Thursday, April 16, 2020

DPWH brass will not pay shoddy work



Mortz C. Ortigoza
STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan – Unlike other District Engineers (D.E) of the Department of Public Works & Highway, the D.E here will not pay contractor for a substandard infrastructure work.

4th Engineering Office's D.E Simplicio D. Gonzales said he will ask the contractor to repeat his shoddy work.

“Blame ko diyan contractor. Hindi ko babayaran iyan!” he stressed to this newspaper.

Gonzales cited those he will withhold payments are the one who built newly constructed highway with cracks on their pavements.

Components of Road Structure | Functions and Construction Methods ...
Components of Road Structure. Photo Credit: Google.com

The Declaration of Gonzales cropped up when some DPWH district offices allowed contractors to apply asphalt or epoxy to cover the gap caused by the cracks of their newly constructed highways.

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Pangasinan records 12 COVID-19 recoveries, 12 others still confined

Medical facilities in Pangasinan succeed in producing more COVID-19 recoveries. There are 12 recoveries as of today, April 15, of whom three were discharged from the provincial government- run Pangasinan Provincial Hospital (PPH) in Bolingit, San Carlos City.  
Of the 33 COVID-19 patients in Pangasinan, 12 are still confined in private and public medical facilities. It was last April 9, or six days ago, when the ninth and last fatality was recorded. 
As of April 15, 2020 (7PM) COVID-19 MONITORING REPORT IN PANGASINAN
The 12 recoveries are from the following localities: Malasiqui (2), Pozorrubio (1), Bayambang (1), Rosales (1), Urdaneta City (1), Bugallon (1), Infanta (1), Asingan (1), Sto. Tomas (1), and Dagupan City (2).
With 12 COVID-19 recoveries today, Governor Amado I. Espino III calls on the people of Pangasinan not to be complacent, reminding all to stay in their houses and to adopt health safety precautions to prevent them from contracting or transmitting the disease.

Trak-trak na bigas, hatid ni Cong, de Venecia sa kanyang mga kabaleyan



Nagbigay kahapon si Congressman Christopher de Venecia ng tatlong daang sako ng bigas (300 sacks of rice) sa Dagupan City bilang tulong niya sa relief operation ng siyudad para sa iba’t-ibang barangay.
300 SACKS of rice given by Congressman Toff de Venecia to administration of Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim for the needs of his constituents.
Nagkakahalaga ng P600,000 ang ibinigay ni De Venecia mula sa personal nitong pondo.

Monday, April 13, 2020

San Carlos City huge budget due to share from nat’l gov’t



By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SAN CARLOS CITY – Because of its huge population this city has an annual appropriation budget (AAB) of more than eight hundred million pesos this year.
Mayor Julier "Ayoy" Resuello said that this local government unit chalked up most of the AAB from the national coffer because of its huge population, after this newspaper told him that his city competes with the annual appropriation budget of the two Pangasinan cities’ Urdaneta and Alaminos.
“Mas malaki kaya lang mas maraming local income si Alaminos City because sa tourism spot niya, e”.
 BIG CITY. 84 villages' San Carlos City, Pangasinan Mayor Julier "Ayoy" Resuello (right) after his interview at his office by the author.
Among the four cities in Pangasinan, Dagupan City, the commercial hub of Region-1, had hit the one billion pesos AAB under the mayorship of Belen T. Fernandez in 2019.

My Encounter With A Lady Ghost




 By Mortz C. Ortigoza


This story is not about an American preacher in a village in the Philippines asking his congregation who are mostly peasants “Who among them have sex with a ghost?”

The preacher, whose intention was to jest, was surprised when a farmer in his early 20s stood to affirm he had copulation with the object.

 “Really, you had sex with a ghost or spelled G-H-O-S-T?” the stunned preacher asked.

The peasant immediately apologized to the pastor that it was not a G-H-O-S-T he had sex for countless of times but a G-O-A-T.

“Unfortunately that stocky female goat, er, doe had been butchered when Mortz Ortigoza arrived here in the town last March 13 and could not go back to Luzon because of the locked down because of the Corona Virus  Disease-19,” he said embarrassed.  

Son of a gun, I remembered the classic case Hustler Magazine and Larry C. Flynt, Petitioners v. Jerry Falwel  where smut Hustler Magazine publisher Flynt sued by Southern Baptist Reverend Falwel.

Hustler magazine featured in a parody the first sexual encounter, an incestuous rendezvous, of the Reverend to his mother in the family outhouse while they were both "drunk off our God-fearing asses on Campari."
The White Lady Ghost: An International Phenomenon
A white clad lady ghost.

That criminal and civil cases became a hall mark jurisprudence on press freedom, when the U.S Supreme Court held that the First and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit public figures from recovering damages for the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED), if the emotional distress was caused by a caricature, parody, or satire of the public figure that a reasonable person would not have interpreted as factual.

Friday, April 10, 2020

Warning on dependency to imported rice haunts Filipinos


                                   LIMITED RICE COULD REEL IMPORTERS

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

M’LANG, Cotabato – A former executive of the Department of Agriculture told this writer the warning of former D.A Secretary Manny Piñol that the government should not rely on imported rice to feed its people start to haunt Filipinos.
Former Executive Assistant Ferdinand “Bobong” Piñol said that after Vietnam suspended her exportation of rice because of the dreaded Corona Virus Disease-19 (CONVID-19) pandemic, Cambodia and India stopped selling rice overseas because they were hampered by the lockdowns.
Due to the pressing demand, Thailand spiked the 5% broken white staple per ton to U. S $560 to $570, the highest in its inventory since April 2013, based on the news report of Business Recorder sent to this writer by  Piñol.

Ban on rice import still in place to boost production: Tanzanian ...
Sacks of rice ready for export to other countries. The Philippines is the biggest rice importer globally. Photo Credit: Devdiscourse
“The situation in Vietnam, India, and Cambodia have us prepared for the unexpected, so Thai rice prices are going up and up," the news report cited.

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Over - Sex Ang Pinoy Dahil sa Quarantine


By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Sabi ko na nga tama iyong kumentaryo ko sa radio at sa social media na isang social problem na maging bunga nitong maghalos isang buwan na na lock down at quarantine kontra sa deadly Novel Corona Virus Disease – 19 (COVID-19) ay ang pagsabog uli ng mala rabbit nating population.

109,581,078 na po tayo ngayong year 2020 ayon sa United Nations.

Alam ito ni Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. Kaya noong namudmud siya kasama ang mga kawani ng Davao City Hall ay kasama na doon sa relief goods ang mga di mabiliang na condom.

Ayon sa newsreport kamakailan ng Super Radyo Davao, nanawagan si mayora na habang naka home quarantine ang mga mag asawa at mag partner ay huwag mag pa sobra (siyempre sa sex hihihi - author) at mag obserba ng family planning.

Natawa naman ako kasi iyong pinsan kung maganda na si Sachious ay nag comment sa Facebook sa Bisaya doon sa post ng Super Radyo:
“Bright jud ang taga Davao City sa safety first. Mayor Inday candles pud para sa mga single”.
What You Should Know About Having Sex During Pregnancy — Sex And ...

Naintindihan kung bright iyong mga taga Davao City, pero iyong candles sa mga walang asawa hindi ko makita ang kuneksiyon sa birth control.
 Anyway, patuloy ninyo pong basahin ang sentiment ko.
Sa panayam sa akin ni T-Radio Mindanao 88.1 News FM.anchorman James Paciete sinabi ko na na ang enhanced community quarantine, police and military checkpoints, at lockdown ay nanganganak ng ibat ibang social problems sa Pilipinas.

Ito ay nagtutulak sa mga Pilipino na magnakaw, manghold up, at kung kinakailangan ay pumatay para lang makuha ang pag aari ng kapwa Filipino.
“Kaya ang tawag diyan sa batas ay Robbery Resulting to Homicide kasi ang intensiyon ay nakawan ang kapwa pero dahil umalma siya ay pinatay ng kawatan,” ani ko sa ilonggo sa aking “bunker sa Cotabato Province habang naka phone patch si James sa akin sa kanyang 4 to 5 P.M radio program sa Surallah South Cotabato.

Pero kaninang umaga pag gising ko sa malaking bahay na ang dingding ay gawa sa sulanggi (sliced bamboo), nakita ko ang isang lampooned video na kung saan ang isang radio announcer ay pinaunlakan na manawagan ang isang umiiyak na maganda at batang ginang sa kay President Rodrigo Duterte dahil sa quarantine.
“Kay Mister President ako po’y magtatanong lang. Kailan po matatapos iyon hong quarantine? Masasakit na kasi ang ang p*ki ko sa kaka *yot ng asawa ko huhuhu!”

Oo nga ano, ani ko. Hindi lang theft, robbery, at homicide ang social problems na naidudulot nitong phantom killer Corona Virus - 19 kundi ang paglubo ng population natin na na sa kasalukuyan ay nasa halos, Diyos na mahabagin, 110 million na.

Dahil na extend ng April 30, 2020 ang April 14, 2020 lifting ng lock down hindi lang itong inyong lingkod ang hindi na makakauwi sa Dagupan City ng maaga kung hinde dodoble’ or ti triple’ ang manganganak na mga ginang sa buong Pilipinas magbilang tayo mula sa start ng quarantine at lockdown noong March 16 at sa period kung saan ang babae ay mabuntis at manganganak.

***

Hindi maganda ang madami ang population. Compare natin ang Thailand at ang Philippines.

Noong 1975 halos magkapareho lang ang population natin sa kanila dahil sa high fertility rate and the same population living under poverty rate.

Ayon sa United Nations ngayong year 2020 ang Pilipinas ay may 109,581,078 na population at may year 2018 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) na U.S $330,910,000.000 (countryeconomy.com) na kung saan ay lalabas ang $3,020.00 per capita income (PCI) bawat Filipino kung ito ay e divide sa population.

Sa mga mahilig pumunta ng C.R o nagbubulakbol noong college, sa Economics 101 tinuturo po ng professor natin na itong formula na sinasabi ko ay Population divided by GDP equals PCI.

Ang Thailand ay may GDP na $504,928,000, 000 at may 69.80 million population at may PCI na $7,309.

$7,309.00 ng Thailand versus $3,020.00 ng Pilipinas ay ibig sabihin mas marami ang pera ng Thailander sa theoretical na division of wealth through PCI.


***

Remember in 1975 Thailand and the Philippines had roughly the same population, a high population growth rate, a high fertility rate, and the same number of the population living under poverty line.

But because the Thai government, just like the Marcos Administration in the 1970s, aggressively promote family controls for 35 years after 1975, the following results, according to Dr. Nibhon Debavalya, Thailand’s leading population expert, ensued:

* Thailand was able to radically reduce its population growth rate to 0.6 percent while the Philippines inched down to 2.04 percent in the period 1970-2010.

* During the period 1970-2008, Thailand’s GDP per capita grew by 4.4 percent, while the Philippines’ grew by 1.4 percent.

* By 2010, there were 93.6 million Filipinos, or over 20 million more than the 68.1 million Thais. This gap of 25.5 million is the demographic advantage enjoyed by Thailand – one that has made a vast difference in the economic performance and the quality of life of the people in the two countries.

(This resulted to more social services and agriculture subsidies in particular given by the deep pocketed Bangkok government to its population, more chances of employment from the jobs offered by the local and foreign investors – Author)


* By 2010, only 9.6 percent of Thais lived under the national poverty line while 26.4 percent of Filipinos.



How can we uplift the standard of living of the Filipinos?

My Answer: Fight population explosion, change the foreign economic equity on the corporate ownership from 40 percent to 100 percent just like what Vietnam and Singapore had done to attract foreign investors, diversify our overseas foreign workers deployment as the dropped of the prices of oil in many states become an economic menace, and buttress the growth of our local industries like manufacturing and business outsourcing like call centers and medical transcriptionists.

On how to fight population explosion, here’s Debavalya.

“A final decisive factor was the national government’s durable commitment to a comprehensive program that systematically provided information and contraceptives, especially to the poor and in rural areas”.

He said that while non government organizations, such as Meechai’s Population and Community Development Association, were important in educating rural Thais on the different methods of family planning, it was the government that provided access to contraceptives in the grassroots.

Here’s the take of opposition stalwart Albay Congressman Edcel Lagman on the quarantine versus Convid19 and our runaway population:

He urged the national government to continue discharging its mandate of extending free condoms and other contraceptives as the Luzon lockdown will most likely be extended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Lagman, primary author of the Reproductive Health Law under Republic Act No. 10354, said as quoted by Pulitiko the level of “intimacies between couples who are locked down together break the barriers of social distancing” in the midst of the ongoing lockdown to contain the COVID-19 crisis.
(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)