THOSE born in the 50s -70s celebrated Christmas as a religious activity with a Noche Buena prepared at home, midnight mass inside community churches. Christmas narrative remained on the Nativity and the birth of Jesus. Gift-giving with the magic of Santa Claus kept children’s excitement over Christmas as one of…
THE Dagupan citizenry is finally in for the good times ahead, thanks to the proactive new majority at the Sangguniang Panlungsod. Vice Mayor Bryan Kua, Majority Leader Michael Fernandez, Councilors Dennis Canto, Jigs Seen, Marcelino Fernandez and Bradley Benavidez have been working tirelessly for the past weeks, meeting in regular…
Proactive legislation at its best
SOME seventy-four anti-Duterte forces composed of civil society leaders, Magdalo faction, left-wing activists and members of the Makabayan bloc have filed not one, but two separate impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte accusing her of having committed more than two dozen crimes. As of this writing, a third complaint…
Block the impeachment complaints
THE Quad committee of the House of Representatives has been holding investigations “in aid of legislation” zeroing on alleged corruption and plunder in the office of Vice President Sara Duterte. The hearings wanted to know how the P125 million was spent by the vice president. Were it not for the…
When ‘benchmarking’ becomes an alibi for graft
THIS was the terse message that the seven opposition councilors at the Dagupan sanggunian got from Regional Trial Court Judge Michael Paul Israel, who junked the Special Civil Action No. 2023-0008-D (for Declaratory Relief with Prayer for Injunction and Temporary Restraining Order) filed by Councilors Librada Fe Reyna, Maria Lourdes…
Strike three, you’re out!
IN an unprecedented show of leadership, former President Rodrigo R. Duterte did the unthinkable. He showed up in two separate congressional hearings, first at the Senate and then at the House of Representatives, breaking a tradition of enviable mutual respect extended to past presidents – not to be made to…
Another Duterte Legacy
THE 7 opposition councilors at the Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod met their second comeuppance with the 60-day preventive suspension of Councilors Redford Erfe-Mejia, Alipio Serafin Fernandez and Victoria Czarinna Lim-Acosta. The preventive suspension was issued by the Office of the President based on a petition filed by Vice Mayor Bryan Kua,…
When will they grow up?
THE initial call for an investigation into the reported extra-judicial killings during the war on drugs in the House of Representatives was welcomed by most. It was seen as an opportunity not only to do justice to verified victims of police operatives who violated the protocol but also to assess…
Senate vs. QuadCom hearings on drug war
AFTER the three successive attempts to suspend Urdaneta City Mayor Julio Parayno over the flimsiest complaint on governance, it has become much too obvious to Urdanetans that both Governor Ramon Guico III and Vice Governor Mark Lambino are conspiring to serve the city’s mayoralty post to the governor’s wife, Maan…
A ‘QuadCom’ play in Urdaneta
THE continuing probe of the drug war by the QuadCom at the House of Representatives is nothing but a trial by publicity in aid of the reelection of its chairmen and their confederates and to put an end to the Dutertes’ continued political influence. The hypocritical motive is not about…