Manay Gina goes global

Manay Gina in Cambodia: From left: Former President Fidel V. Ramos, Congresswoman Gina de Venecia, Philippine Ambassador to Cambodia Noe Wong, and former congressman Roque Ablan in ICAPP confab in Cambodia

Abono hits abundance of offal in the market

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

ROSALES – The chairman of Abono Party-list assailed the Department of Agriculture for allowing the proliferation of imported offal in Pangasinan.

Offal are parts of butchered animals like chopped ears, snout, brain, and others, which are major ingredient of a popular delicacy sisig.

Offal are peddled for P80 a kilo, way below the price of its local counterpart which is P150 a kilo.

Eng. Rosendo So said that the base price of offal is very low because the government allowed its tariff to be decreased from 30% to 5%.

So stressed that the Minimum Allowable Volume (MAV) should not arbitrarily exempt offal from the 30% tariff as agreed with other countries like the United States.

“Kasi iyong within the MAV its 30%, while outside the MAV its 40%. Ang nangyari doon is ang offal tinangal nila duon sa MAV. Dapat nasa loob ng MAV iyon. Ang layo doon sa presyo na 30% na protection sa ating local industry.,” he explained.

He said that MAV does not only cover offal, but also chicken, corn, coffee, and other agricultural products.

So added that he would ask Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala why people at the DA allowed this lopsided trade practice to happen.

He said that he was disturbed because the pronouncements of the people on MAV differed from those of Alcala when they met recently.

“May sindikato sa loob,” he quipped.

He disclosed that the unabated entry of high volumes of offal and other pork products do not threaten big time hog raisers but would undermine the backyard swine industry that composes 70% of the market.

“Kasi kung mamatray ang backyard, sino ang bibili ng mais natin? Sino ang bibili ng binlit? Ng darak? Sino ang bibili ng molasses? Sino ang bibili ng coconut oil na waste? Marami ang farmers na madi-dislocate as backyard raisers.”

He lamented that the U.S has been subsidizing its farmers. He cited that price of corn there is P6 a kilo only, while it is sold in the Philippines for P12 to P13 a kilo.

“Duun pa lang talo na tayo. Kung gusto nilang (Philippines) protektahan ang local industry natin, dapat ibalik sa 30% ang tariff,” he concluded.

He said that offal, innards, and chicken thighs are not consumed by people abroad thus they dumped them to countries like the Philippines.

Domantay sad that opponents nixed covenant

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

MALASIQUI- The mayor here deplored how his political opponents have breached the covenant they entered with him before the elections of the Sangguniang Kabataan and the Association of Barangay Captains.

He said that he and Brgy. Captain Alfie Soriano and his father, former Mayor Alfonso Soriano, signed a covenant of support in November 22, 2011.

In the agreement each of them promised to give their full and unconditional support to a candidate endorsed by Domantay for the presidency of the SK poll, and the Sorianos for the presidency of the ABC.

The covenant stipulated that all the allies of the first and second parties represented by Domantay and the Sorianos, respectively, will give their full support to the candidates endorsed by the two parties.

But this town mayor lamented that the opposite happened on the part of the Sorianos.

“But sad to say that they do not follow the covenant. They put up an opponent against my daughter. When I was in Manila they got some SK chairmen and put them in their house.”

He said that the photo copies of the signed covenant he gave to the media men would unmask how the Sorianos violated their promise.

Despite the brouhaha before the conclusion of the poll, Grace Domantay and the young Soriano still won the presidency of the SK and the ABC , respectively.

Squabbles caused by P-Noy’s visit; Malpractice at Colegio de Dagupan

Columnist Neil Cruz of the Philippine Daily Inquirer was wrong when he said that investigating former President Gloria M. Arroyo will take time if it is conducted by the Truth Commission instead of the Department of Justice.

My favorite columnist Cruz should know that a public official with a salary grade of 27 and above who committed a crime during his incumbency will be under the jurisdiction of the investigative power of the Ombudsman and not the DOJ.

After the Ombudsman finds probable-cause against Arroyo on her likely plunder cases, she will be ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan and thrown to jail without bail unless evidence against her is not strong.

The reason why President Aquino created the Truth Commission was because he does not trust the Ombudsman under the watch of perceived Arroyos’ lackey Merciditas Gutierrez to resolve that there is a probable cause to sue the former lady president.

The Ombudsman is so powerful that it could use or not use the Special Prosecutor (formerly Tanodbayan) to prosecute an accused.

***

The visit of President Aquino in Bani, Pangasinan caused a furor.

The governor and a huge numbers of mayors saw the action of the President and Bani Mayor Marcelo Navarro a classless act.

Why? The Presidential Management Staff did not invite them to join the inauguration of the 100 houses given by the national and local governments and the United Nations to the victims of Typhoon Emong that left them homeless.

Lingayen Mayor Jonas Castaneda told me that it was the first time in his celebrated political career that a sitting president did not invite a governor of one of the most populated province of the Philippines when he visited the turf of the latter.

But what spiced-up the post-visit of Aquino were the verbal tussles that ensued in radio between the governor and Mayor Navarro.

Last Friday, Bombo-Radyo reported that Espino was heard calling Navarro “gago” and the 100 houses “kubeta”.

After that radio report, the other station Aksyon-Radyo interviewed Espino. Navarro was heard to have said: “Anu ang pinuputok ng butsi ni Governor”.

He added that the mayor was heard to have said that he does not go to Lingayen (the seat of the provincial capitol) because he is afraid that Espino would order his ambush.

***

When I asked former three-star general Rey Velasco half a year ago why there was bad blood between the two. He told me that he does not want to comment. But as far as he knew the duo were not only classmates at the Philippine Military Academy (they graduated in 1972) but bunk and company mates in their four-year study in Baguio City.

For the benefit of some peasant who just started to read this column, after Espino reached the rank of police colonel, he ran and won twice for a seat in congress. Then he won as governor of Pangasinan twice.

***

Mr. Toots Orfiñada, Information Officer of Alaminos City, informed me to belie the claim of the critics of his mayor – Nani Braganza. He said it was not true that the name of Governor’s Island has been changed to Big Brother’s House Island (name derived from a reality show in TV).

“Kailan man ay hindi napalitan ang Governor’s Island ng Big Brother’s House (at the Hundred Islands National Park)…At kahit balibaliktarin ang mga ordinansa ng Alaminos. Wala ring ganitong tema,” he stressed.

***

ABS-CBN Northern Luzon reported that the absconding treasurer of Balungao, Pangasinan is accountable for P8 million unremitted municipal funds.

But my source in that town said the bursar is liable to return a staggering P12.5 million public funds. He said the mayor there, who signed the release of the cash withdrawals, is also liable.

He added that those who benefited for the withdrawals are incumbent and former municipal councilors, and municipal officials.

“Some are as big as P1.2 million. How can the town collect when some of these councillors were defeated in the last election?” he posed to me.

***

Colegio de Dagupan (CdD) president and owner Voltaire Arzadon will one day wake-up that many of his students transfer en-masse to rival schools in Dagupan City.

The complaint by a student at Bombo-Radyo recently was damaging.

She exposed that students at CdD are obliged to donate two kinds of Christmas gifts. The first kind would exempt a student to take an examination. The other one would eventually give a student a passing grade without taking an examination.

She said each student was asked to give used clothing, one kilo of rice, one-fourth kilo of sugar, can goods, and 25 kilogram of coffee.

She complained that she was financially drained because she just paid more than three thousand pesos of her tuition before this duress was imposed to them.

Susmariosep, Mr. Arzadon what your school is doing is unchristian and hypocritical!

(Send comments to totomortz@yahoo.com)