Protester to Sue DPWH at the SC on Its “Illegal” Sea Walls' Project

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The leader of the protesters against the construction of the sea walls in the Lingayen Gulf will sue officials of the Department of Public Works and Highway anytime from now with a temporary restraining order (TRO) at the Supreme Court.

SEAWALLS. The controversial seawalls at a beach in Lingayen, Pangasinan (top photo). Former Lingayen mayor Leopoldo Bataoil (right photo below) and Pangasinan 2^nd District Cong. Mark O. Cojuangco. The latter is the proponent of the seawall to mitigate the perennial flooding in the capital town. Photos grab from the internet.

“Basta ready na kami mag file. May abugado na kami naka ready na sa TRO muna, Writ of Kalikasan, administrative (case) susunod na iyan. TRO doon mo titingnan basis mo. Di pa masabing government project iyan kasi hindi pa na consummate iyong mga requirements,” retired Police Colonel Mariano “Sonny” Verzosa told Northern Watch Newspaper.

Manaoag is True Gateway of P’sinan - Mayor Ming

 AS THE PROVINCE’S TOP TOURISTS DESTINATION

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MANAOAG, Pangasinan – With her more or less 55,000 mostly devotees that flock weekly to the The Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag, the mayor dubbed his town as the ‘true gateway of Pangasinan”.

“We are the No.1 tourists’ destinations in Pangasinan. In fact, hindi naman sa bragging but, we are the true gateway of Pangasinan -- totoo naman,” Mayor Jeremy Agerico Rosario told Northern Watch Newspaper.

MANILA MAYOR Honey Lacuna-Pangan and Manaoag Mayor Jeremy Agerico “Ming” Rosario (5th and 6th from left first row) and their entourage pose in Manaoag, Pangasinan during the forging of the two Chief Executives of the Twinning Agreement on their collaboration that will provide cultural exchanges, opportunities from trade, investment, economic development and economics initiatives.

Last Holy Week, the Mayor expected 165,000 pilgrims, devotees, and penitents that converged here from various parts of the country.

Because of this comparative advantage compared to other towns and cities in drawing people, Rosario looks for other come-ons that will attract these visitors so they can spend their monies here and bolster the employment and economy of the town.

“Real challenge to Manaoaguenos is how we can make them stay longer than usual. The longer they stay the better to Manaoaguenos they’’ spend their money here”.

The 26 villages’ Manaoag has a population of 76,045 (2020 Census) and size of 1,400 square kilometers.

In spite of the few number of small hotels cum inns and the new Manaoag Hotel that is fully booked every weekend, the Mayor said this town needs investors to build more hotels to cater to the burgeoning number of pilgrims.

“Kulang kulang. We are open to investors. In fact, marami na ang kumakatok and even the Guanzon Group ay naka-avail na ng lot. Hotel din o Pedritos (a chain of restaurant owned by Guanzon)”.

He said this first class land locked town needs hundreds if not thousands of rooms to accommodate the swelling number of tourists.

Meanwhile, the local government units (LGU) of this town and the country’s capital Manila forge a Twinning Agreement.

The collaboration will provide cultural exchanges, opportunities from trade, investment, economic development and economics initiatives.

It was culminated when this pilgrimage town’s Mayor Rosario and the members of the Sangguniang Bayan (lawmaking body) met recently here with Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan and the members of her lawmaking body led by Vice Mayor Yul Servo Nieto.

Mayors Rosario and Lacuna-Pangan and Rosario’s spouse’ Twiggy are medical doctors.

Rice Retailers Not Patriots -- They Wouldn’t Sell at a Loss

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I could not fathom Grains Retailers Confederation of the Philippines (GRECON) President James Magbanua exhorting rice retailers in the country to sell at losses for one week their regular and well-milled staple before they finalize their stance against the national government.

According to Executive Order 39 (Imposition of Price Ceilings on Rice) signed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., published in a newspaper of national circulation and took effect last September 5, rice retailers should sell the two kinds of staple at lower prices. Regular and well-milled at P41 and P45, respectively, per kilo each.

Photo credit: Bombo Radyo

According to GRECON spokesman Orly Manuntag, these retailers bought each of these brands at P46 and P50 a kilo and forced to sell each at a loss of P5.

During the consultation with the government, Manuntag said a retailer will lose at least P49,000 in just one week of the implementation of the price cap.

***

I would not buy the idea that these businessmen would allow themselves to financially bleed for one week in the name of patriotism at a cost of P49,000. Susmariosep! There is no Love of Country for the Filipino traders to be altruistic. We are not fighting in a war against the greedy and bully China that the P49,000 is each of their contribution to the war effort.

 These businessmen saw themselves fighting a negligent inutile government against hoarders, profiteers, cartels, and what have you who thumb their noses to the law enforcers. They see a government that arbitrarily impose these price caps in their throat because it failed to neutralize these malefactors who exploit the spike of prices of rice in the international market and the lean season in the national market.

This is a fight, these small bizmen saw, about a government whose President promised to all and sundry in the May 2022 election for their votes that in case he was elected in the highest office of the Flipland, err, Filipino Land the price of the staple would plunge to P20 a kilo. But instead the price goes south tragically that earned him the wrath and ridicule of his constituents.

Every one of these rice traders would either close their store or stall or hide their regular and well-milled rice instead of losing that P49,000 for the week's grace period GRECON has posits. Only the air is free in this forsaken country, son of a gun!.

***

The brouhaha brought by E.O 39 even cost the job of a highly respected Department of Finance (DoF) Undersecretary Cielo Magno. Magno - a Professor of the University of the Philippines School of Economics (UPSE) loaned to DoF - was sacked recently by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin after posting a statement at Facebook: “Since the commodity is priced below the economically sensible level—or cheaper than it should be—more people want it, such that some buyers will find it sold out because of increased demand”.

Magno made an added comment on the price ceiling graph: “I miss teaching..(emoji of a classroom teacher).”

That post even elicited comment from Karl Chua the young former National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Chief in the last part of the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“[You] can teach it in [the] Cabinet,” Chua said.

***

This where I differed with Magno. As a former Economics college Prof myself, her statement that the supply of cheap rice would immediately be sold out as more buyers patronized it could be wrong. Panicking buyers could not deplete it because the profit motivated sellers beat them in a draw by hiding the staple in their bodega or stockroom instead of selling it at a loss.

The Facebook comment was probably the last straw that broke the camel’s back on the part of the Palace after Magno – a straight shooter-, crossed path with powerful personalities in the government when she proposed to impose more taxes on the mining industry.

Jaybee Garganera, national coordinator of anti-mining coalition Alyansa Tigil Mina found her resignation unsurprising as Magno was outspoken advocates on transparency and good governance. For one, her advocacy for an increase taxes on mining corporations was clearly inconsistent with the agenda of House of Representatives Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Speaker Romualdez – a cousin of the President - is tied to the mining industry. He is son of the late Benjamin Romualdez - the younger bro of the Super Maam Imeldefic -, former president and chief executive officer of copper and gold mining behemoth Benguet Corp.

Romualdez is a board of director of nickel mining firm Marcventures Holdings. The Speaker set up too a mining subsidiary last year worth US$2.7 million.

Among Marcos Jr’s staunchest political allies with high stakes in the mining sector are Senator Cynthia Villar, chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, her son Senator Mark Villar, owner of Prime Asset Ventures Inc, the parent company of TVI Resources Development Phils. Inc., which produces nickel. Senator Sherwin Gatchalian whose family-owned Wellex Group whose mining subsidiary extracts nickel and limestone in the country.

 

𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗼 𝘁𝗼 Ink 𝗠𝗢𝗨 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝗢𝗛-𝗖𝗛𝗗𝟭

 

 FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) on its regular session on recently, approved a resolution authorizing Governor Ramon V. Guico, III to enter into and sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Health (DOH)-Center for Health Development (CHD) 1 for the implementation of the 2023 Healthy Settings Program for Healthy Communities.

Sponsored by SP Member Shiela Marie F. Baniqued, the resolution stated that “in the implementation of the program, it is the objective of the Province of Pangasinan and the Department of Health to further improve and sustain an efficient and effective health care delivery system in the Province through health promotion initiatives designed to ensure that the environments wherein individuals live, learn and work are promotive and protective of health.”

As the content of the resolution, there are various minimum components which the law mandates in local health systems. They are primary care provider network with patient records accessible throughout the health system; accurate, sensitive, and timely epidemiologic surveillance systems; and proactive and effective health promotion programs and campaigns.

“Section 30 of Universal Health Care Act Implementing Rules and Regulations provides that local government units, guided by the Health Promotion Framework Strategy, shall issue and implement effective health promotion policies and programs that promote health literacy and healthy lifestyle among their constituents, prevent and control diseases and their risk factors to advance population health and individual well-being,” the resolution likewise stated.

RA 11223 or the Universal Health Care of 2019 mandates the implementation of health reform program that will ensure that every Filipino is guaranteed an equitable access to quality and affordable healthcare services and is protected against financial risks. (Ruby R. Bernardino/Pangasinan PIO)

Mayor J.R Hails Founding Father, Et Al. on Basista’s 62nd Anniv.

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BASISTA, Pangasinan – The mayor lauded the founding father and those who collaborate for the creation of this town during her 62^nd anniversary held recently here.

“Ito po iyong ating 62^nd Founding Anniversary. We all know the story of our town na kung saan ang ating mahal na former Mayor Attorney Artemio Frias kasama ang kanilang mga kaibigan na tumulong na upang maging ganap na bayan ang ating bayan na Basista. Mula sa first, second at third attempt nagtagumpay tayo. Nagtagumpay po ang kanilang pagsusulong na maging ganap po na bayan ang ating bayan na Basista,” Mayor Jolly Roque “J.R” Resuello told his constituents and guests that converge in the municipal gym here last Tuesday night to celebrate the birth of this town.

Basista Mayor Jolly Roque “J.R” Resuello.

He cited that these personalities were responsible “na kung saan tayo po ay nandito at magkasama”.

Resuello wanted to make the anniversary next year grander and would invite the relatives of Mayor Frias and those stakeholders for the founding of this landlocked  municipality of central Pangasinan.

“Asahan ninyo po sa susunod na taon maraming e improve papagandahin pa po namin at may mga nabubuo na po kaming  mga plano ngayon pa man para po sa susunod na taon ng ating 63^rd foundation anniversary”.

This year’s foundation was celebrated for one day and two nights where the guest of honors were Pangasinan Governor Ramon Guico, III and Pangasinan 2^nd District Cong. Mark Cojuangco.

“Patuloy po ang aming pagbibigay ng serbisyo. Patuloy po ang pagmamahal namin sa inyong lahat dito,” Resuello told the crowd in that evening festivity.

                                                                  Creation of Basista

Basista was founded in September 5, 1961 when President Carlos P. Garcia issued Executive Order No. 446 creating the rustic municipality. It is composed of 13 barrios. Four years after, however, the Philippine Supreme Court declared the town's creation as without legal basis citing their ruling in the "Emmanuel Pelaez vs. Auditor General "that "municipalities created under Executive Orders are void".
But the District's Congressman Jack L. Soriano immediately filed a bill in Congress and was eventually signed by the President into law through Republic Act No. 4866 that minted it as a de jure local government unit after it was chartered in May 8, 1967.
The former village of the then town’s San Carlos, now the site of the town proper or poblacion, was once the biggest and one of the progressive barrios located in the far south of the mother town (now a city).
According to Wikipedia, as early as the year 1918, some of the most influential and prominent families of barrio Basista came together and made the first attempt to petition the municipal government and the provincial board of San Carlos and Pangasinan, respectively, to grant its township.
Prominent politicians during that time volunteered their help in making representations with the proper authorities but their request was not granted. The proponents then were General Mamaril, Don Valeriano Perez, father of then speaker Eugenio Pérez, Buenaventura de Vera, Telesforo de Vera, Gregorio Malicdem, Cayetano Perez, Gaudencio Padua, Gregorio Valdez, Ramon Valdez, Don Roque de Vera, Domingo Resultay, Bernardo Resultay, Liberato Frias, Hipolito Cayabyab, Alejandro de Guzman, Pascual Resultay, Raymundo de Guzman, Vicente de Guzman, Domingo de Guzman, Vicente Frias, Florentino Malicdem, Faustino Monzon.
The 2020 census said Basista has a population of 37, 679.

Sec. Abalos to Visit Mangaldan on Friday

MANGALDAN, Pangasinan - The executives of this thriving central Pangasinan town have met to prepare for the visit on Friday here by Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin “Benjur” Abalos, Jr. who will grace the blessing and inauguration of the P5 million solar panel streetlights along Angalacan River Eco-Tourism Road.

The meeting of the officials held in the Office of the Mayor was presided in September 4 by Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno.

 Department of Interior & Local Government  Secretary Benjamin “Benjur” Abalos, Jr. and  Mangaldan Mayor Bona Fe D. Parayno.

Abalos is to lead the ribbon cutting ceremony for the five-million pesos project. The sum was a proceed from the Department of Interior & Local Government (DILG) as incentive for the first class town's outstanding performance when it became a national awardee of the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) in 2022.

The alignment meeting aimed to ensure the orderly conduct of the activity and the guests' security and their safety.

Present during the meeting were Municipal Administrator Atty. Teodora S. Cerdan, LGU department heads, and officers from the national agencies like Municipal Local Government Operations Officer (MLGOO) Marilyn B. Laguipo, Mangaldan Philippines National Police OIC-Chief of Police PLt. Col. Roldan E. Cabatan and Municipal Fire Marshal Inps. Virgilio A. Mamitag, III.

Officials from all barangays and key civic organizations are also expected to grace the occasion.

Secretary Abalos had been in several towns of Pangasinan gracing fiestas like in Dagupan City and Binmaley. He gave in July this year a 1,000-gallon fire truck as response to the request of the coastal town  Binmaley Mayor Pete Merrera – his cousin.

Early this year, the 29 villages first class town of Sta. Barbara became a beneficiary of a P173, 000, 000 from the DILG for the rehabilitation of the three damaged slope protections of a dike.

According to Mr. Sherwin Pioquinto - the Chief of Staff of Mayor Lito Zaplan - the three slope protections are located in Barangay Maningding and in Brgy. Poblacion Norte. The latter village host two of the slopes that would be repaired.

The sum given to Sta. Barbara was probably the biggest release by the DILG to the LGU in the four cities and forty –four towns’ Pangasinan. 

Mangaldan Mayor Parayno drafted a letter to Abalos to request a firetruck, funds for another set of solar lights to be constructed at the other bank of the Angalacan River Eco-Tourism Road and others.  (With reports from Mortz C. Ortigoza)

Critics Wrong on Guv’s Miss World-Ph Franchise, Travels Abroad

By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

I could only shake my head reading and hearing shallow thinking columnists and broadcasters assailed the boondoggle of public funds by Pangasinan Governor Ramon Guico, III when he bought the provincial franchise of the Miss World-Philippines (MWP) and the absence of a financial bonanza his constituents could benefit from it.

Pangasinan Governor Ramon V. Guico, III (left of photo)

The franchise –that cost probably a few million pesos – will give a propaganda coup to Pangasinan’s tourism spots like Bolinao, Dasol and other pristine beaches and maximize the come-ons either preserved or created by the mayors and private stakeholders in their towns and cities like the Hundred Islands in Alaminos City. In the pilgrimage town of Manaoag, she hosts more or less 55,000 folks every week who flock in the The Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Mayor Ming Rosario told me he and the private sectors collaborate to maximize by creating more amenities for these church goers to stay longer in the land lock municipality so they can shell out more monies.

“We are blessed here jobs are accessible to our people because of the tourists,” he disclosed to me.

The other nascent and soon to be discovered tourism spots could piggyback on the mileage every time the beauties of MWP visited - for countless of times - the huge province.

TOURISM NO. 3 MONEY CHURNER IN PH ECONOMY

These media men lashed out the Governor of how this franchise cannot give jobs to the unemployed and salvaged the poor farmers from the morass they’re snagged in.

Susmariosep! These practitioners did not know that tourism is a money-churning juggernaut – mind you No.3 contributor of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - in the Philippines where many countries envy her for her comparative advantages on pricing competitiveness (22^nd) and natural resources (37^th) like those in Boracay, El Nido, Coron, Bolinao, Siargao and others according to Tourism Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum.

 This industry gave 5.23 million jobs last year where the government received a revenue of P208.96 billion (equivalent to U.S $3.68 billion). 25% of this came from Boracay (“PH 2022 tourism revenues hit P209-B". Manila Bulletin. January 2, 2023).

In 2019 foreign arrivals peaked at 8,260,913 and dwindled to 1.48 million individuals in 2020 when the Corona Virus Disease-19 CoViD scourged the country and spiked again at 2.7 million in 2022.

The travel and tourism industry contributed 6.2% to the country's GDP in 2022.

***

I wrote in Can Ph get Rid of Being a Tourism Slow Foot in the ASEAN that the Philippines could eclipse Southeast Asia top No. 4 Singapore (almost 16 million tourists) and No. 5 Indonesia (13.62 million arrivals) as ranked by Global Data in 2019 after then President Rodrigo Duterte infused $23 billion (PhP P1.3 Trillion) in tourism infrastructure from 2019 and 2022.

Then Finance Undersecretary Grace Karen Singson said in late of 2010s the government’s goal is to double the number of foreign tourist arrivals, increase tourism revenues by 90 percent and generate 14.4 percent of total Philippine jobs from the tourism sector by the time Mr. Duterte stepped down in 2022. The CoViD-19 disrupted this goal in early 2020s.

The National Tourism Development Plan (NTDP) investments cited Duterte’s ambitious projects to cover road networks, airports, cruise ports, railway, site infrastructure, tourism enterprise zones, transport units, accommodation facilities, and aircraft acquisition.

“2,620 kilometers of tourism roads over the next six years, from a baseline of 900 kilometers, which will require an investment of $2 billion,’ then Finance Undersecretary Singson told the media.

The Miss World-Philippines, the airports and the four lanes’ Pangasinan Link Expressway (PLEx) of the San Miguel Holdings Corp. (SMHC) interceded by Guico jibe with the national strategies how to boost tourism and generate jobs among Pinoys who breed like rabbits. Among these beneficiaries include those farmers and their children who want to abandon a less profitable livelihood.

GUICO, ET AL. MEET SOLAR POWER BIZMEN IN CHINA

On the alleged propensity of the Governor and his officials to go abroad as harped by his bashers who pooh-poohed it as junkets. Damn! Was it a junket for a governor and his fellow officials to go overseas and break bread with investors there?

Just take what I read on August 24 on this newspaper's columnist’s the eloquent Filipino writer’s Paquito Basila:

“Masigasig na mga pinuno na last week ay nasa China para sa ilalagak ng mga Tsino na solar power sa Unang Distrito, kauna-unahan sa lalawigan na proyekto na solar powered plant. Sina Dasol Mayor Rizaldy Sadong Jimenez Bernal, First District Congressman Arthur Del Fierro Celeste at Gov. Ramon Guico III ay nasa China to see personally how a solar plant works”.

The U.S$503 million (Php P28.4 billion) twin solar power plants are to be constructed in Infanta and Dasol, Pangasinan that will not only generate more power to industries in the province but create more employment to the folks in Western Pangasinan.

The proverbial dotted - line was signed in May last year at the Capitol in Lingayen during the Joint Development Agreement by Jesus Antonio Magsaysay of URIT Limited Philippines Inc., Bernard Bawing and former Bayambang Mayor Cesar Quiambao, both of CSFirst Green Agri Industrial Development Inc., Andy Wu and Yang Jiyu of China Energy International, and Jusslun Maisie Ong Tan of Urit Limited Philippines. The Governor witnessed the inking of the Agreement.

PANGASINAN LINK EXPRESSWAY (PLEX)

The construction that will end after four years of the 42.76-kilometer four lanes’ Pangasinan Link Expressway (PLEx) by the SMHC will expedite travel time from 20 to 30 minutes from Binalonan to Lingayen. Presently, it takes one hour and forty minutes for a vehicle to run that stretch.

The P34 billion (U.S $602 million) expressway will not only spur tourism in the province but would even give jobs this early to tens of thousands people and business folks in and out of the province who would benefit on the spade work that will last to year 2027.

MY POSER

So who were those wise guys - son of a gun! - who said that the franchise on the Miss World-Philippines, travels of the Guv overseas and the 47.76 kilometers PLEx could not create jobs for the humongous population of this Northern Luzon’s province?

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

It’s the U.S not the Colombians that destroyed Escobar

MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

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I am a twenty years seasoned Op-Ed Political Writer in various newspapers and Blogger exposing government corruptions, public officials idiocy and hypocrisies, and analyzing local and international issues. I have a master’s degree in Public Administration and professional government eligibility. I taught for a decade Political Science and Economics in universities in Metro Manila and cities of Urdaneta, Pangasinan and Dagupan. Follow me on Twitter @totoMortz or email me at totomortz@yahoo.com.