LONG-TERM SOLUTION TO FLOOD SEEN WITH widespread flooding recently inundating large parts of Pangasinan, provincial leaders are ramping up efforts to implement long-term, province-wide solutions targeting the root causes of the problem: silted and degraded river systems.   Governor Ramon Guico III and Vice Governor Mark Ronald Lambino are both…

RIVERS HIT CRITICAL LEVEL DUE TO RAINS COMBINED rains from the southwest monsoon or habagat and a series of typhoons over the last two weeks triggered flooding in many parts of Pangasinan, prompting so far 11 local government units – including commercial center Dagupan City and the capital town of…

FORMER SANGGUNIAN MAJORITY FIZZLED OUT THE Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the criminal and administrative complaints filed last year against Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez, Vice Mayor Dean Bryan Kua, and six other city officials in connection with the passage of the 2023 annual budget. The case stems from the approval…

OBSTRUCTIONISM IN CITY COUNCIL ENDS DAGUPAN’S new set of councilors kept their momentum on their second week in office, passing supplemental funds totaling about P250.63 million to bankroll priority programs and projects of the city administration. In its session last July 7, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) passed Supplemental Budget (No. O01-2025) worth…

SANGGUNIAN ASKED FOR GREEN LIGHT THE Dagupan City administration asked the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) to concur with the filing of formal complaints before the Ombudsman against contractors of the past Lim administration who defaulted in their contracts, delivered sub-standard projects, or failed to complete projects on time. City Legal Officer Aurora Valle…

EARLY TRANSITION INTO FUN SITE SEEN THE first phase of the two-phase clearing of the Bonuan Dumpsite or 85% of the area has been completed, and operations for the remaining 15% are continuing, according to Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez. The more than 60-year-old dumpsite will be transformed into an…

GUILTY OF SIMPLE MISCONDUCT THE Office of the Ombudsman, in a decision dated 31 January 2025, a copy of which was obtained by The PUNCH on Thursday, fined former Dagupan City Mayor Marc Brian Lim for simple misconduct due to a complaint filed by a private citizen over the closure…

NATIONWIDE ANTI-DRUG OPERATION ON THE Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) obtained a list of drug lords behind the illegal drug trade in the country and is now working on the arrest of these individuals. In an interview aired over Aksyon Radyo Pangasinan, PDEA Chief Isagani Nerez, a retired police general…

CONNECTED TO ILLEGAL DRUGS FOUND IN ZAMBALES AUTHORITIES recovered a total of six sacks containing suspected shabu, discovered in two separate incidents by fishermen, off the coasts of Bolinao and Agno on June 5. Initially, three fishermen reported finding five sacks containing white crystalline substance suspected to be methamphetamine hydrochloride…

AMID SUSPENSION ROW AMID a tense standoff on May 26 at the Sual Municipal Hall in the presence of officials from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the police, the town’s legal officer, Gerald Velasco, clarified in a media interview that Mayor Liseldo ‘Dong’ Calugay remains…