FIRE, RESCUE TRUCKS FOR THE CITY ARRIVE

DAGUPAN CITY – A fire tanker, a fire truck with 9,000-liter water capacity and a rescue truck purchased by this thriving city  have arrived to augment the existing firefighting equipment of the city.

The new trucks were delivered last Wednesday have been prominently parked at the city plaza.

These put to 11 the number of fire trucks now operating in the city which include three from the city government,  two from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), four from Panda, one from Star Plaza and one from CSI.

Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez (2nd from left) poses with city officials in front of the newly purchased fire tanker, a fire truck with 9,000-liter water capacity, and a rescue truck that add to the fleet of motorized behemoths of the burgeoning premier city in Northern Luzon.TEXT: Mortz C. Ortigoza

The new rescue truck is fully equipped with tools and rescue equipment. It is also equipped with electronic ladder, a pulley capable to lift a weight of 2.9 tons, and an integrated lighting to make rescue operations easy even at nighttime.

Mayor Belen T. Fernandez disclosed that the newly acquired fire and rescue trucks will be of great help in saving lives and properties in the city.

“When we purchased our first fire truck, we know that kulang pa ito para makabawas sa pangangailangan natin ng fire truck so I made a commitment to add more fire trucks in our city at ito na nga yon,” said Fernandez.

Duterte should kill those corrupt NFA officials!

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Do you know that a poor Filipino nuclear family of seven, yes seven because the poor here ironically breed like rabbit, as based on my conversation with some destitutes, contend themselves with a kilo of rice that they mixed with patis (salted fish sauce) or bagoong (anchovies), HesusMariaHusef, to survive the daily grind?

Because of abject poverty many of them forget what viand is all about. Their grown up children could not even spell V-I-A-N-D because malnutrition sapped out their intellectual ability.

ILLEGAL - An operative of the National Bureau of Investigation inspects three hundred sacks of rice in a warehouse in General Santos City where the staples from the National Food Authority intended for the poor were illegally transferred to another bags of a trader so he can sell them at a higher price. 

When then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte stumped the provinces and cities, the great unwashed saw the light of hope at the other end of the tunnel when the firebrand candidate promised a P15 kilos of rice to the poor (manilatimes.net June 17, 2016).

When Duterte failed to make true his promise, the poor put their trust on the P27 a kilo of the staple courtesy of stocks from the government run National Food Authority.

But that price is still a pipe dream son of a gun! 
Despite the bumper harvest from the farmers and the available funds from the National Food Authority to buy a kilo of palay at P17, the P27 a kilo of rice in the market is still elusive, thanks but no thanks to the miscreants at the NFA who conspired with the wheeler dealing traders by mixing the cheap staple and sell it from P37 to P45 a kilo.

 The impoverished who trembled with starvation at corner could not comprehend what hit them.

Aircon Buses Clark-Dagupan, Subic-Clark Vice Versa

POE PUSHES FOR RESPONSIBLE, SUSTAINABLE TOURISM

DAGUPAN—The Philippines should shift its approaches of promoting the country’s attractions into campaigns that encourage responsible and sustainable tourism, Sen. Grace Poe said Friday.

In a speech at the 2018 Hospitality and Tourism Enrichment Conference here, Poe said the country has a lot of potential, but irresponsible and unregulated development resulted in environmental problems of world-renowned destinations.

EXHORT - Senator Grace Poe exhorts more than 500 college students in Pangasinan about sustainable and responsible tourism during the 2018 Hospitality & Tourism Enrichment Conference held last Friday at the fully air conditioned Arzadon Gym at Leisure Coast Resort in Barangay Bonuan Binloc, Dagupan City. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

“Let us not just promote tourism, but learn to promote responsible and sustainable tourism,” Poe told more than 500 college students from various schools taking up tourism-related courses gathered at the Arzadon Gym of Colegio de Dagupan.

In order to achieve this, Poe pushed for Senate Bill No. 1687 or the proposed Sustainable Coastal Tourism Act that mandates the creation of a “super-body” that will establish standards for effective coastal management and provide incentives to local government units that implement sustainable tourism models.

Poe said tourism developments must be hinged on minimizing negative social and environmental impacts, as the tourism industry is an important sector that helps in poverty alleviation.

The government is eyeing a two-month shutdown of popular beach destination Boracay island in Aklan province, after the President ordered the Environment department to pursue a crackdown against erring establishments built their facilities indiscriminately and violated environmental laws.

Poe also voiced support to the President’s directive of fixing Boracay’s problems, saying the 1,032-hectare resort island is our “asset” and yet violators are “squandering” it.

“We have the most beautiful beaches in the world. Our coastline stretches for some 36,000 kilometers and encompasses around 800 municipalities,” the senator said, adding that the public and the private sectors must use development strategies of the nation’s precious resources that are environmentally friendly.

"Linisin natin ang ating mga coastlines at karagatan. Kaya nga yung tinakot ng Presidente yung mga establisimyento sa Boracay kasi imagine yung basura diretso sa lugar na pinagsi-swimming-an natin so kung hindi sila compliant, dapat ay ipasara ang mga establisimyento na nakakasira sa kalikasan," Poe later told reporters in a chance interview.

She also said called for “the right and appropriate infrastructure,” which included moves to “improve our airports that serve as gateways to our provinces.”

In January, tourist arrivals hit an all-time high of 732,506 foreign visitors in the Philippines, breaching last year's figure by 16%.

The tourism industry also contributes 10% to the country’s domestic growth, generates ₱225 billion in annual revenues and provides jobs to some 5 million Filipinos.

"Revenues generated from tourism can help alleviate poverty; build hospitals, schools, and bridges; and give ordinary Filipinos a better quality of life,” Poe emphasized. (30)

Abat: Warrior Who Saved Mindanao Dies at 92

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Former Army General Fortunato Abat, a warrior of the Mindanao Campaign versus the Moro, died at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC).

“The Day We Nearly Lost Mindanao” was a book authored by then Army Commanding General Abat.

Army Commanding General Fortunato Abat accepts the surrender of a Muslim rebel's commander  and his battle scarred warriors.Photo Credit: General Allan Luga

My father was assigned in Cotabato City during this conflict in the middle of the 1970s and he narrated to me how they called the Northrop F-5 combat jets from Mactan Air Base to drop napalm bombs against the Libyan government backed  Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) under the leadership of Nur Misuari, a former University of the Philippines' professor, to deter them in conquering Cotabato City.

According to the March 1973 issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review, the first shipment of firearms, courtesy of Libya’s Strongman Muammar Qaddafi and Sulu born Sabah State Minister Tun Datu Haji Mustapha, landed in December 1972 at the town of Lebak in Cotabato province. Boats, each powered with three Volvo-Penta 170 engines, brought in Belgian made Cal 7.62 rifles, anti-personnel mines, grenades of the cylindrical unserrated type, plastic explosives, Cal 30 LMG, Browning carbines, Cal 30 Mis and several thousand rounds of ammunition to Cotabato and other landing sites regularly for the next fourteen months.

WARRIOR – Former Cotabato City’s Metro District Commander, later Two-Star Police General, and presently Pangasinan Congressman Leopoldo Bataoil extends his snappiest salute near the death bed of former Army Commanding General Fortunato Abat who, as the Central Mindanao Command (CEMCOM) Chief , was the brain in 1973  in flushing out the Moro Secessionist in Mindanao who cordoned the city and Awang Military Complex and overtaken many towns in Cotabato Province. Abat died at 7 p.m. last Wednesday in the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC).

"We almost lost that war," recalled Brig. Gen. Ciriaco Reconquista (Retired) as quoted in a defense forum, who as a transport plane pilot flew hundreds upon hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers from the battlefields of Mindanao and ferried troops repeatedly from NPA-infested areas in Luzon to the MNLF front. "The (Muslim) rebels were better-armed." In terms of firepower, the military had only one sustainable advantage: the Air Force. At no time was this power wielded more dramatically than in November 1972 at the battle of Sibalu Hill in Sulu near the southern tip of the Philippines.

Shortly after noon, he received the first of a series of frantic calls from Jolo, Sulu, requesting air support to extricate a battalion of Marines trapped within the MNLF strong- hold. 

WAR CRY - The members of the Moro National Liberation Front
leads by Chairman Nur Misuari (blue polo center) in chanting their war cry.

 Jolo, Cotabato City Nearly Overtaken by the MNLF

In an exerpt posted at the forum’s Defense of the Republic of the Philippines it said that: “(Air Force) Colonel Pompeyo Vasquez flew back to Jolo where he would orchestrate the attack as air controller the following morning. By dawn, wave upon wave of F-5 and F-86 jet  fighters, as well as T-33 trainer jets and C-47 gunships, took off for Jolo every minute - bombarding the enemy camp accurately and relentlessly. After each sortie - some pilots flew three sorties during that attack - the aircraft would dart back to Mactan to reload. Before the morning was over, helicopters landed at Sibalu Hill to extricate the marines that narrowly escaped a massacre. 

A few months later, the Air Force would again play a vital support role in the massive military counter-offensive in the central Mindanao province of Cotabato. By early 1973, the MNLF forces had virtually surrounded Cotabato City and the Awang airport complex. With overseas support for training and arms, the rebels were gearing up for riverine and land attacks to seize the seat of government in Central Mindanao. This would complete the first step in their grand plan to turn Mindanao, Palawan and the Sulu chain of islands into the Bangsa Moro Republic”.

“Counter- insurgency troops hop on board the C-47. To thwart the Cotabato rebel attack, the Central Mindanao Command (CEMCOM), headed by Brig. Gen. Fortunato Abat of the Philippine Army, enlisted the support of every branch of the Armed Forces, as well as paramilitary civilian home defense forces. Aside from airlifting troops from Manila and Cebu to the war zone, the PAF swooped into the thick of battle. Composite Air Support Force Cotabato (CASFCOT) fielded Huey choppers, rocket-bearing U-17 aircraft and C-47 gunships as CEMCOM troops advanced to recapture town after town from rebel hands”.

Datu Ali Sansaluna, who headed the Cotabato Command with 5,000 to 6,000 MNLF, selected Lebak as the main logistical based in Mindanao Island.
By the way 2,000 of these troops were armed with European made assault automatic rifles. 
 As a grade school pupil in M'lang, North Cotabato soldiers, who took a respite at the market place, would tell us Christians that in a firefight armed Moro had a rope tied on his body so in case he died his comrade who was behind him could easily pull him and  retrieve the rifle slung around his cadaver and continue the fight to death, son of a gun, with the infidels.

According to my father, Lebak was where a young PMA graduate and a lieutenant named Gregorio Honasan was wounded in the intense firefight with the brave Moros.
Yes Virginia, brave as then Artillery Commander Colonel  Rodolfo "Toto'" Canieso, an Ilonggo baw linti gid, had to order 105 and 155 Howitzers to bomb not the MNLF but the inexperienced Filipino soldiers behind them so they would not run away from the firefight.

 “I even brought home the bench where he lied in Awang Airport in Maguindanao while waiting for the C-130 Cargo Plane that will bring him to V-Luna Hospital in Manila,” he told me when I saw on the newspaper in 1986  a mestizo Colonel Honasan doing closed in with the jittery Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile after bosom friend President Ferdinand Marcos discovered his and the colonel nicknamed Gringo plan to power grab.

My father, who until now kept those old military maps,  showed to me  the terrain of Lebak as a military advantage to the MNLF.  He cited the Tran and Tran Peidu rivers whose coastlines provided excellent ingress for the landing of military hardware from Libya, Sabah, and Europe. Tran river also provided the natural obstacle to any State Security’s incursion into the fortified area. The sea there acted as easy avenue of withdrawal.
My father, a Korean War Veteran, grudgingly admired the MNLF because they would even face and fight to the death the soldiers who were mostly Ilocanos unlike the communist NPA rebels, intoxicated by Marx and Mao teachings, would rather choose to hide after they ambushed the state troopers.
"They even taunted the soldiers that their M-16 Armalites were made of plastic and their bullets would ricochet whenever they hit the blade of a cogon  grass thus could not be at par with their Belgian made FAL rifles that could  cut half the body of a soldier if one mowed it".

The liberation of the town of Maganoy on 2 April 1973, as quoted in the Forum, hinged on a risky air mobile operation in which six Hueys had to execute a tight spiral - one after the other - from 5,000 feet to a marked landing spot at the town plaza to insert elements of the 22nd Infantry Battalion. From March to August 1973, the PAF provided air cover and tactical support to ground forces, interdicted waterborne rebel reinforcements, broke up rebel concentrations and blasted fuel and ammunition dumps. The military attack culminated in the two-month campaign to destroy the well-secured rebel logistics base in Barrio Tran, Lebak and to restore government control over the town. Secondary explosions following a series of air strikes heralded the success of the mission. From there, CEMCOM gained the initiative and shifted to unconventional warfare as the rebels, in Gen. Abat's assessment, began resorting to "harassment, limited attacks, depredations, sabotage and terrorism...to keep their image of strength." Even as the Muslim secessionist movement waned in the face of peace and diplomatic initiatives, the military found no respite as it confronted the growing NPA threat on several fronts.

Army Commanding General Fortunato Abat in a pep-talk with soldiers in Mindanao.
Photo Credit: General Allan Luga

Going back to Abat, as a young teenager, he entered the Philippine Army as an enlisted man on April 15, 1944 before the Allied Liberation of the Philippines. He continued his secondary education in La Union High School even after World War II and completed his education in the year 1947.
Abat entered the Philippine Military Academy right after finishing his high school diploma, and graduated in the Class of '51, and was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant in the Philippine Army. 
Along with 2nd Lieutenant Fidel V. Ramos (who later became Philippine President), Abat, and my father joined the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea (PEFTOK), where they served with distinction under the United Nations flag.

He was married to former Corazon Bulatao, a teacher from San Carlos City, Pangasinan, with whom he has six children.

Moreover, some foreign affairs lessons that my friend Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano could learn from the Apo of Saluyot country's Ilokosvakia former President Ferdinand Marcos.
 Thanks to Marcos dexterity on diplomacy, he was able to avoid the secession of Mindanao by denouncing Israel annexation of the Arab lands, befriended Oil Exporting Producing Countries (OPEC) where the Philippine depended heavily and if the detente was not handled properly could make the Philippines marginalize and weak, and won Indonesia President H. Muhammad Suharto's support where he did not only reject Misuari plea to use two areas in Indonesia as dumping areas of arms from abroad to the Philippines but interceded on behalf of the Filipinos with the Muslim countries. Without the support of these governments, probably Mindanao had been long under the MNLF.
And my Christian name Marcelo Mortz Ortigoza had been converted to probably Datu Udtog Ramanam  Amin or Datu Mortz Salsalani Jakulen, God Forbid!

READ: 

I and a Colonel  Pushed Airplane at War-Torn Awang

Ranger Capt Uses Men as Bait to Locate Muslims' Snipers

You can read my selected columns at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)

New Routes to Ease Traffic in Mangaldan, Dagupan City

By Mortz C. Ortigoza  

MANGALDAN - People in this prosperous town and Dagupan City can soon heaved a sigh of relief after the 3.6 kilometers world class highway will be open to motorists between years 2019 to 2021.

“Major thoroughfare from Silverio (Resturant in Dagupan City) to Bantayan, Mangaldan. 3.6 kilometers na project so with that makikita na ang pag ease ng traffic,” Fernando Saguisag Cabrera, administrative officer 4 of the local government here, stressed.

A photo of a new world class highways taken from the internet.

He elaborated that the P1 billion thoroughfares will start from Barangay Bantayan then passes by Barangay Lanas and Maasin here and snaked to Barangays Mamamlingling and Pantal in Dagupan City.

Cabrera said that the ingress and egress where the P3.6 kilometers roads start will be near the Golden Success Hotel here.

Just like Dagupan City, this town has been dealing with a burgeoning numbers of vehicles that pass by it areas everyday.

“Malaking bagay iyan! Ito iyong makakatulong sa growth center,” Department of Public Works & Highway District Engineer Rodolfo Dion earlier said on the multiplier  effect of the proposed multi-million pesos highway that cross Barangays Bonuan Gueset, Mamalingling, and Bolosan to the vaunted economic growth center in the Pantal-Lucao Area that will be a hub of Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing and other projects of Dagupan City Mayor Belen T. Fernandez.

Telco’s Free Aircraft Services to Senators at Our Expense

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

DAGUPAN  City – A pilot said that senators of the Philippines are free to use the helicopters owned by one of the two major telecommunication corporations in the Philippines.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone under Manny Pangilinan and Globe Telecommunication run by Ayala Corporation are duopoly in the Philippines.

The Pilot, who asked anonymity, said that whenever senators wanted to stump in the provinces and cities outside Metro Manila the choppers and the pilots are there to ferry them for free.

This information ensued when a pilot brought to this city a senator from the Liberal Party who visited a government office.

Some media men had even pictures of the solon and the tail number of the chopper.