FLOODED DOWNTOWN

Motorists cruise along flooded A.B.Fernandez West in Dagupan City last August 22. Several areas in the city were underwater as caused by heavy rains during the past days and due to hightide.CESAR RAMIREZ

No funds went to NGO- Abono

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

ROSALES – Amid the brouhaha brought by the alleged illegal disbursement of the P10 billion pesos priority development assistance fund (PDAF) to ghost non-government organizations (NGO), the Abono Party-list said the party did not download its fund to any NGO.

Abono chair Rosendo Sosaid the report that Abono channeled some funds to an NGO was “baseless.”
“We never downloaded (any amount) to any NGOs fund na galing sa PDAF natin. Wala tayong dina-download,” he stressed.
He said Abono endorsements like the corn program for farmer-beneficiaries were passed to the municipal and provincial governments and not through any NGO.
He assailed as “hearsay” the reports of the national media that dragged the name of the party and some members of congress.
He cited the case of Abono Representative Robert Estrella who was implicated in the document released to the media by the National Bureau of Investigation. The report said Estrella received P30 million.
So said the media was not certain about the amount they were reporting

Fight versus pork far from over – Cayetano

By Yolanda Sotelo

ANTI-PORK SENATOR: Senator Peter Cayetano (center) answered media men in Pangasinan about the evils brought by the traditional pork-barrel system among senators and congressmen. Cayetano is flanked by Pangasinan Governor Amado T. Espino (left) and Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil (2nd District, Pangasinan) (right). MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

LINGAYEN – Senator Peter Alan Cayetano said the fight against the Priority Development Allocation Fund is far from over as the 2014 budget still contains allocations for the pork barrel.
“We’re not there yet because the budget submitted is not pork-free. (So) with President Aquino’s pronouncement abolishing the pork barrel system, I hope my resolution abolishing PDAF or any other variation or other name, will be passed and applied to the 2014 budget,” Cayetano told reporters on Friday after bringing relief goods to flood victims in this town.
He said his resolution called for a “line item budget” that will ensure that all congressional districts, towns and cities will have development fund but the projects are already specified in the national budget.
“Pork barrel is basically lump sum and discretion (on what project to implement) is given to the legislators. Take out lump sum and discretion and they (legislators) will have to follow the ordinary rule,” Cayetano said.

SP oks Espino to ink MOA for airport expansion

LINGAYEN- The Sangguniang Panlalawigan has approved Provincial Resolution No. 10-2013 authorizing Gov. Amado T. Espino Jr. to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the lot owners for the purchase of portions of lots adjacent to the Lingayen Airport.
The resolution, authored by BM Liberato Villegas approved by the SP during the special session held last August 23 at the SP Session Hall, authorizes Espino to sign the MOA with the owners of lots B-39, B-40 and B-41 who have agreed to the sale of portions of their lots for the purpose of the expansion program.
The expansion program will include the development of about 455.23 meter runway expansion that will enable the airport accommodate commercial flights.
The runway which is at 1.17 kilometer stretch at present will increase to around 1.63 kilometers.
Provincial Administrator Rafael Howard Baraan earlier said completion of the project will allow flights from Manila going to or from various destinations like Hongkong, Taipei and other places.
Provincial Planning and Development Officer Benita Pizarro said “the project will likewise trigger economic development in the province, increase tourist arrivals that will spur tourism and enhance business activities.
In another resolution approved during the special session, Provincial Resolution No. 51-2013 also authorized Espino to negotiate with the Municipality of Sual for the organization and creation of a corporation tasked to manage and operate the Sual Seaport in Sual, Pangasinan.
The provincial government, capable of managing and operating the seaport jointly with the municipality of Sual, has signified its desire to manage and operate the seaport.
Since the seaport is located in Sual, the province intends to organize and create a corporation with the municipality to properly and jointly effect the management and operation of the seaport.
Resolution authors Board Members Ranjit Shahani, Napoleon Fontelera Jr. and Antonio Sison said the provincial government was “undoubtedly competent to harness the full economic potentials of the said seaport.”
The SP said the Sual Seaport is a vital infrastructure project which can boost the growth and development of Sual town and its nearby surroundings as well as the whole province in terms of tourism and economic activities.
Pizarro said Espino is pursuing the full development of the projects which are among the three special mega-projects the provincial leadership wanted to leave as legacy of his last term as governor to the people of Pangasinan.
The other mega-project includes the eco-tourism zone. (PIO)

ORTIGOZA: Lady Mayor’s Lover

What is this? A kin of a former high official in the country told me that a famous media man in the Philippines died not from an ordinary stroke as what the family impressed to the public.
He said an ambassador of a foreign country told his relative that the prolific media man died in the middle of a carnal activity with a foreign woman.

“That’s why the deceased’ angry wife asked the one who has custody of his body to cremate him immediately after he died before he was transported to a plane bound home,” my source, a former high official too, told me.

Quezon’s statue in Hundred Islands to get ‘new face’

By Yolanda Sotelo

ALAMINOS CITY – It ain’t no way to treat the first president of Philippine Commonwealth, the father of the country’s national language, and of the country’s first national park.
The about ten-foot statue of former President Manuel Quezon at the top of Quezon Island at the Hundred Islands National Park had “lost its face.”
City officials do not know how the statue was defaced, but theorized that it could have been hit by a lightning bolt sometime in July, city tourism officer Mike Sison said.
It was Quezon, whose 135th birth anniversary was on August 19, 2013, who declared the Pangasinan’s top tourism draw as a national park 73 years ago, or on January 18, 1940 through Proclamation No. 665.

PMA to hold cadetship exam on August 25

DAGUPAN CITY -The Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the premier leadership training school in the country, will hold its qualifying examination for cadetship at the University of Pangasinan-PHINMA here on August 25.

All interested applicants are advised to be at the testing center by 7a.m., bringing with them the following: two pieces 2X2 pictures, two pieces number 2 pencils, National Statistics Office-authenticated birth certificate, form 137 and valid identification card.