilo Guadiz III declared in a television interview that he and members of the POSO were not deputized by his office as LTO agents.

“The truth of the matter I am deputized by the LTO. The proof of which is my I.D bearing my name. At the back of my I.D are the signature and the printed name of Attorney Teofilo Guadiz III. I think this is enough to prove that I am a deputized agent of the LTO”.

Mindanao Martial Law 101 for Ordinary Juans

                              

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

What happens after President Rodrigo R. Duterte declared at 10 pm last Tuesday Martial Law in the whole of Mindanao and its islands?

Would Duterte’s pet peeve ABS CBN TV Network, the critical Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the irritating online newsmagazine Rappler.com be banned to circulate their news, that regularly assailed the president, in the islands?

Would teenagers sporting long hair, just like those rock singers, and beard and those caught in the curfew roaming after 10 o’clock in the evening and the wee hours automatically arrested and locked up just like what Dictator Ferdinand Marcos had done in the early and middle of 1970s after he declared Martial Law in September 23, 1972?

Would this scenario I heard when I was a wide eyed child in Cotabato happened? 


This after Muslim Black Shirts’ rebels (predecessor of the Moro National Liberation Front) massacred an entire Catholic Church’s parishioners, members of the military and the dreaded Ilaga (Christian extremist paramilitary composed mostly of Ilonggos), who want to retaliate tit-for-tat the carnage, flagged every passenger of plying buses, mini-buses, and public utility jeeps and body frisked and searched their belongings for any hidden firearm and asked them the incriminatory question:

Ano ang tribu mo (What’s your tribe)?

Here were the following answers of the passengers;

Passenger A: Ilonggo ako (with a real Ilonggo accent and he was given the safety exit).

Passenger B: Cebuano ako (with a real Cebuano accent and he was given safety exit).

Passenger C: Ilocano ako (with a real Ilocano accent and he was given the safety exit).

Passenger D: Tagalog ako (with a real Tagalog accent and he was given the safety exit).

Passenger E: (A Muslim, whose name if I was not wrong was Datu Udtog Ramanam Amin, who was trembling at the rear seat of the bus retorted to the intimidating query): Tagalog ako (with a thick Muslim accent that betrays him) and he was pumped with a bullet on the head.
The same scenarios ensued in other places in Mindanao.

SEARCH FOR 70 YEARS OLD DAGUPEÑO: PLATINUM LAKI/BAI

Brigade Eskwela, bakit?

Ni KITZ BASILA

NAKAPAGTATAKA na pilit isinasali ang mga magulang at mag-aaral na pati ang paghingi ng awa ay kasangkapan ang paglahok daw para ayusin ang mga silid-aralan at kapaligiran ng paaralan sa pampublikong eskwelahan.

Sa tuwing kalagitnaan ng Mayo, ariba ang bayanihan daw na tinawag na Brigada Eskwela. Ang naumpisahan na sama-samang pagkumpuni sa mga sira-sirang upuan, pintuan, bintana, bubong at pati bakod ng mga paaralan.

Ang nakapagtataka ay kung bakit ang mga ganitong pangangailangan ay pilit na ipinapasan sa mga magulang ng mga mag-aaral. Kahit pa ang mistulang pulubi na paghingi sa may mga mabubuting-loob daw ay kinakana.

Ang tanong, di nga ba’t sandamakmak na salapi ang laan na pondo ng ahensiya para tugunan ang mga iba’t-ibang bayarin, obligasyon, at pati kaliit-liitang gastusin ng paaralan?

SUMMER FUN IN DAGUPAN !

Experience adrenaline rush this summer! Bring your barkadas or family to Tondaligan Blue Beach from May 27 to 29.

Hardship looms for politicos, cops as Rody wages war on "Jueteng"

 By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

When I and my co radio host dropped by recently at the mess hall of a police station of a first class town in Pangasinan, the policemen there were eating silently their lunch composed of sinigang na pork and fried galungung.

WAR ON GAMBLING: Philippine Charity Sweepstakes' Small Town Lottery

 (STL) gets more territories from Atong Ang's jueteng liked game's 
Jai-Alai.PHOTO CREDIT: ABS-CBN

Since time immemorial, these viands and their equivalents are available for FREE from breakfast to supper in the more than one hundred police personnel in this town alone.

Thanks to gambling in the province where a percentage share to the chief of police and the mayor include also the free meals and even operational funds of the financially hard up cops.

Pangasinan, a mammoth province, has 44 towns and 4 cities’ police stations.
But  President Rodrigo Duterte signed on February 2 this year Executive Order (EO) No. 13 which seeks to "intensify" the government's fight against illegal gambling.

In case the Department of Justice succeed in stopping the Meridiane Vista Gaming Corporation (MVGC) - a jueteng like number gambling game – these free meals for the police – whose lower ranked received  a government salary of P21,000 a month and its highest ranked a Superintendent, equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel in the military, got more than a hundred fifty thousand that includes his monthly salary and monthly share from gambling - would come to an end.

Can the determined Chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz and General Manager Alexander Balutan, both PMYer, of the Philippine Charity Sweepstake Office (PCSO) and the gung-ho Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aquirre stop Atong Ang’s MVGC in controlling the ten billion pesos a year number games in the country that did not pay a tax to the Bureau of Internal Revenue?

Foreign Affairs Sec. Cayetano Attends Department's Flag Raising Ceremony

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano attends the department's flag raising ceremony for the first time since the confirmation of his appointment. 
The former senator vows to spearhead efforts to prioritize OFWs' welfare and protection, as well as to uphold the President's independent foreign policy.#

BoC, DoF release rules to lock-up without bail smugglers

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – Smugglers of agricultural products beware!

The Bureau of Customs and the Department of Finance have released recently the Customs Administrative Order (CAO) No. 2-2017 that empowers the government to sue smugglers of agricultural products and incarcerate them without  the benefit of bail based on the certain amount as provided by law.

NO TO SMUGGLING. Officials of the pro-farmers group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura

 lead by SINAG Chairman Rosendo So (third from left) make a thumb down sign against the 

unabated smuggling of agricultural products in the Philippines in one of the group meetings

 in Manila.

The Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016, where the CAO was based, cited that a penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of twice the fair value of the smuggled agricultural product and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other charges avoided shall be imposed on any person who commits any of the acts enumerated under Section 3 of the Act.

 Section 3 cited the crime of large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage, involving sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish, and cruciferous vegetables, in its raw state, or which have undergone the simple processes of preparation or preservation for the market, with a minimum amount of one million pesos, or rice, with a minimum amount of ten million pesos, as valued by the Bureau of Custom.

The CAO will take effect within 15 days from publication at the Official Gazzette or a newspaper of national circulation.

NCCSP, TRANSPORT GROUPS UP IN ARMS AGAINST COLORUM VEHICLES

 DAGUPAN CITY – The National Center for Commuters Safety and Protection (NCCSP) and various transport groups in the city are supporting the city’s campaign against colorum vehicles that are entering the city.

A utulity vehicle (UV) Express van bound for Dagupan
passes through a checkpoint in Kennon Road. Photo
Credit: Sun Star

They voiced their support in a meeting facilitated by the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) and the Committee on Laws, Ordinances and Judiciary and the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities of the Sangguniang Panlungsod chaired by City Councilors Jose Netu Tamayo and Alvin Coquia, respectively, on May 17 at the city museum.

The meeting tackled the reported rise of colorum vehicles now plying the city streets.

POSO chief retired SPO4 Carlito Ocampo reported that only last week his office apprehended 50 suspected colorum vans that have no official or designated terminals in the city.

NCCSP president Elvira Medina deplored the operations of colorum vehicles as they operate illegally to the detriment of the riding public who are sometime exposed to holdups and rape, on top of their unsecured rights during accidents and other offenses such as driving with an expired driver’s license, tampered license plate, out of line or wrong route, among others.

Calasiao cop cites 92% of villages are still narc free

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – The police still maintain that ninety two percent of this 24 villages' town are still free of narcotics despite the suspension of Oplan Tokhang or Oplan Plea by authority for drug users to surrender.

Police Superintendent Charlie Umayam said that it is still the status quo based on the percentage on the drug monitoring done by the police here before the suspension of Tokhang in January this year.

BRIGADA. Policemen of Calasiao, Pangasinan lead by its Chief of Police Superintendent Charlie

 Umayam (6^th from left) pose for posterity with public school teachers of San Vicente Elementary

 School in Brgy San Vicente, Calasiao, Pangasinan in connection with the ongoing school activities

 dubbed as "Brigada Eskwela 2017.

“Ninety two percent drug’s free noon, the same pa rin. Meron three barangays nakini-clear natin. Nandoon pa iyon. Drug pushers hinde pa namin nakita. Hinde pa nagsu-surrender dito,” he stressed.

Oplan Tokhang is a concocted Visayan word which means Tok-tok and Hangyo where police personnel knock the doors of a suspected drug user or pusher, asking him or her that he or she will surrender to the police in order that he or she will be monitored and assessed about his or her status. 

Alan Says 'Thank You' to Senate Colleagues

 Wednesday (May 17) - Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on his last day as senator delivered a valedictory address thanking his colleagues following the confirmation of his appointment as the next Foreign Affairs Secretary.

The Commission on Appointments (CA) voted to approve the confirmation of Cayetano’s post after what members deemed to be “the shortest confirmation hearing of a Cabinet Secretary.”

Cayetano then took the floor during session one last time and thanked his fellow senators, as he sought their continuous support in helping the administration fulfill its promise of change.

“I have to say thank you, my colleagues, because I’m a better person – a better debater, a better legislator, a better policymaker – and hopefully, a good diplomat, because we have been working together… working for each other,” he said.