DISCIPLINING FOUNTAIN-MAKERS –Sometimes you have to do the extreme to show you’re determined to make change. That’s exactly what this elected official in western part of Pangasinan did to end the era of “siga” and “balasubas” in a town where he once ruled as mayor. A little blast from the…

SIMPLE, HUMBLE MAN – All are equal when casting one’s vote, according to former Fifth District Rep. Mark Cojuangco, after waiting for almost three hours before he could cast his vote due to the long queue. To experience what people go through, he said he patiently waited for a hundred…

PEACE MAN! We saw the worst campaign so far for the May 9, 2016 elections. In media alone, attacks against the practitioners were so vicious, too personal. It was no longer candidates versus candidates but media versus media. Even among kumpadres and kumadres, no one was spared, relationships forgotten, long-time…

RAMPANT VOTE-BUYING. Many Pangasinenses are considered lucky because of the reported rampant vote-buying by politicians in many villages of Pangasinan, unchecked by the Comelec to this day. Vote-buying is already being done openly, in broad daylight in many places, including in one gasoline station in a town adjacent to Dagupan. That…

WHO NEEDS COMELEC CONTROL? The knee-jerk proposal of two politicians asking two towns in Pangasinan to be placed under Comelec control could be sending wrong signal to the people that there is a state of lawlessness in these towns–Urbiztondo and Bayambang. I asked my friend from Urbiztondo, Ricky, if lawlessness…

SEX OBJECTS IN ASINGAN. There was a loud uproar and protest from the women sector against the bikini open competition recently held in Asingan town. Photos of men and women who are romping the stage practically in their birthday suits were circulated in social media. No, it was not about…

RESPECT FOR THE FLAG. No more tattered flag in Malasiqui. Hooray! I saw this last week when I drove to the area fronting the municipal hall and saw the change in the flag hoisted at the flagpole. Thank you Mr. Mayor, for heeding our call in this section. We hope…

NO DRYING FACILITIES FOR SMALL FARMERS. We went around Pangasinan recently and the familiar sight we saw along the road were bags of palay being unloaded by farmers to be dried on the newly paved roads that are supposed to be for motor vehicles only. This sight seemed to indicate that farmers…

NO ‘PAKURONG’ THIS TIME. Many Dagupan voters were saddened when Manang Celia Lim withdrew from the mayoralty race and vice mayoralty aspirant Dean Bryan Kua did likewise, leaving Mayor Belen Fernandez and Vice Mayor Brian Lim now unopposed in their respective bids for a second term of office. Only the election of the…

AN EXCLUSIVE LP AFFAIR — Here’s one interesting eyewitnesses’ account (a media practitioner of a national television network and another from a government agency) about Monday’s visit of President Aquino III in Dagupan City. Many wondered why Gov. Amado Espino III was not among the VIPs seated on stage with…