LINGAYEN — Is "America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan an authobiography or a fiction? The book describes Bulosan's childhood as a son of a small farmer Binalonan, Pangasinam, his voyage to America and his years of hardships and despair as an itinerant laborer in the rural American West.
Cecilia Daranciang, in her book "Defending Carlos Bulosan and Providing Cultural Context" used "content analysis" to prove that America is in the Heart is indeed an authobiography as told by Bulosan himself, debunking claims of two Filipino-American writers — Greg Castilla and P.C. Morante — that "some portions of Bulosan's autobiography have been either fictionalized, exaggerated or untrue."
Daranciang is a retired teacher of the Seattle School District of Washington State who lives now in her hometown Mangatarem. Read more
Filed under Uncategorized, schools by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
(Late last year, 30 priests from Pangasinan decided not to renew their license to kill, er.. to solemnize marriages. Things have changed, after the NSO decided to withdraw its order telling the priests to undergo a training on marriage laws. Where will all those wanted to marry go? The Catholic ones I mean? There are judges and mayors…but some of course think that being married by a priest is more romantic. And Godly?)
DAGUPAN CITY — Now the priests here whose license to marry has expired will solemnize marriages again.
The National Statistics Office has revoked its administrative order requiring priests, religious ministers and other solemnizing officers to attend a full-course orientation seminars before they will be issued a certificates of registration and authority to solemize the sacrament of matrimony.
NSO Administrator and Civil Registrar General Camelita Ericta issued memorandum circular 2008-001 revoking Administrative Order (AO) No. 1 series of 2007 which called for the solemnizing officers to undergo orientation-seminars which sought to ensure that they are "knowlegeable about marriage laws and other related laws, marriage registration procedures and the registration procedures of (their) authority to solemnize marriage." Read more
Filed under Uncategorized by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
(Who are we to judge what’s nice and what’s not? What color is beautiful and dignified and baduy? The debate, albeit quietly and I heard, through texting and emails and blogs, continues about the colorful municipal hall of Lingayen)
LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – What’s in a color? Much, especially when it involves the municipal hall of the capital town of the province.
Late last year, the façade of the municipal hall of this historic town was reconstructed with a Roman design and painted with bright colors like yellow, green and blue and gold.
Mayor Ernesto "Jonas" Castañeda said the colors were decided upon by the engineers and architects who worked on the reconstruction of the façade and extension of the municipal building.
He said many residents, including balikbayans, were impressed with results – a building with "happy" colors and which enlivened the town center. "I have not heard of any negative comments about the design and the color," he said. Read more
Filed under Uncategorized, politics by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
(When I get the time, I will post the different recipes concocted by Villasis people, most of them women, with eggplant as the main ingredient. I tasted some of them during the cookfest and they were really delicious. The winning piece is a little difficult, or maybe time consuming, to prepare. But my friend Vir Maganes who is from Villasis, found it really worth the P5,000 cash prize. I asked the winners what they will do with the money and they said they will give it to the barangay council. I asked, “But why? It’s your money, you should do what you want with it. Maybe start a livelihood project… They just smiled and said they will think about it. Its not much but… Hurray to the women of Villasis!)
VILLASIS, Pangasinan — This agricultural town in eastern Pangasinan is set to prove that eggplant — its main agricultural product — can be cooked in a hundred ways.
During the cookfest during the Third Talong Festival on Friday, 22 recipes with eggplant as the main ingredient were prepared and cooked by representatives of the barangays. This brought to 65 the number of original recipes featuring the versatile vegetable prepared by the townsfolk, said Libradita Abrenica, the town's first lady and chair of the town fiesta's executive committee.
Abrenica said during the first and second runs of the annual festivals, there were 21 and 22 recipes entered in the cookfest. When the number of recipes reach 100, the local government will publish a recipe book, she said.
"The entries get better yearly.Before, the entries were simple ones. But they are getting much versatile and there are unusual entries, the presentation are much better, too," Abrenica said.
The first prize was bagged by Puelay village with its recipe Hidden Talong Mix. Estela Bautista, the group's leader, explained that she got inspiration from butsi, those small rice cakes with fillings like mongo and ube.
She said quail eggs are hard-boiled, halved, and the yolks are removed. The eggs are then filled with mashed eggplant (broiled), then coated with a mixture of mashed eggplant, shredded carrots, chopped hotdogs and pork, spices and seasonings. Then these are rolled in uncooked glutinous rice and coconut milk then steamed for 45 minutes. The Hidden Talong is paired with nutririous malungay juice, a concoction of boiled malungay leaves, honey and calamanci juice.
The second price was the Eggplant Con Yugghort (Camarutan), while the third was a tie betwen Eggplant Pizza (Zone I) and Nazi Guring con Talong (San Nicolas).
The winners got P5,000, P3,000 and P2,000 prices, respectively.
The other entries are also gastronomical delights — talong bopis, eggplant nugget, pinausukang talong, eggplant salad, eggplant sarciado, talong rings, fritters, fried eggplant with rolling bread crumbs, siomai na talong, ratata, salad.
"These recipes prove that eggplant is really a versatile vegetable and I am proud that the residents are able to come up with different recipes adopted to local taste," Abrenica said.
And if there's one thing that parents with picky kids should be happy about, these are recipes with vegetables but which children will surely love to eat.
Four of the five judges were Villasis residents already living abroad, including Fe Prado Nardini who, together with her husband Giulinao, operates a restaurant called Ristorante Pizzeria "I Nardini" in Toscani, Italy.
Nardini said she was bringing some recipes to Italy and teach her husband how to prepare them.
"Our restaurant faces a camping area where different nationalities like Dutch, English and German, come. They are experimental when it comes to food, and I hope to introduce the eggplant recipes to them," she said.
Filed under Uncategorized, wala lang, food by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
( when Sta. Barbara Mayor Rey Velasco, one of the really committed mayors hereabouts, announced that the rural poor of Sta. Barbara will be the beneficiaries of the housing project of the local government and the Gawad Kalinga, he said a teacher and a policeman (or two teachers and two policemen) were included in the list. It's really sad that a teacher, a guardian of the hope of the fatherland, and a policeman, a guardian (supposedly) of the peace and order, are included in the list. Well, its nice that they were included… but to know that they are part of the rural poor, it breaks the heart).
STA. BARBARA, Pangasinan — The Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation has trained its eyes on local government units as partners in the implementation of its housing project as the LGUs have high rating and outstanding leaders, GK national president Tony Meloto said.
Meloto, who signed on Tuesday a memorandum of agreement with Mayor Reynaldo Velasco for the establishment of a GK community with 88 houses in barangay Leet here, said with LGUs as partners, many private corporation will surely assist in the project.
But while the GK has built communities in the country, there was "no good model yet in LGUs as there was no LGU which committed as many mayors are afraid of this challenge.".
Read more
Filed under Uncategorized by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
A New Year Story
(This story was written on January 1, 2008. It was for a national daily. But then, it was not published, so I’m posting it here. Yeah, I know it’s late! But there must be a lesson somewhere…)
The Earth shook, large firecrackers exploded with roaring noises, thick smoke rose into the air.
It’s 12 o’clock in the afternoon of January 1, the time and day Pogo Grande village in Dagupan City welcomes the New Year – perhaps the only village in the county that celebrates new year just as everyone is woozy from the past night’s revelry.
For more than 10 years this village has been holding the activity, said barangay chair George Galvan. It was started during the term of then chair Saturnino Siapno when the residents who manufacture firecrackers wanted to explode their unsold products.
It has grown grander yearly, he said. This year, a total of 75,000 firecrackers were strung together and hung above the street or lined along the road of Centro of Pogo Grande. In the western part of the village called Sagur, another 50,000 firecrackers were also exploded. Read more
Filed under Uncategorized, environment, police matters by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
He was never married and he never officiated a marriage. But Archbishop Oscar Cruz have seen so many broken marriages that he knows the reasons why husband and wife wanted the knot untied.
And the reasons could range from serious case of impotence to petty quarrels over crumpled pillowcases. It does not matter how long a couple had been married before they want out – which is from one week to years. It does not matter, too, if the couple belonged to the moneyed class or if the husband is a jeepney driver and the wife, a laundrywoman. The number of men and women filing for annulment is also about the same. Read more
Filed under Uncategorized, wala lang by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
Sison Mayor Kimi Cojuangco permanently closed down last week eight beer houses which were operating near two schools, and temporarily closed the others until they complied with the local government’s “strict health requirements.”
Cojuangco said the town had gotten a bad image for so long because of its seedy joints that are fronts for prostitution, and said it was time that “we cleaned up the image of the town.”
“The residents themselves clamored for the closure of the beer houses, and during a public hearing, they brought the issue up,” she said, noting that the bar owners and the bar workers were not locals but from other provinces. Read more
Filed under Uncategorized, KIDS are us by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
Can fish cage operations be economically-viable yet environmentally-friendly and free from fishkills?
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in the Ilocos Region has established mariculture zone projects (MZP) in Sto. Tomas and Rosario in La Union province which will implement strict measures to achieve such visions.
BFAR Regional Director Nestor Domenden said the agency is the co-proponent of the projects along with the towns’ local government units, “thus the BFAR has the authority to implement the fishery policies and guidelines.”
He explained that in other coastal towns like Bolinao, Anda and Sual in Pangasinan, aquaculture operations are managed by the local government units with the BFAR only giving policies and directions.
“In the MZPs, the BFAR will be fined if there are violations of the Environmental Compliance Certificate issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to the projects. Thus, we will strictly monitor the fishery operations there,” Domenden said.
Rosario Segundina Gaelan, chair of the MZP committee, explained that a mariculture zone is an area in the sea and adjacent land from 100-400 hectares or more, with a communal, storm-resistant morning.
The area is subdivided into individual farm lots for fish cage operations, other marine culture techniques and land-based agriculture, and has infrastructure support facilities, communal fishing ground and navigational lanes.
The MZP follows the industrial estate concept with all concerns addressed, such as infrastructure, capability building, production, marketing and other ancillary industries or additional livelihood like feed suppliers and fingeling suppliers.
Gaerlan said investors who will put fish cages in the MZP and the caretakers will have to undergo a traiing on fish cage management, aquaculture technologies, environmental monitoring and coastal resource management seminars.
The BFAR on the other hand, will extend technical assistance on feeding and culture management and water quality and disease monitoring. “We have studied the water flow in the area and the cages will be arranged in such a way that water flow to the cages will not be hampered,” she explained.
She said while is a mininal rental of the area, the investors are safe because the MPZs are provided with security by the LGU, Bfar and the military.
The MPZs are divided into areas where small, medium and large investors can put their cages. There will also be demonstration areas in both projects.
Its not only bangus (milkfish) that can be cultured in the MPZs. The BFAR recommends high value species like siganid, caranx, seargeant fish, grouper (lapu-lapu), seabass, pomfret (pampano), saline tilapia and red snapper (maya maya). Fishcage operators may also culture crustaceans like lobsters, king crabs, sea urchins, and seaweeds; and shellfish like pearl oyster, oysters, mussels and abalone.
But there is a limit to the number of cages that an investor can put up in the MPZ. “Each investor can put only a maximum of six cages there,” Gaerlan said.
Filed under Uncategorized, Fish by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
Bangus (milkfish), the national fish, carries the country’s flag as far as fishery export is concerned, next to seaweeds in volume but first in value (price) in exports, according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.
However, bangus has not made it to the country’s top ten exports because the production is still low despite the massive aquaculture production, Ilocos Regional Agricultural Statistics Officer Wilma Guilllen said.
In 2005, the exported bangus totaled 289,200 metric tons valued at P17.6 billion while the exported seaweeds totaled 1,338,600 metric tons valued at P6 billion.
The United States is the major destination of bangus at 43 percent, followed by Canada (19 %), Guam (8 %), Korea (5 %), Japan (4 %), UK Great Britain (3 %), and Australia and Hawaii at two percent each. The remaining 18 percent is exported to other countries.
Guillen said Pangasinan is the top producer of bangus starting in 2003 when the aquaculture industry boomed in the province’s coastal towns. Pangasinan produced an average of 45 thousand metric tons from 2003-2005 or 16.7 percent of the total production in the country.
The other bangus producing provinces and their share during the three-year period are Bulacan (12.87%), Iloilo (7.31), Capiz (6.84), Rizal (5.87), Negros Occidental (5.63% and Quezon (5.23%).
Bangus is Ilocos Region’s One Town, One Product, but it is Pangasinan that carries that weight of production, turning out 57,837 metric tons in 2005. In 2006, the province produced 71.746 metric tons, Guillen said.
It is because of Pangasinan’s frog-leaping bangus production through aquaculture that Ilocos Region became sufficient in fishery, Guillen said. The province accounts for 76 percent of the region’s fishery products.
Aside from being the top bangus producer, Pangasinan also produces quality bangus, according to BFAR Ilocos Regional Director Nestor Domenden.
“Bonuan bangus (produced in Dagupan City) traditionally and in modern times, remains a brand of quality in taste, but Pangasinan bangus (cultured in other towns) is not far behind in quality,” Domenden said.
He noted that in Manila market, Pangasinan bangus as labeled and are marketed separately for better price. But even those produced in other provinces are labeled as such. “Pangasinan bangus should therefore carry a name that distinguishes it from those produced in other provinces,” he said.
Domenden said this can be done through a process of accreditation and certification to ensure genuineness of the Pangasinan bangus marketed and labeled as such.
Filed under Uncategorized, Fish by Yolly Sotelo Fuertes.
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