No murder cases vs coast guards – Vietnam Envoy

After they killed two Vietnamese sea poachers

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SUAL, Pangasinan – Because of  amity and solidarity at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Vietnamese government will not file a criminal case against those men of the Philippine Navy who shot to death two Vietnamese fishermen, Ambassador Ly Quoc Tuan said.

“No, no! I think this is not a case. This is the issue that we came, we talked, we solved between the two countries,” Ly retorted when asked if his government either file murder or homicide against the excessive use of force by the Filipinos.

The envoy was with President Rodrigo Duterte here Wednesday in the ceremonial sent off at the Sual Sea Warf and Causeway Area of the five fishermen caught sea poaching 34 nautical miles off Cape Bolinao in Pangasinan Province.

 Vietnamese Ambassador Ly Quoc Tuan 
Photo by Mortz C. Ortigoza

The case ensued last September 22 when Philippine Navy BRP Miguel Malvan vessel PS19 pursued six Vietnamese ships that were caught at 8:30 pm inflagrante delicto using powerful lights in drawing fish, one of them tried to obstruct and attacked the coast guard ship.

The crew of PS19 opened fire on the men at Vietnamese vessel PY 96173 TS when they intended to ram the front part of the government’s vessel.

The shooting resulted to the death of Le Van Liem and Le Van Reo  and the arrest of Phan Lam, Phan Net, Nguyen Uan Trong, Nguyen Than Chi, and Pham To.

The envoy said the non-filling of the case was part of the cooperation between Vietnam and the Philippines.

He cited that Vietnam did not harm Filipino and Chinese fishermen who intruded on their territorial sea.

“No, no. We do not use force”.

He said that in situation like this his country immediately call the Philippine Embassy in Vietnam to pick up Filipinos detained there so they can return home.

“No, we don’t do the same. We have a lot of Filipino fishermen you know we asked the Embassy of the Philippines in Vietnam to come and to pick and return them home so we have done…”

When asked if poaching like the one in September 22 can be committed again by his compatriots, Ly said that his government has measures laid with their fishermen like not to violate the territorial sea of other countries.  

During the sent off ceremony to Vietnam of the poachers, President Duterte apologized to the death of their two country men.

"I'd like to address our Vietnamese friends. We are one. We are Asians. I'm sorry for the incident. I hope it would never happen again. But this incident will not destroy our bond of relationship -- very strong. We would be willing to talk anytime," Duterte told the ambassador and the five fishermen.


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Vietnamese don’t shoot Filipino Fishermen - EnvoyVietnamese don’t shoot Filipino Fishermen - Envoy

Unlike Filipinos, Vietnamese don’t shoot Pinoy Fishermen

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When the Presidential Management Staff told us media men that President Rodrigo Duterte would visit Sual, Pangasinan at 3 pm today to send off the five Vietnamese sea poachers arrested last September (the other two were shot to death by the cocky men of our Philippine Navy), I told Ruel Camba, newspaper editor and broadcaster, we leave Dagupan City at 10:30 am so we could hobnob with his PR client Sual Mayor Roberto “Bing” Arcinue.

Author pressed flesh with Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Ly Quoc Tuan during the visit  Wednesday of President Rodrigo Duterte in Sual, Pangasinan.

When we arrived at the mayor’s cozy office inside the swanky multi-million pesos huge town hall (the first class coastal town has P311 million annual appropriation funds this year, thanks to the coal power plant that pays P100 million taxes annually), Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Ly Quoc Tuan and his Military Attaché’, that I assumed a colonel despite a three-star on his shoulder board insignias, were exchanging pleasantries with the hizzoner.

Vietnamese don’t shoot Filipino Fishermen - Envoy

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When the Presidential Management Staff told us media men that President Rodrigo Duterte would visit Sual, Pangasinan at 3 pm today to send off the five Vietnamese sea poachers arrested last September (the other two were shot to death by the cocky men of our Philippine Navy), I told Ruel Camba, newspaper editor and broadcaster, we leave Dagupan City at 10:30 am so we could hobnob with his PR client Sual Mayor Roberto “Bing” Arcinue.

Author pressed flesh with Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Ly Quoc Tuan during the visit  Wednesday of President Rodrigo Duterte in Sual, Pangasinan.

When we arrived at the mayor’s cozy office inside the swanky multi-million pesos huge town hall (the first class coastal town has P311 million annual appropriation funds this year, thanks to the coal power plant that pays P100 million taxes annually), Vietnamese Ambassador to the Philippines Ly Quoc Tuan and his Military Attaché’, that I assumed a colonel despite a three-star on his shoulder board insignias, were exchanging pleasantries with the hizzoner.

Dagupan fiesta opens on December 5

DAGUPAN CITY – This year’s city fiesta will formally open on December 5 with the holding of a Grand Opening Parade along the main streets of the city, a street dancing competition, a drum and lyre contest at the city plaza and the lighting of the Christmas Tree in front of the city museum here.

 

Roads will be closed to traffic at 10:00 in the morning to give way to the  parade that  will commence at 2:00 in the afternoon. All the participants are expected to assemble in their assigned assembly areas starting at 12:00 noon.

Epee Rafanan of the 2017 City Fiesta Executive disclosed that at least 14 contingents of street dancers coming from the secondary private and public schools will compete with each other when they march along the streets with their drum and lyre counterparts.

Rafanan said the street dancing competition will take place in the streets while the drum and lyre competition will be held at the city plaza.

With prizes at stake, the participants in the drum and lyre competition include the Umingan National High School, Umingan, Pangasinan; San Jacinto National High School, San Jacinto, Pangasinan; Don Mariano Jimenez Memorial Polytech Institute of Dasol, Pangasinan; Lobong National High School, San Jacinto, Pangasinan; St. Philomena’s Academy, Pozorrubio, Pangasinan; San Felipe Integrated School, San Nicolas; Daniel Maramba National High School, Sta. Barbara; San Nicolas National High School, San Nicolas; Urdaneta National High School, Urdaneta City; Estanza National High School, Lingayen; St. Adelaide School Philippines, Burgos; Zaratan Educational Institute, Aguilar; Dagupan City National High School, Dagupan City; and Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation Drum and Bugle Corps, San Carlos City.

Plaudits Dagupan City, Plaudits Mayor Belen!

 

Sual Mayor Arcinue hails ‘excellent’ ties between SoKor , Ph

SUAL, Pangasinan –The meeting between South Korea President Moon Jae-in and President Rodrigo Duterte during the recent Asean Summit in Manila was a welcome development for the people here, according to Mayor Roberto Arcinue.

TIES - South Korea President Moon Jae-in and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

During his bilateral encounter with President Moon, President Duterte urged South Korea to invest more in the Philippines, particularly in electronics, energy, manufacturing, automotive, agribusiness, and food processing.

President Moon responded by saying the Philippines is “very special” to South Korea.

“I wish to further strengthen our ties with the Philippines, our long-time friend,” Moon said.

Mayor Arcinue said that this cordial and warm relationship between the two leaders should increase the chances for the establishment here of another state-of-the-art coal-fired power plant by a multi-national company from South Korea.

The company intends to invest roughly two-billion United States dollars for the planned power facility that would produce 1,000 megawatts to help address the country’s growing demand for energy.

With the construction of another power plant, hundreds of this first class town residents would be given jobs like the one provided for by the existing Sual Power Station, Arcinue said.

The mayor explained that the municipality has an ordinance requiring investors in Sual to give priority to local residents in hiring workers and office employees.

With the revenues to be collected from the second power plant, the municipal government would be able to pursue more projects like opening of the town hospital, development of an international seaport, construction of more farm-to-market roads and other infrastructure projects, livelihood opportunities for the barangay folk, construction of more classrooms, modernization of agriculture, development of housing project for informal dwellers, and many more, he said.

He said the municipality is expecting to collect hundreds of millions of pesos of real property and business taxes from the new power facility.

“We will also ask the operators of the new power plant to provide continuous power supply to our people in Sual at discounted rates as special privileges for the opportunity to put up their facility in our town,” Arcinue said.

How the Economic Zone catapults Tarlac City

                                                   From pee center to progressive city

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – People in this city should look how an economic zone became a linchpin for the thriving of a once sleepy Tarlac City.

An executive of a multi-billion pesos Japanese firm told here the crowd in the recently held Luzon Ecozone Summit how the presence of industries like Sumitomo International Wiring Systems transformed the once slumbering town Tarlac into a burgeoning city in the early 1990s after Sumitomo put shop at the Luisita Industrial Parks’ Special Export Processing Zone in Barangay San Miguel.

 The privately owned Park’s hosted corporations like URC, Centro Techno Park, Philippine Long Distance Telephone, and others.

BOOM - Someday Dagupan City would have edifices just like at Clark Special Economic Zone in Pampanga. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority just approved the Lucao - Pantal Tourism and Growth Center (LPTGC) in the Bangus City . Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez said that after the approval of the city as economic zone, she sees 5,000 direct jobs in three years from graduates of its universities and colleges would be working at the Information Technology - Business Process Management that service the global market.

Before it became a city in April 18, 1998, Tarlac, because of its backwardness, was mocked as a pee center of commuters and motorists that ply the long butt hurting ride Manila –Baguio City – Ilocos Highway.

Daley Dan Pasion, representative of Sumitomo, would probably not agree now on that human nature’s relieving tag. He said the award winning Japanese firm started amid the Asian Currency Crisis in 1991 with 6,000 workers mostly assembling cars’ wiring harness around the world for Toyota, Honda, Mazda and vehicles like Kawasaki.

“Without us the vehicles would not switch and run,” he quipped.

He said 90% of its employees based on its plant in San Miguel are high school graduates.

He cited that 6,000 workers multiplied by five in a nuclear family means 30,000 probable consumers in the market.

“Because of us, Tarlac first saw its first McDonald,” he told the crowd here led by this City's Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, whose family is also the franchisee of the same American food chains.

Tarlac is a first class component city in Region 3 with a land area of 274.660000 kilometer.

Other business firms that sprouted like mushrooms in and out of the Industrial Zone are Pancake House, Jollibee, Starbucks, Max Restaurant, Pizza Hut, Robinsons, SM, and others.

Presently, the award winning Japanese and Filipino consortium has 23,000 employees all over Eastern and Central Luzon.

It was established in the Philippines by Filipino trader J.V del Rosario in partnership with Sumitomo Wiring Systems, Ltd. and Sakata Inx Corporation (now Siix Corporation) of Japan.

It is not surprising that the local government unit of Tarlac City beats this city with its P1.2 billion annual appropriation budget in 2016 versus this city’s P768 million on the same year. The spike of Tarlac’s local government budget was due to the revenues of the real property taxes from constructions of floors of business establishment and the business taxes paid by investors in and outside the economic zones. 

Tarlac’s life blood is also fed by a growing population of 342,493 (2015 Census) while this 1947 founded city has only 171,271 people (2015 Census).

Pasion said the company is labor intensive and the Japanese investors are awed by the fast comprehension of Filipino trainees on the nuances of the assembly work.

“In one month we could train these workers while it takes several months with their contemporaries in Cambodia and Mexico because they cannot comprehend the instructions given to them.”

He cited that the comparative advantage of the Filipino high school graduates was skill they got from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and literacy in speaking and writing English.

Thanks to the American colonization the U.S style educational system where English is given importance with national language Filipino as mandated by law.

“Our workers are 37 years old average and we have only 1% turnover or those who leave the job,” he said.

Pay in the industrial zone according to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority Law is equivalent to those at the Clark Special Economic Zone and Subic Bay Freeport Zone which are higher than the prevailing mandated minimum wage in the Philippines.

Former Tarlac City Administrator Vladimir Mata, a former administrator of the LGU here, said the revenues of Tarlac City were still underrated.

“Actually underperforming iyan. They have 76 barangays and a lot bigger in terms of population.

I was working to increase it (revenues) by at least one- third when I was administrator there”.

He cited this city is a lot better on registering businesses than in Tarlac.

 “Dagupan has around 5000 plus businesses. Tarlac City has almost the same number. When I went around, I sense I can double the number of establishments. Maraming hindi registrado kasi”.

Pasion said what made the Philippines attractive to foreign investor was because of the availability of trained workers, abundance of high school graduates with values that can easily be honed, the industrial peace inside the zone, no rebels and terrorists that threatened the investors and the expatriates there.

“That’s internal stability and it’s good for investment. This is BBL or Build Better Lives (BBL),” a play of words by Pasion who probably refers to the elusive Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in Mindanao that deters investors to go there.

 (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)