LINGAYEN, Pangasinan— This province now holds the record of the highest number of hectares planted with hybrid rice in the entire country.

This was said by Gov. Victor Agbayani in his ninth State of the Province Address Friday at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan session hall here attended by his department heads, three mayors, the provincial board members, and other heads of government agencies.

Agbayani said the irrigation program and the continuing technology transfer have dramatically increased the hybrid rice area plnated in Pangasinan by eight-fold, from 2,000 hectares five years ago to almost 17,000 hectares today.

He said hybrid rice has effectively increased the average yield of the province’s rice farmers from 80 cavans per hectare to 150 cavans per hectare.

This represents an increase in harvest of more than one million cavans last year or an equivalent increase of P500 million in gross income for the farmers, he said.

Also, he said 28 communal irrigation systems will be rehabilitated early this year, increasing irrigation efficiency in 3,000 more hectares of farmland in the province.

Agbayani said the irrigation program which he began in 1999 will have rehabilitated 111 irrigation systems by the end of this quarter, improving irrigation in a total of about 20,000 hectares of farmland in Pangasinan.

Meanwhile, Agbayani said even as the province awaits the resolution in the Central Board of Assessment Appeals of the real property tax payment for the year 2006 of the Mirant and the National Power Corporation, the province continues to maintain its status as number one in assessment and real property tax collection in region 1.

Last year, the governor said a total of P7.66 billion in investments with more than 16,000 jobs generated were recorded by the Department of Trade and Industry in the province.

On the environment aspect, Agbayani said his four-year old Upland and Watershed Reforestation Program now benefits an extended network of 70 Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) organizations in watershed and ISF areas. He said with the help of the Department of Agriculture, this provincial government program has planted over 170,000 tree seddlings, reforesting an aggregate area of 740 hectares.

He said in July 2006, he signed a Conservation Partnership Agreement with the University of the Philippines Marine Environment Resource Foundation and the Netherlands government.

Part of the agreement is the grant by the Netherlands government of a six-ton vessel to be used by the Provincial Coastla Law Enforcement Task Force to patrol areas of Lingayen Gulf.

The governor also stressed thatPangasinan remains the undisputed pioneer province in the Family Planning Commodity Self Reliance.

BUGALLON, Pangasinan, Philippines—This town, about seven kilometers away from the capital town of Lingayen, is eyeing to get national attention when it stages its Deremen Festival during its annual town fiesta celebration in November.

Mayor Rodrigo Orduña told this writer that they are now coordinating with various sectors in the town as they intend to cook the biggest inlubi, a delicacy made of deremen, also known as pinipig (glutinous rice colored black cooked with coconut milk) at the town plaza.

Deremen is a favorite Pangasinan glutinous rice delicacy available during the months of September to December. It is especially planted with the locally known macaroyo variety, harvested at a tender age, smoked and pounded with a rhythm at night using a farmer’s equipment known as lasong or taltalan.

This coming November 30, Bugallon will celebrate its annual fiesta
celebration and this year’s fest promises to be a unique and exciting one,
with the planned “ Deremen Festival”, Orduña said.

He added that they will also show different ways to cook deremen.

He said they would like to go back to history when deremen or different ways of cooking it like inlubi was the main food on the table of Pangasinenses during All Saints’ Day or All Souls’ Day on November 1 and 2 respectively for their guests to enjoy.

“Maybe we’ll just try with a small event,” the mayor said.

He said deremen is called “a labor of love” because the long process is tedious before one could have and enjoy it.

DAGUPAN CITY—Five dolphins were seen along the coastal waters here the other day and two of them beached. However one died while the other was wounded but released back to the sea while the rest casually swam back.

Dr. Westly Rosario, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) center chief here, told this writer that before lunch Saturday, Emma Molina, the city agriculturist reported to him about one wounded dolphin which was kept inside an empty fish cage in Bonuan Sabangan here.

Rosario instructed his aquaculturist Rocky Ferrer who was trained about caetaceans (whales and dolphins) to look into the dolphin’s condition and to give the necessary medical aid.

After treating the bottle-nosed dolphin (Stenella longinostris), grayish in color, with whitish belly and about four feet long, it was brought back to the sea.

But based on the account of a certain Charlie Dacanay, a beachgoer, he allegedly saw five dolphins.

Later, about 5:00 p.m. Saturday, the maritime police went to the BFAR center here located in Bonuan Binloc to turn over another dolphin which had also bullet wounds. It was believed that this is part of the group of five of dolphins sighted along Bonuan area that day.

However, while Rosario was giving instructions to his men on what to do about it, the second dolphin died and was buried inside the 500 square-meter lot whales and dolphins cemetery inside the BFAR compound.

Rosario appealed to the people not to harm these sea animals especially that there are three more in the group which are believed to be swimming around the area.

Several dolphins and whales sharks have been sighted along the coastal areas here and in the towns of Binmaley, Lingayen and San Fabian. Some of them beached after being wounded with gun shots. Some were successfully treated and brought back to the sea while others died.

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan—Very soon, Pangasinan will carve a new name as the Festival Capital of the country with its array of festivals in many towns and cities in the province.
In Metro Manila, May 1 is a day of street protest among workers pressing for wage increase and other benefits.

But not in Pangasinan where May 1 is a day of swimming and family picnic along the province’s long stretch of beautiful beaches. Not only Pangasinenses have made it a tradition to troop to the beaches, enjoy the summer heat by swimming all day long and partaking of home-cooked food for a day of picnic at the sea during the first of May.

What used to be a simple thanksgiving for the bounties of the sea has evolved into a week-long event of trade and food fair, singing and dancing, selection of Pangasinan’s most beautiful lady. And then came the parade of Pangasinan’s festivals which draws more and more tourists.
“

Each town has its own characteristics and traditions. In a sense, we unite everybody here by putting what we have,” said Governor Victor Agbayani.

Those who had established their own festival were invited to join the parade held in front of the Capitol Building here on May 1. On that day, thousands of Pangasinenses and those living in nearby provinces came and enjoyed the merriment as they watched street dancers gaily dance to the beat of the drums under the scorching summer heat, clad in colorful costumes and depict through their dance steps how their own festival came into existence.

Pandan Festival

Through the initiative of Mapandan Mayor Jose Ferdinand Calimlim, Pandan Festival highlights the unique product of the town, pandan (screw pine) from which its town’s name was derived from.

The first Pandan Festival in 2003 showcased the town’s agricultural wealth, a celebration of its people’s industry and diligence as well as a commemoration of the town history.
In 2004, Pandan Festival traced legends highlighting the origin and various uses of the pandan plant. Last year, the celebration focused on the status of the town as a community and the origin of its barangays.

This year, it featured its traditions and cultures as well as a one-of-a kind cookfest that exotic ingredients like frogs, bats, monitor lizard, among others.
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DAGUPAN CITY—Unknown to many Ilocanos in Santa and Cauayan, Ilocos Sur, and in Abra, a fish named “pigek” or “bulidao” is as precious as gold that promises to give them fortune if properly conserved and preserved.

In fact, Dr. Westly Rosario, executive director of the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI) who is also the center chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in Bonuan Binloc here, said BFAR is offering “double the price” of live pigek turned over to them in a bid to conserve the fish which is now in danger of becoming extinct in Cotabato area because of uncontrolled and unregulated fishing.

Pigek is a highly priced fish in southern Philippines and caught in commercial volume in Rio Grande de Mindanao, Tamontaka River and Polangi River, Cotabato. It has an excellent taste comparable to other priced fish like grouper “lapu-lapu” and blue marlin. Latest information on its market price is about P1,000 per kilogram in the area and it is presented as a gift to some high ranking government officials in Manila.

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SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan—This city keeps its lead as the top mango producer in Pangasinan for the last 15 years and shows its supremacy through the holding of another year of the Mango/Bamboo Festival set this April 29.

Mayor Julian Resuello told local newsmen that San Carlenians have mastered the mango industry and in fact the skilled workers in mango farming including capitalists go to 13 other provinces in the country to share their skills and earn money by taking care of other mango farms in Cagayan Valley, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Ilocos Sur,
Ilocos Norte, among others.

“We have very sweet mangoes here perhaps due to our soil,” Resuello said. The city is known for its sweet carabao mangoes. Describing mango growing as “very profitable”, Resuello said each kilo of three pieces of green mangoes sells at P21 while ripe mangoes are priced at P40 a kilo.
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SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan—This city that claims to be the mango and bamboo trading capital of Pangasinan will celebrate the Mango-Bamboo Festival last week of April.

Mayor Julian Resuello said the twin festival also reminds the public that the city produces the sweetest mangoes in the provinces and the city’s long stretch of bamboo plants of more than 200 kilometers along its rivers and creeks.

Resuello said many people rely on mango and bamboo production here and traders not only from neighboring towns but also 13 other provinces come here for mango trading.

Every harvest time, traders from other areas come here because they rely on the skills of city folks here classifying which mangoes pass export quality.
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LINGAYEN, Pangasinan-The provincial agriculturist fears that “if the coal spill (in Agno town) will not be controlled immediately it will result in the continuing damage in the already established coral reef in the area”.

Jose Almendares told local reporters that the provincial government has been into protecting areas that have been identified by the municipalities because of the Coastal Resources Management enforcement of fishery laws.

“Rehabilitating the same is something that would require us time, millions of investment also for the government and private sector as well,” he said.

Lawyer Virgilio Solis, provincial administrator, sent Friday a
demand letter to the owner of the barge LCT Eisner based in Dagat-dagatan, Malabon, giving him 10 days to remove the vessel and pay damages or face legal action. The decision was arrived at after an emergency meeting held at the Urduja House upon the order of Gov. Victor Agbayani.
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