By Ermin Garcia Jr.   WITHOUT a doubt, the bangus and fish industry in Dagupan City is worth millions daily. This is where the sad plight of the small ambulant fish vendors in Dagupan City today started and suddenly became an emotional issue. And, it is not because of the…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THE time for reckoning is here for all incumbent local officials. There is no doubt that the main issue in this local election is about performance amid the pandemic. The inept and incompetent incumbents seeking reelection will be called on to account for their lackluster…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   I just lost another dear friend in Pangasinan – Ex Exconde. He passed away last Saturday September 18, not from Covid but from aneurysm at age 92. I actually wondered what Ex’s real first name was when I first met him at the Rotary Club…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   WHY was I not surprised that Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim was among the first to call for a suspension of the opening of classes for 20 days? The continuous surge in COVID-19 cases in the city government is hardly surprising in the first place….

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   I watched Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim’s video-taped message on the downgrading of the quarantine classification of Dagupan City, from MGCQ to GCQ keenly. I had hoped to hear him tick off the strategy he crafted to help Dagupan residents fight the fast-spreading COVID-19 virus…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THE filing of the cases against PhilHealth officers and employees in both national and regional offices with the Ombudsman by the NBI Dagupan District comes as a breath of fresh air even as we wear face masks and face shields! It’s the development that the…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   WE decided on the unprecedented high number of COVID-19 deaths in one day in Dagupan City as The PUNCH’s headline this week if only to make our communities realize the deadly consequences of irresponsibility and serious lack of discipline in our midst. It’s not our…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   FINALLY, the surge in cases in Dagupan City gets the attention of Mayor Brian Lim. What I find ironic, if not hypocritical, is his analysis and realization of the causes of the surge in human transmission of COVID-19 virus today as if nobody in the…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   Last week, I said I would share an FB post by someone who got infected by COVID-19 and detailed his experiences so everyone would have an idea how it is to be inflicted with it and how painful it is to be treated. My idea…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   AT the rate the country is going and managing the COVID-19 pandemic, people are obviously beginning to take the pandemic as merely a problematic numbers issue. Except for media’s sources of news updates, there are no human faces attached to the problem. This explains in…