Here and There
Lingayen, sleepy town no longer
By Gerry Garcia
LINGAYEN’S days of being a lazy sleepy town are numbered. An energetic hands-on mayor is presently at the helm of administration and is leaving no stone unturned, especially when a military-man-turned-congressman became this province’s new governor. Former Gen. Amado “Spines” Espino, now governing Luzon’s largest province, presently finds himself and his family residing at Urduja House in Lingayen facing the historic Lingayen Gulf and on a coastline he has always deemed the “heart and soul” of tourism in Pangasinan.
A top priority in Espino’s program of development projects is the enhancement of tourism, especially in Lingayen where he now resides and where the provincial capitol, in which he holds office, stands.
Seems ironic, he says, that LIngayen town which has been the provincial government center for decades still remains a town, a rural community flanked on both sides by the flourishing cities of Dagupan in the east and Alaminos in the west.
Even next-door neighbor Binmaley is presently gunning for cityhood.
Lingayen fortunately has a mayor sharing common vibrations with the governor with spine, a strong backbone.
Lingayen Mayor Ernesto Castañeda’s government is coordinating with the provincial government in a comprehensive survey to determine the public lands sufficiently ripe for development into eco-tourism sites, some areas being surveyed for development happily coincide with those being eyed by Espino as the “heart and soul” of tourism in Pangasinan — the long historic coastline in Lingayen.
Gov. Espino, being himself a military-man, is not unaware of the historic significance of the Lingayen coastline. It was where then Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his liberation forces landed on Jan. 9, 1945 to liberate Luzon from Japanese occupation.
Downtown Lingayen has of late been receptive of additional Manila-based investments, like Chowking, Jollibee, etc. Mayor Castañeda further revealed that several investors have already signified intention to come to Lingayen and put up eco-tourism in partnership with local entrepreneurs.
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Sunday Punch’s attainment of its 51st year of success was not the result of only a few individuals’ efforts.
There were others from the local media-world who willingly lent a hand to help build this paper up to its present level.
We had the late Manny Vent Cornel and Armando Ravanzo who worked with the editorial staff, including Fred Macaraeg who now edits another community paper; Behn Hortaleza, now editor-in-chief of Pangasinan Star; Rhee Fer Hortaleza, editor-in-chief, Regional Weekly Inquirer. Also the late Vic Tuazon, who had headed the International Press Center in M-Manila, was a Punch columnist; Charles Tabayoyong, associate editor, Regional Weekly Inquirer, was the reportorial staff, including radio anchor-woman Helen Bernardo who contributed feature stories about people of consequence in Dagupan City and Pangasinan.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/)
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