By Leonardo Micua AS clear as day, Dagupan’s annual city budget and its integral plans as well as the Annual Investment Plan, all for Calendar Year 2023, will not be passed before the March 31, 2023 deadline. The seven-man majority in the Sangguniang Panlungsod appears to be in no…
By Leonardo Micua FROM where I sit, I view the incident in Bayambang where a woman onion farmer, who testified in the senate hearing and cried harassment when the police visited her not once but eight times, as an eye-opener . From what I gathered, the issue started when…
The furor about onion farmer without the SP
By Leonardo Micua INQUIRER.net reported on Friday (before our deadline) that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chaired by Senator Francis Tolentino has recommended the filing of criminal charges against at least eight former and current officials of the Department of Education and of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget…
Capitol failed to protect our onion growers
By Leonardo Micua NOT until DILG Provincial Director Virgilio Sison paid an unscheduled visit at the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod on January 10 did we know that it’s only Dagupan, among all local government units in Region 1, that does not yet have an approved annual budget for 2023 till…
Majority in SP hurting Dagupan
By Leonardo Micua LAST week, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. stunned the rank and file of the Philippine National Police when he challenged all bigwigs, from full colonel to general, to tender their courtesy resignation amid speculations that a few of them are involved in illegal…
Sleepless nights for corrupt cops
By Leonardo Micua THIS week, permit me to reprint the my good friend and The Punch’s news correspondents in USA, Tocayo Leonardo J. Galvez ‘s post on his Facebook account. Mr. Galvez used to write for The Punch till he decided to migrate in the Land of Milk and…
Tocayo Nards’ thoughts
By Leonardo Micua DURING the first midnight mass this Yuletide season at Saint John the Evangelist Cathedral last December 16, many were touched by the homily of Archbishop Socrates Villegas who intoned “Ang lahat ay may katapusan” (All will have its end). If you ask me, that was pregnant…
The archbishop’s message for the city
By Leonardo Micua I was taken aback and offended when I heard City Secretary Ryan Ravanzo, whom I bumped into at the River Grove on JdV Expressway, Wednesday night, tell other local media that I was already banned from attending and covering (via zoom) all proceedings in the Sangguniang Panlungsod. But when I called up Ryan Friday morning before I could…
SP wants PUNCH banned
By Leonardo Micua COMEDIAN Roderick Paulate was meted 62 years for hiring ghost employees in his office when he was Quezon City councilor in 2010, who cannot be traced if they existed or not. Note that Paulate was found guilty by the Sandiganbayan to have committed one count of…
More ‘Paulates’ from Dagupan soon
By Leonardo Micua GOOD news from the Dagupan City Information Office under Mayor Belen Fernandez! An Interim Report regarding the Project Preparation Study for a Tri-City Ferry System Project that will link Dagupan, Alaminos City and San Fernando cities with each other was presented last November 15 to stakeholders, government…