Lingayen Mourns Illustrious Son’s FVR

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The Philippines flag is in a half-mast as the residents of this capital town and the birthplace of the late President Fidel Valdez Ramos mourn his death.

“Pagdating ko dito sa munisipyo during our flag raising ceremony at 7 o’clock we raised the flag at its fullest and after the pambansang awit we lowered in a very solemn manner ang national flag to half mast,” Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil said yesterday in a radio interview.

TWELFTH PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES Fidel Valdez Ramos (extreme left, photo) and Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil (extreme right) pose for posterity in a social function the duo attended. Ramos died of multiple-organic failure in July 31 this year. Both the President and the Mayor are retired police generals.  Photo is internet grabbed

Ramos who was the 12^th President of the Republic joined his Creator last July 31. He is affectionately called by his constituents as FVR - from the abbreviation of his full names.

Bataoil – who became Ramos subordinate when he was the country’s chief of staff - visited early on that fateful day the Lingayen Central School where the late president attended grades 1 to 7.

“Pinicturan namin iyong metal inscription historical marker pinost natin sa Facebook para malaman ng taong bayan: Lingayen is in the forefront in the life of the 12^th President of the Republic”.

The second - term Bataoil said that the late President has his ancestral house that is preserved by the National Historical Commission. The illustrious family, he added, used to stay in the abode when the young Ramos studied in the public elementary school while his parents taught here.

His father was a lawyer whose law office is in this capital town.

 Ramos began his secondary education at the University of the Philippines High School in the City of Manila and continued it at the Mapúa Institute of Technology. He graduated in high school from the Centro Escolar University Integrated School in 1945 Afterwards, he went to the United States for an appointment to the United States Military Academy, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Military Engineering degree in 1950. He also earned his master's degree in civil engineering at the University of Illinois and later took Civil Engineering Board Exam in 1953 where he placed No. 8 in the country.

 “He is my idol. I followed his footsteps I became a lieutenant after I graduated from PMA (Philippine Military Academy),” the former Congressman said about Ramos who became the Chief of the Philippine Constabulary and later Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Because of his awe with Ramos, Bataoil volunteered to be assigned at the office of the personnel and later as the chief of training in the general headquarter at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

“Nakita ko kung papaano siya manungkulan in his very professional and dignified manner. From then on in my life as a professional officer ng public servant ay nandiyan pa rin iyong bahid na pagsunod sa kind of leadership (niya),” the Mayor, who retired as a three-star police general, described the former President when he was alive.

During the presidential stint of Ramos in 1992 to 1998 he vigorously jacked up the economy of the Philippines dubbed as the Sick Man of Asia by respected foreign news outfits.

Before attaining the significant economic growth of the country, he fostered first a national reconciliation that led to major peace agreements with Muslim separatists, communist insurgents and military rebels. These actuations renewed investor confidence in the Philippine economy.

 He then pushed for the deregulation of key industries and the liberalization of the economy like telecommunication and airlines. Ramos encouraged the privatization of public entities to include the modernization of public infrastructure like power plants through the expanded Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law.

 In years 1993-1997, the Philippine economy recovered dramatically. Gross National Product averaged 5 percent annually, the total inflow of foreign exchange into the country outpaced that of the combined periods of rule of both Presidents Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and Corazon C. Aquino, and the average income of the Filipino family grew more during Ramos’ Administration than in the preceding two decades.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

Q&A: China Cannot be an Aggressor Forever - FVR

LTO Applicants in San Carlos City Swell

 LASER ENGRAVER AND PETC IN BAYAMBANG GO PFFT

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan – Applicants for driving licenses and emission testing certificates swelled in this city after the laser engraver bogged down and the two private emission testing center (PETC) closed in the neighboring Bayambang town.

San Carlos City’s Land Transportation Office Chief Aileen O. Peteros said that the LTO in Bayambang offers only renewal of licenses because the two PETCs closed down because their franchise with the government expired.

Applicants for driving and renewal of licenses in a Land Transportation Office in the Philippines.

This city has one operational PETC that attracted clients from the five towns and one city’s 3^rd District of Pangasinan.

“Sa San Carlos isa na lang doon. License transaction in LTO Bayambang is currently unavailable kasi sira iyong laser engraver nila iyong tao nada-divert papunta dito,” Peteros, whose previous assignments were LTO Chiefs of Agoo, La Union and Lingayen, Pangasinan, told Northern Watch Newspaper.

The PETCs in Pangasinan and the country are gradually closing because of the presence of the Private Motor Vehicle Inspection Center (PMVIC).

“Sarado na dahil existing na ang PMVIC in Urdaneta,” she cited about the presence of the emission testing center in Urdaneta City.

PMVICs are privately-owned automated vehicle inspection facilities that will not only check the vehicle's compliance in the Philippines with emission standards but will also test for roadworthiness prior to the renewal of its registration.

The other PMVIC where the vehicles’ owners can go and subject their trucks, cars, or motorcycles are in the cities of Dagupan and San Carlos.

The operation of PMVICs was not suspended according to other news reports.  Vehicle owners are still free to choose if they want PMVIC or PETC to inspect their vehicle before registering.

PMVIC owners headed by Vehicle Inspection Center Operators Association of the Philippines (VICOAP) President Iñigo Larrazabal lowered the testing fees to P600 for light vehicles; P500 for motorcycles; and P300 for public utility jeepneys.

Peteros said the biggest LTO offices in Pangasinan are in Urdaneta City and Dagupan City.

The other offices are in San Carlos City, Alaminos City, Bayambang, Rosales, Lingayen, and others.

FVR Irks by Benguet's Guv Long Speech

(Reprinted)

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

The event was the unveiling of the marker dedicated to former President Fidel V. Ramos, and the launching of the first San Roque reservoir boat at the San Roque Power Corporation in San Manuel, Pangasinan.

It was an event treated by a five-minute speech (as dictated by the event’s program we called "protocol") to each high roller government officials like Japan Ambassador Toshinao Urabe; Mr. Froilan A. Tampingco, President, National Power Corporation; Ryukichi Kawaguchi, President & CEO, SRPC; Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. , Benguet Governor Nestor. B. Fongwan, and other luminaries.

But the rule did not apply sui generis to the main guest the cigar chomping former President Ramos, known as FVR , who had been given a 15 minute allowance for his peroration.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos

He wowed the crowd after he gave his signature EDSA Revolution’s jump after he was introduced by SRPC’s vice president for corporate affairs and renowned master of ceremony Tom Valdez.

But FVR's bravado was doused by Governor Fongwan after the latter gnawed not only the 15 minutes allocation for the latter but even those five minute’s allotment given to the other VIP guests. Fongwan’s “kilometric” speech was probably written by scintillating Ilokoslokavia saluyot nonpareil columnist Max Soliven hahaha!

With his Civil Law's prowess, the Igorot Guv's dissected the nuts and bolts of the shares of Real Property Tax and the Special Education Fund from the earning his province Benguet gets from the SRPC that were reduced from 2 % to 1.1%. He assailed how his province and his town Itogon are shortchanged in the distribution of revenues from the SRPC, and other grievances he showboated through his legal prowess.

I heard he ain't even a lawyer but probably an LL.B holder sans the Bar examination.

This irked President Ramos who impatiently and incessantly biting his cigar and eventually stood up and went to the seat of Benguet Vice Governor Crescencio C. Pacalso by telling him in Ilocano like “napudot ditoyon (it's hot here)" and commanded him like what U.S General George Patton did to his Colonels before launching them to Normandy to stop Fongwan’s chatterbox.

Everybody at the back seats laughed when the former president gestured by cutting his (FVR) throat to the amusement of the members of the provincial board of Benguet and other spectators.

FVR then went to have some niceties in Ilocanos with some folks at the back while the unwitting Governor Fongwan continued his sentiments and encomium.

The raucous continued when FVR came to my seat when I asked him when I would give him my news article in relation with my recent interview with him. Instead he extended his right hand and hand locked it by asking me to counter his gripped.

“You already know, Sir, I could not beat you ever since we had hand locked before,” I whispered to him as the crowd no longer looked at Governor Fongwan, who still delivered his legally loaded piece, but to our direction.

“Kahit si Manny Pacquaio surrender dito (Even Manny Pacquiao (world class boxing champion) gave up on this hand locked),” Ramos told me.

FVR then asked his close-in bodyguard to get my folder that included my article with him and my latest Q & A with former speaker Jose de Venecia on the South China Sea (See too in the next issue of this blog my Q & A with Ramos).

Thereafter the Benguet Governor, who probably sensed the demeanor of the former Commander-in-Chief to him, has returned to his seat.

When it was Ramos turn to speak, he said he would only speak in five minutes because Governor Fongwan consumed his 15 minutes allocation (crowd guffawed again). But it did not stop FVR to go 20 minutes impromptu.

He dramatically threw at the gusty San Roque wind all the three sheets of folded papers he took from his front pants’ pocket by telling the crowd he no longer need them because it would consume more time at the expense of the crowd who endured in the noontime scorching sun.

What amazed everybody about the former alumnus of West Point during the entirety of his speech?

He, clad in a long sleeve barong, spoke outside the mammoth sunbrella unmindful of the blistering noontime heat.

This made FVR a cut from the rest.

All the preceding speakers spoke under the comfort of the sunbrella. Despite the scorching sun he continued to crack jokes, reminisced how as the then incumbent president of the land he helped conceive the SRPC, and the significance of the hydro-power plant to the need of the country that reeled in the debilitating power crises then.

The chivalry made FVR a soldier's soldier.

I saw these awe in the eyes of retired and active generals, officers, and enlisted men who were there. This made him an Erwin Rommel and a Charlie Chaplain mixed into one and reincarnated susmariosep like when he treated the hoi-polloi about the great giant tilapias and the shark’s story him and former Speaker de Venecia cultured at the reservoir of SRMP.

"When I was President Joe de Venecia narrated to me how big by gesturing the size of the mature shark to those fingerling of tilapias we threw years ago at the reservoir. You know Joe loved to exaggerate. Sabi ko naman sing laki na iyan ng pating e mas maliit naman iyong giant tilapia".

FVR brought the house down, son of a gun, with that anecdote!

(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).

BIR Removes 5 Year-Validity, Autho. to Print on O.R

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan – Businessmen in the Philippines would find themselves to have more ease in dealing with their clients after the government removed the five–year validity period of the permit to use (PTU) and authority to print (ATP) of the official receipt (O.R).

According to Revenue District Office No. 6 Chief Maria Bernadette Mangaoang, Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018 removed the following clauses after President Rodrigo Duterte signed it into law in June 30, 2022:

·         The phrase “THIS INVOICE/RECEIPT SHALL BE VALID FOR 5 YEARS FROM THE DATE OF PERMIT TO USE (PTU) ON THE SYSTEM GENERATED RECEIPTS AND INVOICES" shall be omiitted”;

·         The phrase “THIS INVOICE/RECEIPTS SHALL BE VALID FOR 5 YEARS FROM THE DATE OF AUTHORITY TO PRINT (ATP) IN THE MANUAL RECEIPTS” in the manual receipts and invoices shall be omitted, and;

·         The validity date on existing and unused manual receipts and invoices shall be disregarded and still be used until fully exhausted.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

No More Mayor’s Permit for BIR License’s Application

 

 

RDO 21-A Top Collector Among 11 RDOs in Cent. Luzon

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – One of the main reasons why the Revenue District Office No.21-A of the Bureau of Internal Revenue here topped the collection among its 10 counterpart offices in Central Luzon was anchored on the vigorous campaign of its present RDO-Chief.

“Iyong vigorous ang campaign namin sa mga taxpayers. Last filing season, we hopped from one accounting firm to another to campaign for an improved tax compliance from their client-taxpayers,” RDO No. 21 – A Chief Charmaine C. dela Torre told Northern Watch Newspaper.

NORTH PAMPANGA'S BIR CHIEF Charmain C. dela Torre (right) answers the questions of a reporter how her three towns and two cities’ revenue district office fares. It was tasked by the national government to collect almost P10 billion this year. RDO No. 21-A is one of the biggest tax offices among the 11 RDOs in Central Luzon. 

De la Torre said their district collected P5.5 billion for the first semester of 2022 which yielded an excess against cumulative goal of 15%. Versus last year’s same period, the growth rate was an overwhelming 49%, or an increase of P1.8 billion.

RDO- 21-A was tasked by the national government to collect P9.7 billion this whole year.

In the BIR’s official datum, having collected P5.5 billion from January to June this year, it made RDO21-A North Pampanga the highest collector among the 11 RDOs located all over the seven provinces in Central Luzon.

Aside from the remaining goal of P4.2 billion Dela Torre will soldier on this July to December, she wanted to buttress the P9.7 billion goal this year by another almost one billion pesos’ taxes in the new zonal valuation she can collect. The RDO Chief and staff submitted early this year the draft of the valuation to the BIR’s technical committee for approval.

“When I assumed my duty here in November I looked to the revision talaga. In a span of four months we were able to submit sa technical committee. So we are targeting by August that would take effect and that would double our collection from One-Time Transaction (ONETT). Maybe we could generate almost one billion (pesos) from one-time transaction”.

The new revenue she could chalk up would come from the deed of sale, capital gain tax, estate tax “because of the upcoming impending zonal valuation”.

 The religious Dela Torre was grateful to God Almighty on the feat her office accomplished in the first semester of this year.

“It’s a blessing it’s a grace from God,” she quipped before the end of the interview by this newspaper.

This North Pampanga’s tax office has 101 personnel where more or less 35 of them are Examiners.

Killer - Doc Concocts those Ambushes, Narco Yarns

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Filipinos were shocked yesterday’s afternoon when a medical doctor Chao-Tiao Yumol, 37, shot to death former nine years Lamitan Mayor Rosita “Rose” Furigay, her longtime aide Victor George Capistrano, and Ateneo de Manila (AdMU) security guard Jeneven Bandiala. Furigay daughter Hannah Rose ,25, and a bystander were wounded.  The daughter was hit on the head and abdomen but pronounced safe by hospital’s authorities.

The murder ensued inside AdMU in Quezon City as its College of Law’s students - that included Hannah -  prepare for their 4 p.m commencement exercise – the first actual graduation after the pandemic wrought havoc to the lives of the Filipinos for two years.

KILLER-DOCTOR Chao-Tiao Yumol (left, photo) and victim nine years Lamitan City, Basilan Mayor Rose Furigay. Photo is internet grabbed.

Lawyer of former Mayor Furigay - whose husband Roderick is the present mayor of the southern island’s city – told reporters that Yumol had a grudge against the former lady mayor because she implemented in 2018 the cease- and- desist order of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) the closure of his infirmary clinic in Lamitan City.

After that Yumol had been decrying in the social media and done some interviews with blogger like fellow Diehard Duterte Supporters (DDS) Binibining Maharlika and reporters about his two ambushes and being treacherously hit by the alleged henchman of the Furigays in Quezon City that resulted for a surgery on his right eye and the repair of the fraction on his head as shown by his photos. He told Maharlika in February 12, 2021 that the Furigays were influential. He was on the run around the country by even using his Toyota Fortuner vehicle as his abode. The political couple allegedly raised a bounty of P5 million for his head. He accused in his social media interviews that even the judge of the Regional Trial Court in Olongapo was in cahoots with the Furigays where during his detention in a jail in Quezon City for the strings of cyber libels filed by former Mayor Rose he saw an order to transfer him to Lamitan City. He questioned this order in the Supreme Court and was awaiting its result.

He even sued Presidential Anti-Corruption Commissioner Greco Belgica in the Ombudsman for coddling the narco couple after the Commissioner entertained them for six hours in his office. He said Belgica gave him only six minutes by advising him to file the necessary criminal and administrative cases to the then mayor.

Blogger Maharlika asked him why he did not go to the popular social media and television programs of the Tulfos (Raffy, Erwin, and Ben)?

He said Erwin backtracked when he learned - through his staff who entertained Yumol - that he was being used by the opposition in Lamitan.

Cases like the one encountered by Yumol would be sensational that could be exploited to the hilt by the Tulfos. They could spike their hundreds of thousands if not millions of viewership in YouTube whose advertisements could give them financial windfall.

Why the Tulfos did not buy the narration of the Doctor? Were they a tall tale?

Yumol faces more than 70  cyber libel felonies and seven warrants of arrest from the political couple and their local government employees whom he dishonored and discredited in his social media like Facebook.

My poser here: If he was ambushed in his vehicle twice as he alleged, why he did not show photos of the bullet holes in his Fortuner at his Facebook account’s Chao-Tiao Yumol? Why he did not show police blotters like his ambuscade in Zamboanga City? Where are the witnesses - the residents of the place of the ambuscade - that could collaborate his accusation?

If the Furigays were narcotics sellers if not coddlers of drug pushers in Lamitan, why the police and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) did not include them in the Drug Matrix in years 2020 to the end of the term of President Rodrigo Duterte in June 30, 2022?

The government in 2019 had gargantuan P13. 47 billion intelligence funds and mammoth snooping apparatus that could include the Furigays as protector, seller, and coddlers of narcs during the no-nonsense War on Drugs of the former president.

Was Yumol just want to get even with the political couple?

Was the killer - doctor a nutcase in case all these accusations he hurled against the political couple were contrived?

If that would be the case, his lawyer – if he was worth his salt – can plead “Insanity” and availed what the Revised Penal Code called the "circumstances which exempt a person from criminal liability:"

 “An imbecile or an insane person, unless the latter has acted during a lucid interval (Paragraph 1, Article 12).

Doctor or Doctors of Psychiatry should evaluate Yumol, as evidence in court, immediately before or during the commission of the offense/s if he was indeed insane otherwise he rots in jail and spend the maximum life sentence of not more than 40 years (Article 70 RPC) for his brazen crimes in killing cold bloodedly three people.

READ MY OTHER BLOG:

Paniqui, Tarlac Murders, My Lai Massacre: Shockers to Humanity

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's 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.

P’nan Guv Hits Espinos’ Lawyer; Endorses Bataoil

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza 

BAYAMBANG – Pangasinan Governor Ramon “Mon-Mon” Guico, III told members of the legislative bodies of the five municipalities and a city in the 3^rd Congressional District of the province that he was to interfere that an ally and lawyer of his political nemesis former governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. could not be elected in the League of the Vice Mayors of the Philippines – Pangasinan Chapter (LVMP-PC).

“Basta papayagan na lang namin na siya ang mamuno ng Vice Mayors League? Ano naman po ang hitsura namin? Hindi namin pinaglaban ang aming imahi at ang aming dignity,” the Governor said on Laoac Vice Mayor Nelson Gayo as seen on the video sent to this newspaper by its columnist Arnel Montemayor.

NEW POLITICAL ALLIES Pangasinan Governor Ramon “Mon-Mon” Guico, III (left) and capital town’s Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil. The former police three-star general is the presidential bet of the new governor for the election in August of the League of Mayors of the Philippines – Pangasinan Chapter (LMP-PC).

“Sabi ko kailangan maki-alam kami”.

Guico narrated his gripes to the councilors on Gayo when the latter wrote letters to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (provincial legislative body) not to issue an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) and approved a Resolution from his flagship project’s special economic zone (SEZ) that could generate tens of thousands of jobs in his former congressional district in eastern Pangasinan.

“So nagtayo po ako sa aking bayan ng Binalonan ng twenty six hectares at nadala ko ang Sumitomo pero Oposisyon sumulat sa Sangguniang Panlalawigan at sumulat sa DENR na huwag bigyan ng ECC huwag bigyan ng kung ano ano pa. At sabi sa Sanggunian huwag bigyan ng permit that to be granted by the province. Sino po ang sumulat ngayon? Si Vice Mayor Nelson Gayo ng Laoac”.

The Governor reminded the lawmakers of the 3rd District that while he beat by more than 188,000 lead votes the then six years sitting Governor Amado “Pogi” Espino, III, Gayo joined the press conference of the defeated governor’s father and namesake who told the public that Guico’s party cheated his son.

Even then acting President Gayo’s LVMP-PC media liaison Renato “Atong” Remogat did not escape the ire of the Governor.

He called Remogat as pesky in the LVMP-PC election now headed by Mangaldan Vice Mayor Mark Stephen Mejia.

“Pero nanggugulo iyang guwapong diyaryong media niya Atong Remogat ba iyon? Iyong makinis iyong mukha nangingi-alam nanggugulo ulit iyong gustong magkapera nanggugulo,” Guico ridiculed the bronzed skin and potholes' face Remogat that brought guffaw among the crowd.

Remogat earlier bylined two news articles in this newspaper titled: VM Gayo Bats more VMLP Advocacies and Ex-Guv Espino, P’nan Dads Support Perez for PCL Election.

Mestiso iyon hahaha!” he chuckled on his sarcasm to the reporter before the attendees and other guests like his special adviser Cezar T. Quiambao and Congressmen Art Celeste and Mark Cojuangco.

MEANWHILE, Governor Guico will support the reelection bid of Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil for the presidency of the League of Mayors of the Philippines – Pangasinan Chapter (LMP-PC), he told members of the legislative bodies of the municipalities of the towns of Calasiao, Mapandan, Sta. Barbara, Malasiqui, and Bayambang and the city of San Carlos in Pangasinan.

Guico said that in the last election Bataoil showed fairness in allowing his party to do their campaign sorties in the capital town.

“Unang una last election hindi naman po siya hostile fair and square lang. Alam ni Congressman Mark (Cojuangco). Sports lang professional".

He wanted Bataoil to win the presidency of the LMP-PC in the election in August this year.

The governor recalled that after he was elected the governor of the forty-four towns and three cities’ province, Bataoil met him and showed his master plan of his 32 villages’ town.

When the presidency of the LMP was discussed on that meeting, Bataoil, a former police three –star general, retorted to the provincial chief executive he would not decline the offer to retain his post in the League.

“First instance nag usap kami (Bataoil). Pinakita niya ang master plan ng Lingayen. Sabi niya: “Hindi ko naman hinihingi pero hindi ko naman kayo (tatangihan),” on the acquiescence of the Mayor to head again the LMP in the gargantuan province.