URDANETA CITY, Pangasinan, Philippines—Two young siblings, aged five and three,died after they drowned when their father left them in their house the other day in sitio Lico, barangay Camantiles this city.

Supt. Paquito Navarrete, the city police chief, identified the fatalities as Eric Delos Reyes, five and his three-year old sister, Jopay Delos Reyes.

Navarette told this writer that based on investigation, the two were left by their father, Gabby Delos Reyes, 22, carpenter, around 6:00 a.m. Thursday.

But when he returned home, he was informed that his children died due to
drowning as their house was very near the Tulong River.

Police said Eric was trying to save Jopay who was then drowning. Their cadavers were found within the area.

(This article I wrote was also published in The Sunday Punch)

BASISTA, Pangasinan— In this quiet small town, music is its heart and soul. And soon, it will create noise when it stages its “Orchestra Festival”.

Consider this: The town, with only 13 barangays, has about nine orchestras, seven of which are found in just one barangay, providing music and entertainment during barangay and town fiesta celebrations across the province.

In fact, before one enters the town, a marker that reads” Welcome to Basista: Hometown of Famous Orchestras” greets visitors. Also below the greeting are words “Where Fine Music Begins”.

The town with a land area of 1,560 hectares only, which celebrated its 45th foundation anniversary last Sept. 5, actually has only about 26,000 population.

With its popular orchestras being tapped to provide music and entertainment in as far as Metro Manila and in other neighboring provinces of Pangasinan, Mayor Raul de Guzman and the town officials are planning to stage next year the “ Orchestra Festival”. This will pit the nine orchestras against each other in a showdown that will truly delight the townsfolk and their guests.

De Guzman said they have actually planned to hold the said festival last year but lack of time prevented them from pushing the project.

In next year’s town fiesta celebration (held annually every second week of March), de Guzman said they are set to hold the festival that aims to further propel the popularity of the town’s orchestras not only province-wide but nationwide as well.

De Guzman, whose family is also into the orchestra industry with their famous Don Podring de Guzman Orchestra, said in a small barangay of Dumpay alone, seven orchestras are found there.

The mayor said all of them in the family composed of seven siblings are into this business. Some family members are singers, orchestra conductor while others play different musical instruments. They assist altogether during fiestas.

Although the business is seasonal with its peak months from November to May, de Guzman said it is a good source of livelihood to those involved in it, majority are from this town.

De Guzman said getting into the orchestra business has become a “family affair” as he noted that it is a special talent and skill passed on by their forefathers to the next generations. Most of the singers have other family members also involved in the orchestra either singing too or playing other musical instruments.

One orchestra that assists in fiestas has about 40 men involved.

Bayambang Mayor Leocadio de Vera Jr whose town is adjacent to this municipality, said that during the traditional one week town fiesta celebration in every city or municipality in the province, with nightly programs like Sangguniang Kabataan, Professionals, Liga ng mga Barangay, Senior Citizens, Balikbayans, People’s and Coronation, it is a common request that there should be an orchestra assisting.

“”Siyempre, pag masaya ang mga tao, masaya na rin kaming mga mayors kaya hanap naman kami ng mga willing sponsors para talagang lively and colorful ang aming fiesta (Of course, if our townmates are happy, we, the mayors are also happy so we try to find willing sponsors in order to make our fiesta lively and colorful)”, de Vera said.

Villasis Mayor Nonato Abrenica said orchestras are certified crowd drawers during fiestas.

“Iba ang dating. Siyempre live music yan at minsan sa isang taon lang nangyayayari (It’s a different thing. Of course that’s live music and it happens only once a year,” Abrenica said.

He added that although it is quite costly, with price ranging from P60,000 to P80,000 for local orchestras and higher if Manila-based every one night until wee hours performance, local government units still try to find means to have one or two during the main event in town fiesta celebrations because it has become a tradition where people from all walks of life enjoy a different kind of entertainment.

With its music reverberating around the province, this town’s orchestras which started sometime in 1970s, promise to give better entertainment each year, de Guzman said.

And as one exits the town, another marker reads,” Where Fine Music Ends”.

BINMALEY, Pangasinan— Special Action Force (SAF) men are especially trained
to fight terrorists and insurgents and should not be doing a lighter job as
security of VIPs (Very Important Persons).

Thus, as directed by Philippine National Police (PNP Chief Director General
Oscar Calderon, about 1,600 especially-trained policemen for SAF detailed as
security of VIPs or doing lighter job of securing establishments like
Congress, Senate and other Cabinet buildings are now being recalled.

Calderon, who was here last week for the inauguration of the town’s new
police station, told local newsmen that these SAF men are “not being removed”
but are “recalled” where they are detailed.

“We are recalling these especially-trained forces to concentrate on counter
insurgency”, Calderon said.

Those recalled as security of VIPs are being replaced with other policemen
who are trained on VIP security, he added.

Asked if there are VIPs complaining regarding this move, Calderon said,” We
cannot satisfy everybody. There will always be complaints but if you could
show the real intention of the recall, I believe they would agree with us”.

He said SAF men are trained to fight terrorists as well as insurgents.

Calderon said they are now training auxiliary forces from the ranks of
retired policemen, security guards and civilian sectors to secure VIPs and
businessmen and they will be employed as security of these VIPs and
businessmen.

Meanwhile, Calderon said they are now doing “target hardening” as well as
conduct of checkpoints along the streets in Metro Manila and suburbs in
preparation for the 9/11 terrorists’ attack.

Although the 9/11 attack happened in the US on Sept. 11, 2001 where 19 men
affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners
which crashed resulting in the death of almost 3,000 people, he said there is
a Filipino mentality wherein we recall incidents during its anniversary.

He said they have already alerted their regional commands to take
precautionary measures on establishments that could be soft targets of
terrorism.

He added that they have been strict in the conduct of implementations of
checkpoints like in the airports, bus stations, light railway transits as
well as in malls.

There are also policemen in uniform and in civilian clothes who are armed and
ready to engage against people with criminal activities in these places, he
said.

He said the police have also advised owners of big establishments to hire
more security personnel to better secure their establishments.

DAGUPAN CITY– One Oscar, a man in uniform, promised to stop jueteng in Luzon
by the end of this month.Another Oscar, a man of cloth, doubts it could be
done without the blessings of the "big boss".

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz gave cheers to the recent
pronouncement of Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Calderon
in his resolve to stop jueteng this month. But, he said that "the good
Director better be convinced that unless he has the approval and blessing of
the national leadership, he cannot “totally stop” jueteng in the country".

The Senate Inquiry on Jueteng amply demonstrated this preferred status of
jueteng in the country, he said.

Cruz, chairman of Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng (Crusade Against
Jueteng), said that there are certain signal truths that Calderon is
respectfully invited to look into to verify this reality-or otherwise.

The good director should know by now that jueteng has long been the big curse
of the poor bettors and the big blessing of its influential operators, the
senior prelate said. He should also by now aware that most of those corporate
entities running the STL (small town lottery) are the jueteng capitalists
themselves using the jueteng structure to collect STL bets, he added.

Cruz said the good Director should likewise be now cognizant of the fact that
STL is conveniently used by its collectors as a cover-up precisely to gather
jeuteng bets as well. Furthermore, without deliberate manipulation, STL will
not bring money to its financiers, on account of which jueteng cannot but be
played with it, he added.

He said the good Director should be convinced that just as STL is approved by
a Province, City or Municipality by introductory payolas to certain local
authorities, jueteng on the other hand also thrives only on account of
payolas to those specifically enjoined to stop it, he said. He added that
Calderon should realize that just as drug money runs the elections in certain
American countries, jueteng money runs much of the elections in this country.

Cruz said the good Director should remember a key reality in the stop-and-go
signals of jueteng before a scheduled election. For the 2004 National
Elections, jueteng was totally stopped for two months or so, the priest said.

"Immediately thereafter, jueteng came back with a vengeance, the reason for
the stoppage was simply for those concerned to arrange and agree upon how
much payolas go to whom and when-in anticipation of the projected election
campaign expenses," he said.

He added," The good Director better be convinced that unless he has the
approval and blessing of the national leadership, he cannot “totally stop”
jueteng in the country".

Cruz, whose fight against jueteng has reached the halls of Senate, said the
Senate Inquiry on Jueteng amply demonstrated this preferred status of jueteng
in the country.

"The Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng can only send its well wishes to the
good director for his success in freeing the country of the greed and avarice
of jueteng syndicates-permanently!," Cruz said.

BINMALEY, Pangasinan—With more candidates signifying interest to join the gubernatorial race in 2007 , the fight becomes more exciting.

As the incumbent governor is due to finish his three successive terms, second district Rep. Amado Espino Jr said he has been preparing for the 2007 gubernatorial elections in Pangasinan making it possibly a six-cornered fight.

Espino, now on his second term, said it’s his option to run for governor in this vote-rich province, possibly wrestling it out with Vice Gov. Oscar Lambino, Governor Victor Agbayani’s wife Jamie Eloise, retired Philippine National Police Chief Arturo Lomibao, sixth district Rep. Conrado Estrella III and Undersecretary for Local Governance Antonio Villar Jr.

However, Villar, despite being pushed by influential officials and rich people to support him in case he runs, is still quiet about the fight.

Next year’s gubernatorial fight is seen as the most exciting with the exit of Agbayani as this will be a “free-for-all” electoral race.

But Espino, former regional director of the Philippine National Police in region 1, said he believes that Lomibao, his classmate in the Philippine Military Academy, whom he described as his partner ever since and kumpadre, will not clash against him.

“One has to give way and we will be supporting each other,” Espino, KAMPI’s regional and provincial chairman, said.

He added that Estrella talked to him few days ago , saying that he is no longer interested to run for governor and will instead support him. Estrella is only in his second term as congressman in his district.

URDANETA CITY— Money scattered in the street after a French-Filipino national lost about P150,000 to thieves who slashed his bag after withdrawing said money in a bank here last Aug. 28.

Police reported that around 12:00 noon along Alexander st., Poblacion here, Pedro Soriano Lee, 50, married, with addresses at barangay Calepaan this city and 219 Malta Village, Tapuac, Dagupan City was victimized by unidentified thieves.

Lee had just come out from PCI Equitable Bank along Alexander st this city after withdrawing said amount and about to board a Victory Bus Liner heading towards Dagupan City when he was allegedly blocked and bumped by a group of persons composed of three females and one male.

The suspects allegedly slashed his bag containing the money and the victim only noticed the incident when bystanders scrambled to pick up the money scattered in the street.

Suspects ran in different directions.

DAGUPAN CITY—Please adopt a Lebanon overseas Filipino worker (OFW) returnee
and help save lives.

Delfina Camarillo, officer-in-charge of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration regional center for Luzon, made this appeal and said this could be a philanthropic act of recruitment agencies that could be Good Samaritans for these evacuated OFWs from war-torn Lebanon.

These recruitment agencies will help a lot these OFWs if they will have a No Placement Fee Policy enforced, she said. “We hope we could have a unified effort to help the victims of war,” she said referring to the repatriated OFWs. One or two OFWs who could be given free placement fee by the 1,700 recruitment agencies would mean a lot, she said.

Despite their harrowing and sad stories, about 10 per cent of evacuated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Lebanon who are from the Ilocos region expressed intent for redeployment abroad, Camarillo told local newsmen last week during the Pangasinan Tri-Media Association Kapihan here. She said the bottom line for the need to leave the country and work abroad again is perhaps poverty. She said these OFWs have children who are yet to finish college.

She added that they have appealed to various employment agencies to do this “act of sacrifice”.

Marivic Mondina, officer-in-charge of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) in region 1, also said that as of August 22, there were 544 Lebanon evacuees from region 1 who have returned to the country. These are from La Union (102), Ilocos Sur (143), Ilocos Norte (61), Pangasinan (243) and four others with incomplete address.

As per OWWA records, there were 2,025 OFWs deployed in Lebanon who are from
the Ilocos region. Of this number, 877 are from Pangasinan, 417 from La Union, 467 from Ilocos Sur and 264 from Ilocos Norte. Common problems of these OFWs were non-payment of salaries/remaining salaries were unclaimed, underpayment of contracted salary from $200 to $150 only, among others.

To date the OWWA in the region has assisted 344 families of OFWs.

BAYAMBANG, Pangasinan—The kusinero (cook) who prepared the food that made about 130 people “poisoned” including children from barangay Amancosiling Norte here is nowhere in sight for investigation.

Mayor Leocadio de Vera Jr toldthis writer in a phone interview that he and Dr. Paz Vallo, municipal health officer, went to the said barangay last Saturday to conduct probe to find out what went wrong with the food served.

This after 122 people were treated in various clinics and hospitals here since Friday as out-patients, with another eight confined due to severe headache, body weakening, diarrhea, and vomiting.

De Vera said the number of afflicted people could have been more but were ashamed to come out because they were being teased by others for being ponsyano (a Pangasinan word that refers to someone who eats with gusto in any party, with or without invitation).

Initial investigation showed that the people ate pork dishes like egado and adobo served in a house where a novena prayer marking the Filipino’s traditional event for the end of grief for the death of a person locally known as “bakas”.

“We want to know what went wrong with the food preparation why the people who partook of the food served fell ill but the cook is nowhere to be found,” de Vera said.

He said he learned that the cook is from barangay Boayaen here but it looks like he’s hiding.  Vallo said they got samples of the food for laboratory examination today at
the Bureau of Food and Drugs.

The town health officials immediately gave medicines to contain the disease and prevent dehydration. Luckily, no one died from the food poisoning.

DAGUPAN CITY–Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said that Church law categorically forbids clerics from assuming any public office whenever this means having a share in the exercise of civil power.

Cruz issued this statement after no less than Batanes Bishop Camilo Gregorio, appointed by President Arroyo to be member of the special investigative body she formed called Melo Commission to probe spate of killings of left-wing activists and journalists, requested that he be replaced Tuesday.

The commission headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo will also have as its members National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Nestor Mantaring, Chief State Prosecutor Jovencio Zuno, Catholic Bishop Camilo Gregorio, Senior Counsel Vinluan, and Atty. Nelia Gonzales, representing the legal and academic community.

Gergorio earlier expressed willingness to be part of the commission created by the President last Monday.

Cruz, former president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said that this universal church law prohibition applies to all deacons, priests and bishops of the Catholic Church in the four corners of the globe.

"The law is quite strict and rigid such that any cleric who entertains a definite and defined contrary option, should terminally leave the clerical state", he said.

He said that the so called “Melo Commission” is definitely neither a purely private nor civil body.

"As designed and constituted by no less than the highest executive office holder in the land, it is incongruous to even think that it has nothing to do with the exercise of civil power in its executive expression in other words, all clerics in the country are forbidden by church law from membership in the said commission as such," he said.

”Hopefully, this canonical prohibition would assuage the apparent paranoidal preoccupation of the present administration that clerics in the country like to take over its tenure of power, intent to assume its public office and pursuant prerogatives”, Cruz said.

"Would that the said church law put to rest the seemingly progressive self-agitation of Malacañang that the local Pilipino church hierarchy is interested in changing its occupant due to its design and desire to have a presence therein," he added.

He noted that it is not only the fundamental law of the land that indirectly provides the separation of the church and state. The universal law of the church also affirms its separation from the state is inherently for church ministry-definitely not for government service, he added.

It is strange that the present administration fervently invokes the principle of the separation of church and state whenever clerics denounce the unethical contents of its political options and actions, Cruz said.

"Yet the same is rather fast in enlisting no less than bishops for membership in the said commission that is envisioned precisely to investigate and resolve political killings in the country," he added.

Cruz said, "What a self-contradiction!”

DAGUPAN CITY–There is no stopping the Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Sugal in its fight against the seemingly unstoppable jueteng operations in the country.

In a telephone interview with this reporter, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the Krusada, formerly known as Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng which he chairs, launched Friday at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) office in Manila two anti-gambling materials, a concise
educational publication and brief revealing video.

Cruz, a former CBCP president and a staunch anti-jueteng advocate, said the first is the “Primer on Gambling 2006” in general, be this legal or illegal.

He said it says what is gambling, what is wrong with gambling, what are the popular forms of gambling, and what are the arguments purportedly in favor of gambling.

He added that the second is a video clearly showing how cheating is done specifically in Jueteng-with the intervention of Mr. Boy Mayor who was a former master Jueteng operator.

Mayor, who turned witness against his former allies in the jueteng circle during the unfinished Senate jueteng probe, remains under the care of Cruz and other supporters of the Krusada .

Cruz said in the video, the cheating or manipulation is demonstrated by an actual “bolador”, i.e., someone who to this date still draws the so called “winning numbers” of Jueteng. He said the numbers drawn are pre- determined by the findings of the “revisador”. This “employee” of every Jueteng operator knows what numbers have the least bets and should be wherefore made to win, he added.

The senior prelate said in the 23 January 2005 "Statement on Gambling", the CBCP took notice of the increasingly serious problem caused by gambling in the country.

He said for this reason, CBCP made the three following key pronouncements: One, CBCP considers all forms of legal and illegal gambling as morally undesirable and acceptable specially so when they are corporate, syndicated or organized. Two, the CBCP looks at the culture of gambling as seriously erosive of the moral fiber of people customarily engaging in it. Three, the CBCP considers it necessary to make a collective anti-gambling policy,
endorsing the truth that the end does not justify the means—such as gambling for charity as loudly and repeatedly claimed by PAGCOR (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation), PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office) and Jueteng operators.

Cruz said the cited CBCP statement accordingly inspired the recent establishment of the “Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Sugal” side by side with the organization of already longexistent “Krusadang Bayan Laban Sa Jueteng”.

"But as expected, the national leadership while professing moral ascendancy and best leadership, either allows or even endorses the prolification of legal and illegal gambling in the country," Cruz said.

It is not a secret that PAGCOR continues to establish more casinos in the country notwithstanding the open protests of the communities concerned, he noted.

He added that it is well known how PCSO insists in putting up STL (small town lottery) in as many provinces as possible, in spite of the resistance of popular objection thereto.

"And Jueteng is back with a vengeance even if tri-media continue to repeatedly report its shameless resurgence specially in Luzon," Cruz said.

But the Krusada, according to Cruz, will be unrelenting in its campaign, saying that "The above manifest pro-gambling national policy notwithstanding, the “Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Sugal” is resolved to counter such an unethical posture of the present administration".–