By Gonzalo Duque   TWO precedent-setting cases that checked abuses of local Sanggunians must teach the Belen Fernandez administration how to deal with the recalcitrant seven members of the majority of the Dagupan city council. These cases — one in Quezon province and the other in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya — involved…

By Gonzalo Duque   LAND Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chairman Teofilo Guadiz III, I learned, has not been enticed by the Lim camp’s proposition that he run for mayor of Dagupan City next year against Mayor Belen Fernandez. I can easily understand that. If Guadiz files for candidacy,…

By Gonzalo T. Duque    THE ever-nagging problem of garbage collection in the city of Dagupan remains unresolved. Mayor Belen Fernandez submitted lot of proposals for the collection of our garbage during her previous administration and now during her current term after the failed 15 million dollar Waste-to-Energy project by…

By Gonzalo Duque   TO me, the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last July 22 was like a reading class. All he did was to read what was before him on the teleprompter. In his SONA, he bragged that 550 flood control projects…

By Gonzalo Duque   CONGRATULATIONS to The Sunday Punch for adding another milestone in its history as a fighting community newspaper—its 68th anniversary. The Sunday Punch is now the longest surviving community newspaper in the country today. The Baguio Midland Courier, the oldest community newspaper in Baguio and the Cordilleras…

By Gonzalo Duque    IN the United States today, activists are tearing down statues of different historical heroes from as far back as the American Revolution against British autocratic rule, the Civil War and down to World War II. They consider these memorials as irrelevant today and began tearing them…

By Gonzalo Duque    I don’t know if a reconciliation is still possible between the group of Mayor Belen and the seven magnificent  councilors. I have it on reliable source that the seven would like to have a share in  the pie of whatever funds the city may have for their own…

By Gonzalo Duque   I had a brief conversation with Orly Navarro, manager of radio station DWIZ and a close friend of Brian Lim and family about politics in Dagupan. I asked him why he interviewed Mayor Belen Fernandez three times in his radio program “ Orly You” and what…

By Gonzalo Duque   THE resignation Sara Duterte as Secretary of Education has been long in coming. Everybody has long been expecting her resignation. Many are aware that the Vice President has been treated as an outsider in the Marcos administration. It must be lonely to be an outsider but…

By Gonzalo Duque   WE just celebrated our 126th Independence Day last June 12. Every year since we were under Martial Law, our government leaders were always barking the same line that before we became independent “we need to work for it and if necessary, die for it.” Such a…