Police Director General Arturo Lomibao has "deactivated" the Anti-Illegal Gambling Special Operation Task Force, the members of  which were sued by a businessman from San Manuel town allegedly for attempted robbery/extortion.

But Lomibao said the deactivation was not because of the case filed but because the task force's lifespan, or purpose, had expired. Read more

Summer means the sun’s up and scorching. It means fruits of different shapes, colors and shapes and tastes. And it means the profusion of bougainvillea flowers in riotous colors along the roads and in the yards and the parks and the resorts and wherever you may be.
 
Even the leaves of bougainvillea have different colors –some with white designs, some with light green, some with really dark ones. A closer look at the leaves would reveal fine designs such as very rounded leaves or jagged leaves.

But bougainvilleas are best admired from afar. Their beauty shines with the sun and their colors are more vibrant and dazzling to the eyes. They come in hues of white, yellows, the palest to the most vivid pink or red, oranges, violets and many other colors of the rainbow.

No, they are not as delicate as roses nor elegant as orchids. And they don’t have that fragile scent of the sampaguita. They are hardy flowers – living with the rain and the sun. And I don’t think they ever needed fertilizers or pesticides. They bloom where you plant them, as long as their roots are firmly planted on the ground.

Yes, bougainvilleas are like the Filipinos. They are sturdy and they shine with the rain and live with the rain wonderfully. They shine where you plant them, even in the hottest zones of Saudi Arabia.

If I could have my way, I will have bougainvilleas as the national flower of the Philippines. After all, sampaguitas are nowhere to be found anymore and there seemed to be no efforts to propagate them. (Although, yes, I admit its a little difficult to spell bougainvillea)

 I ain’t seen any sampaguita plant for quite a long time now. Unlike bougainvilleas. The beautiful bougainvilleas.
  

Government agencies are at odds whether the 300 cubic meters of coal spilt in a coastal village of Agno is polluting the village marine resources, and pointed at each other which should spearhead the clean-up of the affected area.
 Provincial Board Member Alice Pulido called for a committee hearing on Friday to decide on what to be done about the coal spilt by LCT Eisner on December 18 last year when it ran aground at sitio Talisay in Abagatanen village in Agno.
 Earlier, Governor Victor Agbayani has given the barge owner up to March 20 to tow the barge and to clean the area or will sue the shipping line. He said “the meter is running out of them” and that the provincial government was assessing the willingness of the owner to assist the community in cleaning the area.
Read more

Talk of Pangasinan tourism and the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) in Alaminos City instantly comes to mind.

After all, the Hundred Islands is this province’s premier tourist attraction - a diverse ecosystem of overgrown corals that compose the 123 islands and islets and where the sand, sea and sun work together to bring about a variety of beautiful flora and fauna and a relaxing ambience.

Every year, the 1,844-hectare HINP attracts thousands of visitors and picnickers who want to enjoy this wonderful gift of nature. But each year, too, the threats to its ecological beauty become real that, unless the authorities strengthen their resolve to protect and conserve it, this country’s first national park may just go to seed. Read more

Those who raise fish or animals are always concerned about food conversion rate (or ratio). According to a friend who raises bangus (milkfish), food conversion rate simply means this: If you give this much feeds to the fish you are culturing, you will produce this much kilos of fish in a certain number of days. (Sorry, I forgot the ratio, got to find my notebook where I wrote it then blog it later). Read more

Looking for “Nemo?”  Find him and hundreds of his kind in a fish sanctuary in the island town of Anda, Pangasinan  – a place where they have found  refuge from collectors of aquarium (decorative) fishes.

“Nemo” is a clownfish, a character in the animation movie Finding Nemo that introduced moviegoers to the fascinating undersea world.

It was also the movie that inspired the fisherfolk here to gather clownfishes scattered in the different areas of the 50-hectare marine protected area (fish sanctuary) off the shore of this island town. 

Read more

Was not able to watch the news on tv Monday night so I got wind of the Senate tearjerker only on Tuesday morning, from the papers. 

I have seen Senator Jamby Madrigal several times in the past especially during campaign periods. If I remember right, she ran and lost during her first try to land a Senate seat. She went to Urdaneta City with milk and biscuits which she fed to schoolchildren. On her second try, she has changed tack – she advocated and sponsored trainings on reflexology. Then there were the interviews and press conferences…  Read more

Asked friend Jose Almendares, the provincial agriculturist, what preparations his office was undertaking to mitigate the effects of La Niña to agriculture.

“We’re actually preparing for El Niño,” he said, straight-faced. You never know when this guy is joking or if he is, yes, joking. He’s a serious worker, but he’s always a happy guy. Read more

The ugly episode that happened in St. Bernard in Southern Leyte is almost fading from the pages of newspapers. But I hope our collective memories of the landslide which obliterated a village and buried about a thousand people in minutes, will linger and drive the authorities to prevent similar catastrophes from ever happening again.I just read in the Inquirer (http://www.inq7.net) a report written by Nestor Burgos Jr. about an Iloilo village closely being watched for landslides. There have been continuing occurrences of minor landslide in Umingan village in Alimodian town, Burgos reported.Closer to home, at least two villages in eastern Pangasinan could be victims of landslides, too.Wendy Co, community environment and natural resources officer of eastern Pangasinan, said she has asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Mines and GeoSciences to study the geologic formation of the mountains and land in Tacnien, a sub-village of Sand Domingo in San Manuel town. Read more