NEW PATROL CARS FOR DAGUPAN

NEW PATROL CARS FOR DCPS – Three newly purchased Toyota Vios patrol cars were turned over by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez (3^rd from left) to the Dagupan City Police Station (DCPS) through the city’s Chief of Police P/Supt. Christopher N. Abrahano (left). The patrol cars were purchased by the city in preparation to the massive information drive and campaign on instilling discipline in the city through the enforcement of the city’s standing ordinances especially on curfew hours. (CIO photo by Jojo Tamayo)

3 “Colonels” eye as top cop of Dagupan

Fanged, Candelario, Sacyat, names being floated

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SAN FERNANDO CITY – Three police superintendents are eyed to replace the present chief of police of Dagupan City.

Supt. Jeffrey Fanged

According to a high ranking police source, who asked anonymity, Superintendents Jeffrey Fanged, Roland Sacyat, and Jackie Candelario are the primary candidates to be the police chief of the premier city in Region 1.

 The rank of Superintendent is equivalent to a Lieutenant Colonel in the military.

Fanged and Candelario are batchmates at Class 1999 of the Philippine National Police Academy while Sacyat is member of PNPA Class 2000.

“Among the three, two of the strong contenders for the post in Dagupan  would be Fanged and Sacyat,” the source cited.

Fanged is presently assigned as the chief of police (COP) of Urdaneta City, while Candelario and Sacyat are posted as the Deputy Provincial Director on Operation at the Police Provincial Office in Lingayen, Pangasinan and COP of Malasiqui, Pangasinan, respectively.

The source said that Dagupan City’s COP Superintendent Christopher Abrahano would be leaving anytime from now for his career advancement study in Laguna and Camp Crame, Quezon City.

Supt. Jackie Candelario

“He will be taking in Camp Crame his OSEC (Officer Senior Executive Course), the equivalent of the General Staff College (course) in the military, his last requirement for his promotion for full colonel in 2018 or 2019,” the source cited.

OCD: ‘Pangasinan DRRMC is excellent, resilient, self-reliant’

In the DRRM Caravan for Media and Information Officers last June 1 at the Dagupan Village Hotel in Dagupan City, Director Melchito Castro of OCD-Region 1 said that the council is abreast in providing intervention every time a calamity hits the province.

“If a disaster is about to hit the province, I call and ask them if they need help. PDRRMC tell us that they can manage, so that means they are very resilient and self-reliant. They will request for help when they can’t handle it themselves but as of now, they have everything under control. The PDRRMC is excellent,” said Castro.

Elated of the praise for the council, PDRRMC Chief Col. Rodhyn Luchinvar O. Oro stressed that the team’s exemplary performance has been possible through the leadership of the outgoing Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr., who has reshaped the council and its Operations Center with continuous upgrade of equipment and training of its personnel to embody its motto “Well prepared, best equipped and highly responsive PDRRMO”.

Oro pointed out that the incoming fifth district representative’s greatest legacy in his 9-year steering the council that they will carry on is his seeing disaster preparedness and response is not just to save lives but to protect properties as well, thus sustaining resiliency before and after the calamities.

He is also optimistic that such support for the council will be sustained by Governor-elect Amado “Pogi” I. Espino, III, who, as the Liga ng Mga Barangay president, has always been lending hands to strengthen the grassroots disaster response and rescue teams as well as visiting field operations himself.

“The Japan Economic Cooperative Agency-funded GeoCloud Geographic Information Sharing, a pioneering infrastructure that will empower participating local government units in the province to coordinate response, and execute roles and responsibilities of various agencies from their DRRM plans, will be realized by the time Gov. Pogi takes over the reins of the council,” Oro bared.

PDRRMO Spokesperson Avenix Arenas also in a separate interview emphasized that the council just strictly implemented Republic Act No. 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act which calls for full exhaustion of resources before asking for relief aid from the upper management.

The caravan aims to foster stronger link between the Regional DRRM Council and the media and bridge gaps of information dissemination especially during disasters.

About 50 information officers from local government units and local government agencies and members of the media in the province attended the event.

Speakers at the lecture/forum were representatives from the four core agencies of the National DRRM Council: Imelda Acosta from OCD-R1, Rhodalyn Licudine from Department of Interior and Local Government, Maricel Caleja from Department of Social Welfare and Development, Ines Meneses from the National Economic and Development Authority.

Also tapped as lecturers were: OCD-R1 Operations Chief Mike Sabado, Philippine Information Agency-Pangasinan Manager Venus May Sarmiento and Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomy Services Administration-Pangasinan Bureau Chief Gregorio de Vera II.

/Rex Marion C. Laguerta

Dagupan’s PESO rescues another Dagupeña OFW

DAGUPAN CITY – Fevelyn Rivo of Bonuan Binloc is back with her family after her repatriation from Abu Dhabi with the help of OFW Desk of the Dagupan Public Employment Service Office (PESO).

Rivo reportedly suffered injustice and maltreatment from her employer in Abu Dhabi during the time she was there for only three months.

“There was even a time when I was not paid my one month salary for a simple misdemeanor, aside from getting physical punishment from my employer,” said Rivo.

Through the intervention of the PESO and the OFW Desk at the City Assistance Service Team in partnership with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Rivo was back home last week and was reunited with her husband Dante and their children.

Dante sought the assistance of Mayor Belen T. Fernandez when the latter was visiting Bonuan Binloc. He brought to the attention of the mayor the sad plight of his wife Fevelyn.

Mayor Fernandez immediately directed Joy Siapno, head of the PESO and OFW Desk, to coordinate with various concerned government agencies about Rivo's predicament and after several weeks, she was home.

Last year, the city appointed PESO focal persons in the barangays to help the city address the problem of unemployment and assist troubled OFWs in their areas.

P'nan leaders unite under Duterte's Admin

Following the call for unity by President-Elect Rodrigo R. Duterte, local leaders of Pangasinan's 4th District headed by Congressman Toff de Venecia support the exhortation.
 "While we remain active members of our respective political parties, we are looking past party affiliations for the progress of our constituents and fellow Filipinos, " said by Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez.
From left: San Jacinto Mayor Bert de Vera, Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe Parayno, Rep,de Venecia,
Mayor Fernandez, Manaoag Mayor Kim Amado, and San Fabian Mayor Danny Agbayani.

DENR determines legality of fish pens – Dagupan Mayor

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN CITY – The dozens of fish pens here that were objects of criticism from some quarters are disputable titled properties that only a national government body can determine whether they can be demolished or not.

A resident of Masinloc, Zambales excitedly holds the arm of  Dagupan City Mayor Belen 

Fernandez. She was overjoyed to

 meet the mayor she and other residents there saw only on national television broadcast

 from  Dagupan City.

Fishermen, tricycle drivers, and sales ladies  in Infanta, Pangasinan and Sta. Cruz and 

Masinloc, Zambales immediately recognized and warmly greeted the mayor 
when they saw her.

Mayor Fernandez would be going in the middle of June to the United 

Nations in New York City as resource speaker on environment of the United
 Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

These were the recent positions of this city’s mayor Belen Fernandez and Legal Officer George Mejia who is a former judge.

Both said in a recent meeting here that the Department of Environment & Natural Resource has the say if those lands are legal or illegal.

According to City Agriculturist Officer Emma Molina there are more or less 80 fish pens that were built on the Calmay River.

Molina said these owners emphatically argued that their fish pens have been built on the lands that were submerged by the river.

Mayor Fernandez cited that the personnel of Bantay Ilog could not just demolish these structures since there are legal procedures that should be followed.

She cited that upon assumption of office in 2013, there were 351 fish structures that sprouted in the previous Lim Administration that her administration demolished as they were not only nuisance but hampered the water way.

The mayor, who was just reelected for her second term, disclosed that those poquet, balikwas, skylab, surewin, skyblue, fish cage, oyster bed, oyster raft, and others that can  be seen near the river banks that surround the island barangays of Pugaro, Salapingao, Calmay-Carael, and Tanap-Dawel- are 90 percent owned by the people there who depended on them for their survival.

“Iyong mga maliliit, bakit aalisin? Libo iyan mga walang hanapbuhay iyan mamatay pag walang makain. Sabi ko pagandahin ko ang ilog para ano? Siyempre may justification,” she sentimentally rebutted the critics who wanted that these bamboo structures be pulled out as they were eyesores.

In the meeting here attended by Fernandez, members of Bantay Ilog, and some of the department heads of the local government here, Molina said that these structures did not help poison the river as their nets are floating.

Legarda calls for more aggressive climate action on 10th Year of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

 

Senator Loren Legarda renewed her call for more aggressive action to address the climate crisis during the 10^th anniversary of An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary film on Former US Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to educate people about global warming.

Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change, was the keynote speaker at the An Inconvenient Truth anniversary celebration organized by The Climate Reality Project Philippines in Cebu City.

“A lot has changed since that year when An Inconvenient Truth was launched, especially on how we perceive the climate change phenomenon. People now have a better understanding of the climate crisis and how it is linked to our survival. An Inconvenient Truth continues to ignite climate action,” she said.

“The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, which was signed by 175 countries, including the Philippines, proves that we now realize the urgency of taking action to address climate change and mitigate its impacts. But these realization and commitments must be translated into concrete action, mainly through the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” she added.