LAST HURRAH FOR FIRECRACKERS. With only three days more to go before New Year’s Eve, the nationwide ban on firecrackers is now too late in the day to implement. President Rodrigo Duterte, we were informed, is not keen on implementing the ban this year, noting the huge investments of businessmen…

PRAYER, ONLY OPTION LEFT — Do you expect a Merry Christmas? Yes, you must, despite seemingly insurmountable trials. But how can we say the same thing to the families of five fishermen who went missing more than two weeks ago after fishing off the Panatag Shoal? They are clinging only…

SILLY AND STUPID. The silly rumor that Mayor Belen will be suspended was, to me, nothing but a sick joke if not a cheap political maneuver unleashed by certain quarters probably with sick minds (what else?) in a bid to sow intrigue and shoot down Belen’s continuous rising popularity amid her many glowing accomplishments for the city. They can always try but they won’t succeed….

DEPICTING THE BIRTH OF CHRIST – If Tarlac has its Belenismo, Dagupan City, has its Paseo de Belen with 20 big crèches intricately crafted by city folks from indigenous and recycled materials displayed along de Venecia Highway Extension. I was there during its opening on Dec. 7. I patiently waited…

THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS AND THE PEDESTRIANS –  The motorists and pedestrian traffic lights installed at the corner of A. B. Fernandez Avenue, M.H. del Pilar Street and Arellano street no doubt excited many motorists and pedestrians in the city who may not be used to these things before. Thanks to…

KERWIN’S & RONNIE’S REVELATIONS— Ronnie Dayan is now being hailed as the newest sensation among drivers throughout the country as the real epitome of “Basta driver, sweet lover” because of his affair with one of the most powerful women in the country today. But levity aside, Dayan’s testimony before Congress…

KERWIN ESPINOSA’S WORD— Hopefully, lightning will not strike twice on the Espinosas now that suspected drug lord Kerwin Espinoza is finally back from Abu Dhabi where he was in hiding for months. Remember that Kerwin’s father, Rolando, mayor of Albuera, Leyte, was shot dead inside his cell at the Leyte…

IMPROVED TRAFFIC IN THE CITY – Perhaps, no other administrations in Dagupan has given more time, money and energy in fixing traffic than the present administration of Mayor Belen T. Fernandez. In fact, many mayors before her also zealously tried to untangle the daily traffic mess which had been on,…

ANOTHER COAL-FIRED PLANT?  We doff our hat to President Rodrigo Duterte for saying ‘no’ to the revival of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant as proposed by some sectors including our former Cong. Mark Cojuangco, the chief exponent of this idea ever since he was in Congress and even in…

ILLEGAL AND IRREGULAR. The four members of the minority in the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan are now on the spot for taking advantage of the physical absence of all members of the majority in the session hall and of Mayor Belen Fernandez when they passed a controversial resolution welcoming the entry…