Reviving the Dawel River Cruise By Leonardo Micua REMEMBER the Island Tours during the administration of Mayor Belen Fernandez?  Well, the new city administration of Mayor Brian Lim appears bent on restoring the old Dawel River Cruise launched by his late father as mayor. This became evident after I saw one of…

A first for Dagupan: No SGLG By Leonardo Micua THE list of 2019 Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) awardees released by the Department of the Interior and Local Government sadly did not include perennial winners Dagupan and Urdaneta cities. Why? Only Alaminos and San Carlos cities were in the…

A story on broken election promises By Leonardo Micua AN angry mob stormed the mayor’s office, seized the town official, tied his hands to a rope connected to a Toyota pick-up truck that dragged him along the street in full view of his constituents.  Thankfully, this did not happen in the…

Backyard hog raisers badly hit By Leonardo Micua BURY that trader, not our pigs. This was the tearful plea translated in English of a backyard hog raiser in Mapandan town who protested the seizure and subsequent culling of her pigs by the personnel of the Department of Agriculture who went…

Uncleared street vendors’ paradise By Leonardo Micua HAS Dagupan City under Mayor Brian Lim done enough in road clearing with just only a few days away before the deadline set by the Department of Interior and Local Government within which to comply? The Jovellanos St. behind City Hall, which is not…

Ordeals in the news coverage (Part 2) By Leonardo Micua “HINDI ako galit. Natutuwa lang“, was Eva Visperas’ posted reaction to a photo snapped by Cesar Ramirez, her colleague in Philippine Star, showing her and Nora Dominuez of Net 25 in dreamland on a couch at the receiving room in the…

Ordeals in news coverage TIRED, thirsty, famished and most often spent! These ordeals are what journalists worth their salt usually end up to while looking for the hard news and will not hesitate to repeat this sacrifice all over again provided they get the goods and deliver this pronto to their respective outlets.  This…

A bad idea By Leonardo Micua THE call of Agriculture Secretary William Dar for provincial governments to take an active part in the procurement of palay directly from farmers gravely affected by the low farmgate price of their product, is not a well vetted proposition.  We are not a pessimist but local governments going to…

Wanted: Super body to check flooding By Leonardo Micua WHILE most of us were still snoring in bed, Tropical Depression Jenny crossed Northern Luzon and sneaked past Dagupan City and Pangasinan. And before we could switch on our TV to get the latest update on the weather, “Jenny” was already howling…

Political persecution By Leonardo Micua WE read several posts on the social media that our good friend Finnela Sim is now out as sports commissioner of the city government. Councilor Joey Tamayo said as much in his own Facebook account: “Mam Finnela Sim. I heard the news that you gave…