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…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THE “water world” we’ve been seeing in Dagupan City the past weeks (and perhaps in other communities), is definitely merely a preview of the worst to happen. I’m referring to a situation when a code red typhoon hits northern Luzon in the middle of a…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   SOMETHING doesn’t seem to make sense in Dagupan City that was recently declared a “high risk area” for COVID-19. Within days of that declaration by the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU), the Lim administration declared the Tondaligan Beach open to families for business and swimming….

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   WHAT a revelation that was by LTFRB when it unwittingly admitted that its policy compelling provincial buses operating in the central and northern Luzon to use the North Luzon Express Terminal exclusively (and not the bus companies own terminals), during the Question Hour of the…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   IF the Lim administration in Dagupan City is still looking for ways to give meaning to its “Shared Responsibility,” it should look no further. The “P10K Ayuda, Ang Pag-asa” and “Sari-sari community Store”, the two advocacies of former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, are about…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   The PUNCH’s celebration of its 65th year of publishing and circulation is a significant milestone because it provides a ready journal of how cities and towns developed economically and culturally over 6 decades, who and which local politicians and political era made a deep impact…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   IT looks like the 2019 election campaign of Mayor Brian Lim is going to boomerang in 2022. He urged voters to vote then for him if they want to stop the flooding in their streets and homes by changing the mayor (then re-electionist Belen Fernandez)….

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THE last days of the mandatory wearing of face shields appears to be inevitable. Last week, DOH Usec. Leopoldo Vega, backed by DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III, preempted  the IATF on the issue by stating that wearing of face shields will no longer be required…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   EVERY week, we get a mouthful of data and statistics on the status of contagion of COVID-19 in the province. While there is reason for the health authorities in Pangasinan, particularly by the Provincial Health Office, to believe that the situation is well under control,…

By Ermin Garcia Jr.   AS more residents are taking to biking not only as means for short travels in and around towns and cities but as a lifestyle, something very worrisome is looming ahead. It’s about the absence of conduct, rules and ordinances on the roads and highways for…