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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

THERE must be something inherently wrong with the mindset of both the voting populace and the candidates vying for positions that Commission on Elections (Comelec) has to set stringent rules and guidelines on campaign activities. Over the past decades, Comelec issued rules vs. vote-buying, designation of common poster areas, limitations…

THE worsening corruption of the country’s elections under the cover of a democratic system will again take a heavy toll not only on both the candidates and voting populace for the 2025 election but in the next administration of the local government. Already high in the minds of voters during…

FOR too long, we have seen presidents come and go, grappling with the issue of how best to support farmers’ livelihood.  They ordered subsidies to keep costs of production low, built more roads for better access to markets, delivered equipment, etc.  But one thing they failed to do was to…

OVER the past two decades, Pangasinan was always one of the worst-hit provinces in north and central Luzon each time a super typhoon hit the province. Yet so far, the Pangasinan provincial government has only gone as far as creating the Pangasinan Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PPDRRMO),…