Report your mayor, kapitan By Ermin Garcia Jr.   ARE your mayor and barangay kapitan conscientiously working for your benefit and country or for their personal gains? I refer to the manner and frequency of the distribution of food relief and cash aid authorized by the national government and allowed…

Fighting COVID-19 with technology By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THERE is a chance for our country to defeat COVID-19. It is not so much about the vaccine and treatment as much as stopping its contagion, the exponential spread of the virus! This is the very reason why we are all…

Is there life after COVID-19? By Ermin Garcia Jr.   FOR humans whose emotional strength and bond arise from physical closeness, how does one explain, invoke and demand social distancing as a way of life?  To stay away from everyone? Not only it is simply incomprehensible, it is unnatural. It…

Hybrid lockdown By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THE declaration of a “Community Quarantine” in Metro Manila is effectively a semi-lockdown. I say “semi“ because it imposes a semblance of restrictions on physical movements of people but not fully and effectively. It’s a hybrid, not a hardcore lockdown. The lockdown that…

The protracted war on drugs By Ermin Garcia Jr.   IF the government’s war on drugs appears to be protracted despite valiant efforts of operatives of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and local police, blame it on two statutes: the constitutional ban on death penalty and the plea bargain option…

About friends and sinners   By Ermin Garcia Jr.   LAST week, a Mrs. (?) Teresita G. Torio of Bonuan Binloc in Dagupan City, who said has been following our column for the past two years, sent a “special delivery” letter (not email) and paid P23 to make sure I…

Garbage mess, Mayor Lim’s responsibility   By Ermin Garcia Jr. THE Brian Lim administration in Dagupan City came to power with its touted slogan Shared Responsibility (which by the way is not an original slogan by the Lims). But since he assumed his post, city residents have not heard the…

Lim’s Dagupan City is a dumpsite By Ermin Garcia Jr.   DAGUPAN City is no longer the clean prosperous city but beginning to be a serious eyesore that indicates the kind of or the absence of governance in the city today. I am in receipt of pictures from PUNCH readers…

Clock is ticking for dumpsite By Ermin Garcia Jr.  THE Brian Lim administration in Dagupan City should thank its stars that a compromise has been reached with PENRO’s Raymundo Gayo on the use of the already closed dumpsite. The Lim administration may think it has come to terms with what…

Information is best antidote to nCov By Ermin Garcia Jr. PANGASINAN residents need not panic over the news that a Chinese tourist was found positive of nCoronavirus, and because drug stores have run out of face masks to sell.   On the internet, a number of useful information and tips…