Martinez clan is one for Ripley

By Jun Velasco

SOME of the Rotarians thought they were listening to Raul Manglapus when Joey de Venecia hammered at the tough issues Tuesday night at Charlie Ngo’s Star Plaza.

 The  inter city  Rotary  meeting led by Downtown president Romel Partosa , however,  were biting their nails at the avalanche of guests who  came to see and  hear Joey, who became an overnight sensation after he  exposed the aborted NBN ZTE  caper.  We hope the oversized audience didn’t cost the Rotarians a fortune.

 After their date, the Rotarians thought Joey is the fittest to fit the shoes of the Speaker who is now on his third and last term in Congress.

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 What can a newspaper column and columnist do?  Well, our neighbor and biking mate at the city plaza when we were in short pants,  Gonzalo Duque, showed that through his advocacy,  the province  is now taking steps to fix and probably  legislate the founding date of  the province.

Guv’nor  Spines should  hold appropriate rites to commend the Sunday Punch and  columnist Duque for  the  brilliant idea and, if possible, launch a historic event or series of events that will climax at the province’s 400th year in  2011 in line with famed historian Rosario  Mendoza  Cortes’ account  that Pangasinan was discovered  in l611.

We’re sure that being a stickler for history, Guv’nor Spines, who was already our best pal during the turbulent 60’s, will view this matter with sacrosanct attention.

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Two new head-turner infra landmarks in Dagupan that have upgraded the city’s  modernizing look and outlook  are the 90-percent finished Dawel-Lucao alternate road and  Vice Mayor Belen  Fernandez’s landmark convention center, the largest of that kind north of Manila.

Probably the third must-see destination in the city is Mayor Al Fernandez’s farm house in Bacayao Norte although concealed from the public view.

The alternate road, funded from JdV’s Countryside Development Fund, will cut travel time of motorists paying the west and east of Pangasinan or of Hundred Islands and Baguio City and Manaoag’s Shrine to boost tourism.

Local eco-tourism leader Jigs Seen, former Dagupan Jaycees president, sees the outgrowth as Pangasinan’s answer to Tarlac’s imminent eco-tourism leap with the completion of the Tarlac-Subic super highway.   

Thank Jun Ebdane and Fidel Ginez of the DPWH for putting their might and soul in the expeditious completion of the alternate road. In March, Fidel Ginez said.

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The Martinez clan is holding a grand reunion first week of January. So what of it? You ask. Well, it’s our maternal name.

But more than that, our late grandpa  and grandma, laki Peles and Bai  Elang had a great life and love story having been born on the same day and  baptized at the Roman Catholic  Church on the same day, with their names appearing one after the other in the registry book.

Subsequent episodes would show that the couple and their family broke from the church when the priest fell in love with Bai Elang, who was a standout beauty in her days.

Our nephew, Jethro Martinez, manager of Landbank Pasong Tamo, Makati branch is this year’s executive chairman.  

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City heirs will come together again on December 28 at the resplendent plaza. There’s one thread of emotions that make them tireless in meeting annually. Their love for dear alma mater. It’s a surprise though that in spite of big stories about many alumni’s successful sagas in life, they could not put up an alumni building that bespeaks of their love for alma mater. Is it a case of “love only in words, and not in deeds?”

We are reminding alumni president Joey Tamayo of this sad commentary because it at once belies vaunted success stories of city high alumni.  We also request school principal, Dr. Teodora Nabor, the best friend of Dr. Agnes Raguinan, Manaoag Hi principal, to alert the alumni of their over-extended lull in completing to alumni building that had started.

Winners of the regional secondary press conference in Manaoag Hi are Laoag Division, overall champ; Ilocos Norte, 1st runner up, and Pangasinan II, 2nd runner up. We keynoted the opening day per request of the Speaker, who had to rush to Manila, in which we urged the young journalists to make love of country the first requisite for developing their writing talents, ala Rizal.

(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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