DAGUPAN CITY–Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said a strong peso with a weak purchasing power is a big bad joke.

Cruz said in a statement that time and again the administration and its technocrats sing the ever increasing strength of the peso.

"Yet people who not live in Malacañang, big mansions
nor high rise condominiums but in simple houses if not under the bridges have been asking long since a simple question: if the peso is going strong, why does it buy less and less? If the peso is becoming valuable, why does it take so much of it to buy so little in the market," Cruz, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, asked.

He said in the day to day living of the ordinary Filipino-and these are millions-the so called “strong peso” is in fact irrelevant. For all intents and purposes, let it be a “weak peso” provided it buys enough food and clothing, he said.

"A strong peso with a weak purchasing power is a big bad joke," he added.

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BINALONAN, Pangasinan—Fight looms between Mayor Ramon Guico Jr. of this town and the provincial government as the mayor refuses to remit to the provincial treasurer’s office the collected real property taxes (RPT) here because of “unfulfilled promises” of Gov. Victor Agbayani.
Guico, also the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines gave this challenge to Agbayani in a phone interview with this writer, saying,” Why not show us where the RPT is being spent?”
He added,” Kalokohan lang yan. Saan ba napupunta yan? Walang bumabalik na projects naman sa amin (That’s foolishness. Where is it spent? Nothing goes back to us)”.
He chided Agbayani for his promises which remain unfulfilled. He said these are the asphalting of roads in barangays Sili, Moreno, Camanggaan and Sta. Catalina which the governor pledged to undertake even before the 2004 elections.
He said only inspection and survey were made by the engineering brigade of the provincial government prompting him to do the projects himself.

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While jueteng, a popular illegal numbers game, has its lull in most parts of the country, this is not enough reason for anti-gambling crusaders to rejoice as there is forthcoming small town lottery (STL) as a gambling salute to the New Year set to take off on Jan. 15.
Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, chairman of Krusada ng Bayan Laban sa Jueteng, said Friday that,” It (STL) is scheduled to be made operational this 15 January to exploit the poor more and make fools of the unwary—and enrich the already rich and famous”.

Those behind the operation of STL, according to Cruz, are “a known high ranking police official, a big financier, and an identifiable mayor”. They will have their franchise from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for the STL operation whose mechanics are similar to jueteng, he added.

He said the sharing scheme would be 10 percent each for the mayor, collector and PCSO, three percent for the cabo and two percent each for the governor and the Philippine National Police.
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