By Leonardo Micua   “DON’T blame the DOH for (the) COVID spike. It’s the DILG.  They fumbled their contact tracing efforts.” This was recently posted by Wilson Chua, CEO of the Dagupan-based Bitstop, Inc. in his social media account. He has been analyzing data about the COVID-19 situation in the country,…

By Leonardo Micua AFTER a streak of bad news spurred by the continuous steep rise of COVID-19 cases, comes finally the good news that could hopefully whip up our spirit in this time of the pandemic. So inspiring is the report that a Filipino priest and scientist is now struggling…

Wrong move, wrong time By Leonardo Micua SOMETHING unexpected happened at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session on March 15. Vice Governor Mark Lambino stepped down his chair, as presiding officer, to propose a resolution that was met with cold shoulders from members of the ruling majority in that chamber. Lambino’s proposed…

A sudden nightmare By Leonardo Micua   AT a time when vaccination was finally being rolled out in various parts of the country after exactly one year of the coronavirus, a sudden surge of cases in some parts of the country, particularly in the National Capital Region, has made the situation virtually…

What holds for Dagupan’s garbage? By Leonardo Micua   THE closure of the Urdaneta Sanitary Landfill by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for various violations of environmental laws and specifically for converting itself into a mere open dumpsite, inevitably put not only booming Urdaneta City that owns the…

Dagupan City vs. Pangasinan on travel protocol By Leonardo Micua   THE new uniform, standard protocol for travelers approved by the national IATF, which was adopted outright by the Pangasinan provincial government on March 1, the very day it was supposed to be effective nationwide, seemed to have gotten a cold response…

Clearly, a discrimination vs. Pinoys By Leonardo Micua   FOR the record, as of this writing, no anti-COVID-19 vaccine of any brand has arrived in the country—I mean legally—despite assurances made to us earlier by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases or IATF that the jabs…

Is MGCQ the way to go? By Leonardo Micua   CAN the country now afford to adjust its status to the less restrictive Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) by March 1 as recommended by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) fortnight ago? This question will be answered soon by officials tasked…

A rotten egg in the basket? By Leonardo Micua   AFTER the mainstream media broke out the good news that President Duterte deferred the implementation of the Child’s Car Seat Law, then recently declaring Private Motor Vehicles Inspection Centers (PVMICs) as being not mandatory, owners of some 12 million vehicles across the country…