How Dagupan lost P2.5-M a year By Ermin Garcia Jr.   FIRST of all, I stand to be corrected. All along, I was of the mistaken belief that the Dagupan City Council amended the city’s fisheries ordinance without any provision for penalties! I was wrong. That was the foolish layman…

Trillanes, a shocking revelation By Ermin Garcia Jr.   I USED to shake my head in wonder each time I watched Sen. Sonny Trillanes doing his worst as an attack dog. But not anymore. I was privy to the close collaboration between Sen. Alan Cayetano and Trillanes when they dug…

Dumaguete Diocese shows the way By Ermin Garcia Jr.   LAST week, the Sun Star Dumaguete reported a news that could be an item in Ripley’s Believe it or Not! if we knew it wasn’t true. – “Diocese of Dumaguete to donate 14 hectares for drug rehab facility” For a…

CBCP’s misplaced eloquence By Ermin Garcia Jr.   I personally felt distressed on reading Archbishop Soc Villegas’ statement timed for the launching of the “Huwag kang papatay” advocacy. For starters, I failed to read a single line that spoke of the sacrifices and sufferings of our law enforcers, who continue…

Extra-judicial killings By Ermin Garcia Jr.   THERE’S been a lot of brouhaha over extra-judicial killings (EJK) lately that suddenly created doubts in the minds of overseas communities about how war on drugs in the country is proceeding. Why did it come to this? Recall that when calls for “observance…

The ink blot By Ermin Garcia Jr.   SOMETHING just doesn’t add up. For years, The PUNCH shared the Dagupenõs’ appreciation by reporting the glowing accomplishments of Mayor Belen Fernandez’s administration in our pages, from health and sanitation to education, from child care to senior citizens’ welfare, from peace and…

Cong Spines a drug personality? By Ermin Garcia Jr.   I HAVE no doubt Pangasinenses woke up last Thursday morning more shocked than surprised to find the names of Cong Spines, his administrator Raffy Baraan and Board Member Raul Sison included in PDU30’s recent martrix of drug trade at the…

PDU30 knows what Kapitans do By Ermin Garcia Jr.   LAST week, Sen. Alan S. Cayetano filed a bill seeking to postpone the barangay elections!   First the bad news. The Duterte administration is reportedly inclined to support the bill. This means that the corrupt barangay officials who to this…

Not a babe in the woods By Ermin Garcia Jr.   DID Urdaneta Mayor Bobom Perez actually say he will ban Muslims in his city during a flag ceremony? Seriously? Not on your life. The Perezes of Urdaneta are not the neophytes who can afford to be reckless in their…

Our 1,074 kapitans are drug suspects By Ermin Garcia Jr.   PDU30 is expected to name local government officials in the war on illegal drugs’ watch list this week. Great! The only trouble with such an announcement is that, it will surely disappoint many barangays, towns and cities if their…