A ‘SWEETHEART DEAL’ IT’S official. San Miguel Holdings Corp. (SMHC) will build the P34-billion Pangasinan Link Expressway (PLEX) that will connect Binalonan to Lingayen town at no cost to the provincial government. Gov. Ramon Guico III, who spoke before the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) regular session on Monday, July 10, announced…

LGC SECTION 323 REJECTED THE members of the majority at the Sanggunian Panlungsod (SP), again used their number to exclude the resubmitted 2023 annual budget of the city government in July 4, 2023 agenda. At the start of the session, Councilor and Majority Floor Leader Librada Reyna-Macalanda moved for the…

MAJORITY WITHDREW DILATORY TACTIC THE Dagupan Sangguniang Panlungsod finally passed the resolution adopting the Supplemental Investment Program (AIP) 1 of P148.98 million submitted by Mayor Belen Fernandez but after the majority attempted to suspend anew by insisting on introducing an amendment to adding P100,000 or more to the P500,000 budget…

SECOND ROUND BATTLE MAYOR Belen Fernandez convened the Local Development Council (LDC) to a meeting last Wednesday, June 21, and passed two resolutions approving the resubmission of the 2023 Annual Budget of P1.3 billion and the submission of the P148.9 million Supplemental Annual Investment Plan No. 1 to the Sangguniang…

FULL ALERT VS GUNS-FOR-HIRE THE Pangasinan Police Provincial Police has started preparing for the forthcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections by closely monitoring movements of all suspected guns-for-hire in the province. P/Col. Jeff Fanged, PPPO director, told The PUNCH, that identifying all possible and suspected guns-for-hire in Pangasinan was…

FORMATION OF PSB SNAGGED ANEW IT’S been nine months since the resolution creating the Personnel Selection Board (PSB) was submitted and certified urgent by Mayor Belen Fernandez, and the seven-man majority of the Sangguniang Panlungsod continues to block its adoption. The committee on civil service and government reorganization, chaired by…

HIRING, PROMOTIONS DEFERRED NO qualified personnel can still be appointed to help in the delivery of basic services and special programs and neither will the city hall employees set for promotion can get their due because the 7-majority suspended action anew on the resolution granting Mayor Belen Fernandez the authority…

AFTER TERMINATING EMPLOYEES AS if passing a zero budget for job order employees and deleting funds for scholars were not enough, the 7-man majority at the Sangguniang Panlungsod continues to block the resolution amending the city’s Human Resources Management, Promotion and Selection Board (HRMPSB) adopted in September 28, 2022. The…

57 CASES IN PANGASINAN FOURTEEN towns and four cities were recently included in the Provincial Health Office’s  (PHO) COVID-19 watchlist amid reports of increasing number of cases in Pangasinan despite the extreme hot weather with heat index daily no lower than sizzling 40 degrees Celsius. As of May 10, at…

SILG ABALOS GETS BRIEFER A BRIEFER on the passage of P864.91 million annual budget of Dagupan City was handed to Interior and Local Government Secretary Ben Hur Abalos by Mayor Belen Fernandez last April 30 when he was in Dagupan to spearhead the BIDA Fun Run and to do the…