Dredging machine to focus on Calmay River's mouth

DAGUPAN CITY – Another dredging machine has arrived in Dagupan to augment the continuous desilting operations of the city’s river system.

This is the Dredge 14-A  which recently arrived from Vigan City to help fast track the clearing operations of the sandbars that accumulated in the mouth of the river.

This is the second dredging machine that came from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) this year.

With a 14-inch diameter, the new cutter pump machine is also the biggest suction machine among all those currently operating in the city.

It can dredge up to a capacity of 270 cubic meters per hour or at least 1,620 cubic meters every day.

Dredge 14-A will be joining the newly-repaired Dredge Visayas I deployed in Barangay Pugaro to help improve the discharge and flow of water by clearing out the sandbars and silt at the mouth of the Calmay River.

Visayas I, which can dredge up to 240 cubic meters per hour, has so far cleared over 2,500 cubic meters of silt in the area since it began its operations this May.

Speaker GMA's Nephew Guico Opens to Refile New PSA

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BINALONAN, Pangasinan – The nephew of a former president and House Speaker was receptive to the call to refile her bill that will open the country for more business competition and employment.

Pangasinan Fifth District Congressman- Elect Ramon “Monmon” V. Guico III said that as long as the bill will be pro - Filipinos he will support it.

 His pronouncement ensued after this newspaper exhorted him that he refiles the amendment of the Public Service Act filed in 2017 by Pampanga Representative Gloria M. Arroyo when he joined the 18^th Congress on July 1 this year.

“Ya, anything that will help the people to include the district for more development. But as long as it is not at the expense of the environment of the taong maliit na masasagasaan we will be supportive of this bill,” stressed by Guico.

CONG-ELECT – Then Pangasinan Fifth District congressional candidate Ramon “Monmon” V. Guico, III (second from left) is flanked by the district bet for the Provincial Board Louie Sison (extreme left), quintessential actress Susan Roces, and Guico’s father and namesake then mayoralty bet of Binalonan Ramon, Jr. Photo was taken while they wait for the motorcade of Senator Grace Poe, prolific actor Coco Martin, Abono Party-List Chair Rosendo So, and political figures in Pangasinan in a mammoth political rally held at the Guicos’ owned WCC Aeronautical and Technological College in the town six days before the May 13 poll. Photo by Mortz C. Ortigoza   

The solon’s father and namesake the mayor elect of this Eastern Pangasinan burgeoning town is a cousin of the former Philippines president.

“Miracle” Fertilizer to Spike Rice Harvest by 50%

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

QUEZON CITY - Despite the new law allowing unlimited influx of imported rice in the country, the Filipino farmers can still spike their production per hectare by almost fifty percent thanks to a revolutionary fertilizer created by a former solon and entrepreneur.

Lawyer Eric G. Acuña told Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol

 and his countless regional directors when he visited them in their offices that in case he be allowed to demonstrate for free in one planting and cropping season he could show to the government how his AMO Fertilizer can increase the average eighty cavans to one hundred twenty sacks of fifty kilos each of palay harvested by a Filipino farmer in a hectare.

Entrepreneur and former Pangasinan congressman Eric G. Acuña and wife Rosalie (3rd and 4th from left) and Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol (2nd from left) pose for posterity after the Acuñas presented their intention to Piñol at his office in Quezon City to demonstrate for free to the Philippine government how their innovative fertilizer can increase palay yields in a hectare by  almost 50 percent.

The timing of this innovative fungicide and others jibe with the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) where P3 billion has been allocated yearly to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) by the government to cushion the farmers on the impact of the liberalization of the imported staple.

 The P10 billion RCEF allots too P5 billion for the Philippine Center for Post harvest Development and Mechanization (PhilMech) to provide farmers with rice farm machineries and equipment, P1 billion for the credit facility for rice farmers, and another P1 billion for technical skills training.

The surge of foreign rice was due to the implementation of Republic Act No. 11203 or an act liberalizing the importation, exportation, and trading of rice, lifting for the purpose the quantitative import restriction on rice, and for other purposes.

Acuña told this writer about the efficacy of his product when he and the mayor of Sual, Pangasinan piloted it there in a countless of hectares with impressive successes.

The former Third District Pangasinan congressman cited too that after a typhoon barreled Claveria, Cagayan Province only those AMO sprayed palay “proudly” stood in the midst of the destruction.

“The mayor there and her representative even visited Sual to witness how the miracle fertilizer gave the farmers there a booming harvest”.

DAGUPAN CITY, PAG-IBIG INK MOU FOR HOUSING PROJECT

DAGUPAN CITY – More than 40 families belonging to the Pantal Norte Urban Poor Alliance, Inc. are now one step closer to finally acquiring the land they had occupied for more than 50 years.

This, after the city represented by Mayor Belen T. Fernandez and the Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) or Pag-IBIG represented by Chief Executive Officer Acmad Rizaldy Moti signed a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of a housing loan program.

Both parties signed the MOU during a simple ceremony held at the city museum on May 29.

The agreement sealed the partnership of both parties to pursue government programs and provide the necessary support and assistance to develop and implement the housing program for its beneficiaries.

Under the MOU, Pag-IBIG will extend individual housing loans to qualified beneficiaries, provide housing loan counseling and assist the city government in coordinating with other key shelter agencies for the successful implementation of the housing project.

Meanwhile, the city will identify the land that can be used as housing project as well as the qualified beneficiaries. The city will also promote to the beneficiaries the housing loan programs of Pag-IBIG Fund, as well as assist in their application for housing loans.

The city will also enter into a Collection Servicing Agreement with Pag-IBIG Fund for the collection of the monthly amortization and payment of loans.

The joint initiative was the city government’s response to the concerns raised by members of the urban poor who want to stake their claim on the land foreclosed by the Philippine Veterans Bank.

More power plants needed to do away with high power rates

        BY RUEL “Mapalakapak” CAMBA

The high cost and unreliable supply of electricity in the Philippines are now the main deterrents to investing in the country, according to foreign business leaders who see the problem as a persuasive reason to invest elsewhere.

Vietnam, for instance,  has overtaken the Philippines in terms of foreign direct investments.

While Manila lagged behind its neighbors in Southeast Asia,  Hanoi – the capital of Vietnam- is now enjoying a double-digit foreign direct investment (FDI) levels.

According to a survey done by the International Energy Consultants (IEC), an Australian-based consulting firm specializing in Asian power markets, electricity rates in the Philippines are the third highest in Asia and fourth in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Philippines’s power rates are also the 16th highest in the world.

Reason Behind Rody’s Rape Jokes at the PMA

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

I was at the Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City a day after the graduation of the 261 members of the Mabalasik Class of 2019.

My sources there told me that except to President Rodrigo Duterte, the political and military brass, and the parents of the graduating class at the covered grandstand, the Cadet Corp Armed Forces of the Philippines (CCAFP) who formed the Long Gray Line at the Borromeo Field and the thousands of spectators outside of it were soaked with the untimely downpour.

Here what my sources told me that did not appear on the media as far as I’m concerned:

·         President Duterte and party arrived at the Summer Capital a day before the commencement exercise at Fort Del Pilar.

·         He and his party checked in at the plush Manor Hotel in Camp John Hay because some officials of the Presidential Security Group told my source that the president is afraid to the ghosts that lurk at some nook and cranny of the historic presidential summer palace’s Mansion House located at ‎Leonard Wood Road.

RELISH - Cadets of the elite Philippine Military Academy in Baguio City relish the rape joke of President Rodrigo Duterte during their commencement exercise last May 26. (Photo grab from the internet)

·          On President Duterte giving the diploma to two graduating cadets and was replaced by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to finish their distribution to the Mabalasik Class, my source said the president, who was seated and drowsy, was enmeshed the night before entertaining at his guest room in the Manor those electoral candidates who won the May 13   election.

“Kaya late na siyang dumating mga 10: 55 A.M na from the customarily 9 A.M start of the graduation ceremony dahil napuyat sa mga bisita,” my source whispered to me.

·         There was a reason behind the rape jokes cracked by the president before the graduates and the crowd. The night before he was informed that two members of the Mabalasik Class could not make the commencement because of the infractions they committed.

One of them was a criminal case of sexual molestation.

Before I quote my source and before the Commander-in-Chief signed the pardon for second, third, and fourth classes cadets he told the crowd the following:

"The number one is for rape. Putang ina. Ang number two is drugs with rape with robbery. Para sa Muntinlupa ito? Pangatlo, multiple rape of the women of Baguio, the beautiful ones," the President said.

(The number one is for rape. Son of a bitch. Number two is drugs with rape with robbery. Is this for Muntinlupa? Third, multiple rape of the women of Baguio, the beautiful ones.)

Duterte then asked who committed the cases.

"Pirmahan ko na?... Sino ang nagkasala? Taas kamay, hindi ako pipirma nito.... Show to me your face," he said.

(Do I sign this already? Who committed these? Raise your hands or I will not sign this. Show to me your face.)

The President wished the pardoned underclassmen "better luck next time."

Before that, Duterte in his speech reminded the PMA graduates to uphold the values of honor and respect.

***

Now you buckle up because here’s my source who asked for anonymity:

“Iyong upperclass dahil ga graduate humingi na e kiss niya sa cheek iyong pleba (female first year cadet) na type niya. Pumayag iyong babae. Pero hindi nakuntento si upper class biglang ni lips to lips niya si pleba kaya hayon ni reklamo siya!”

My source did not tell me the other violation of the other graduating cadet but said one of them was the adjutant.

“Iyong mabilis lumakad na nag da-dart sa Borromeo. Iyong sumisigaw iyong No. 2 after sa baron. Kaya nakita ninyo may binago sa procedure na iyon noong graduation”.
A colonel who read this news immediately commented that if the Kissing Bandit was indeed the adjutant then followers of this political blog will describe him as "Idiotant" about his actuation that cost him his career in the military.

He said two days before the graduation the parents of one of the culprits who came from Mindanao wept with disappointment upon learning that their son could not make it after the PMA academic board released its decision.

My source feared that one of them, susmariosep, could be discharged from Asia’s premier military academy where the Philippine taxpayers spent millions of pesos for each of the cadets four or more (for the “turn-back”) years at Fort del Pilar.

Despite my working as a civilian employee at the PMA in the late 1980s, I was still awed how young “parang mga  totoy o mga college students lang na papunta ng gimmick” those newly commissioned male and female second lieutenants I saw clad in civies like short pants at dusk walking to their lodging houses just nearby the PMA compound at Barangay Kias, Baguio City.

“Pag graduate na iyan sila, hindi na sila puweding tumira sa loob. Kaya kasama iyong mga parents nila dito sila nag che-checked in sa mga mini hotels that sprouted like mushrooms sa harap ng PMA,” a resident there cited.

When I asked a father that the three hogs and a cow he bought at some mountain areas of Benguet he slaughtered for his son who graduated this year was a Bacchanalian Feast, he told me: I spent P70,000 for this thanksgiving party because I was grateful my son is now a PMYer and I was spared to pay for his four years’ college education at a university here. That P70,000 for the party I treated our kin who came from far flung places and friends were paltry

A cadet at the PMA receives a salary equivalent to a Chief Master Sergeant. This senior ranked non commissioned officer (NCO) takes a monthly base pay of P34,761 or more or less P50,000 a month gross pay. This remuneration is exclusive of the socks, shoes, underwear, helmet, foods, and others that cost thousands of pesos at the PMA that are shouldered by the public coffer.

One of the graduates told me they will have a month furlough and then many of them will enroll at the Airborne Course at Fort Magsasay in Nueva Ecija.

“Then we will have our officers course where it is like going back to school again”

After finishing it, many of them will wait for their military deployment to be given by the military high command at the various camps in the country while some of them will apply, train, and survive the toughest elite Scout Ranger Course.

READ MY OTHER ARTICLE:

Filipino Cadets Bare Sad Plights at West Point

Docs are easy to tax than lawyers, moteliers

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – Medical doctors are easy to check if they paid their taxes correctly compared to lawyers, motel owners, fishpond owners, and other businessmen , the regional director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue cited.

Director Thelma S. Milabao explained that hospitals’ staff have been reporting to the BIR these doctors’ professional fees they billed to their patients.

“Medyo madali kasi. Puwede mo bantayan ang professional fee niya. Itong mga hospitals nag sa-submit sila sa BIR na kung magkano ang naibayad nilang professional fee sa doctors na nag eengaged doon sa kanila,” she stressed.

A motel in the Philippines.

Milabao said that the agency’s personnel have a hard time implementing the tax compliance verification drive (TCVD) with the lawyers because they directly transacted with the clients without somebody like the hospital staff to report how much they received from those they gave their services.

The same dilemma, according to Milabao, the BIR faces with hotel and motel owners.

“Iyan nga pero babantayan namin at least 10 days para ma established namin kung magkano ba iyong average daily sales o ADS”.