THE HOLDING OF the Bangus Festival has significantly enhanced the people’s livelihood in the city, according to a study I read two years ago.
Conducted by an independent research firm, whose name I could no longer remember (I don’t even have a copy of that study now), the study found that after the holding of the Bangus Festival in 2002, local fish vendors enjoyed a 30-40 percent increase in revenue by selling Dagupan bangus.
The volume of bangus production in Dagupan also increased significantly. From 1999 to 2001, the production of bangus stayed dormant at 2,325 metric tons a year. After holding of the first festival in 2002, the total bangus production went up to 2,635 metric tons or a 13 percent increase.
According to the City Agriculture Office, bangus production in 2003 reached 2,830 metric tons or 22 percent increase from year 2001. These figures only show the production of fishpond operators. Fish pen operators have no current record but normally they produce three times more than the fishponds.
The tourism industry in Dagupan was also boosted due the local, national and international publicity that the festival generated and never experienced by the city in the past.
In terms of its environmental impact, the festival created a higher awareness level for the protection of our river system; intensified mangrove re-vegetation projects and continuous implementation of clean-up campaign in the entire city.
As Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez had said during his talk in Tokyo in 2003, the Bangus Festival was an innovative international marketing strategy because it heightened global awareness of the city’s main produce, the bangus.
This year, the city government will replicate this feat, not so much to get a space in the Guinness Book of World Records but for the world to know that Dagupan City is still growing the tasty bangus.
*****
TODAY, we remember the day 19 years ago when then strongman Ferdinand Marcos left Malacanang for a self-exile in Hawaii.
There was street dancing and celebration not only in Metro Manila but in most cities nationwide as soon as Radio Veritas then announced Marcos’ flight. Suddenly, Marcos was gone. Suddenly, democracy was restored and people began to hope for a new day.
That was 19 years ago.
But 19 years hence -- 19 years of freedom from the clutches of dictatorship – a great number of our people still wallow in abject poverty. Those who have barely enough continue to hold on tightly to a thin strand of rope, hoping they would be able to get out of the economic quagmire they are in.
Clearly, for 19 years, we have not succeeded in creating more livelihood opportunities for our people. We have not liberated our people from poverty and make them live less deprived lives.
Likewise, we have not been able to stabilize politically. Coup attempts and other destabilization plots continue to hound our government.
Finally, the level of corruption has continued to increase and has become more daring. It has also crept from the highest echelon of government down to the lowest level. There is now too much distrust on the government and in it’s capability to improve people’s lives.
Overreacting? I’m not.
Unless President Arroyo makes a more decisive move in the anti-graft campaign by sparing no one -- including her closest political allies -- we will still be in the same pathetic situation 19 years from now.
ENDNOTES: Oops! I have wrongly written in Tuesday’s column that Windows will run Mondays and Fridays. It should have been Tuesdays and Fridays… Bayambang Mayor Leo de Vera is now in the thick of preparations for their town fiesta this year in honor of its patron, St. Vincent Ferrer. The fiesta, among other activities, will highlight a Binasuan Night. Many Pangasinenses may not know it, but Binasuan, a colorful folk dance where a dancer balances three glasses filled with rice wine, originated in Bayambang.
QUOTE: Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.-- Buddha
Friday, February 25, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
Province’s loss, city’s gain
AFTER MORE than a year of hibernation, I’m resuming this column. And I hope to be able to deliver this to you regularly (Mondays and Thursdays), as I have promised our editor.
It was simply because I was too preoccupied with other tasks in the past months, especially during the months immediately preceding the 2004 elections, that I temporarily stopped writing. I had my hands full of equally pressing work then that everytime I attempted to write Windows, I couldn’t collect my thoughts and I ended up with bad copies. I thought it best to rest my keyboard for a while.
After the elections was completely a different story. After the euphoria brought about by some friends’ election victory, I went back to the academe to teach Journalism after a semester’s leave of absence. But while I was doing this and my usual office work at the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan City, I stumbled into an online journalism course offered by the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism of the Ateneo de Manila University. And from September to November last year, I completed two courses, both through grants.
These were what have kept me very busy. Anyway, my workload these days has not changed so much. Everyday remains a busy day for me. But I have promised our editor that never again will this column disappear from this paper, no matter where I am and whatever other tasks I’m attending to.
And to our dear readers who kept asking what has happened to this column, thank you for your support. I hope you will warmly welcome me back.
*****
It certainly was heartwarming to see Dindin Baniqued report to work at the Dagupan City hall last week as the city’s new legal officer.
She has just emerged from Mayor Benjie Lim’s office when we saw her. She was all smiles as she ushered us – city information chief Butch Velasco, veteran radioman Tito Tamayo and I -- into an office assigned to her just outside Mayor Lim’s office.
No, she did not say anything about her sudden resignation from the provincial government, which kept Pangasinenses speculating that “something very wrong and unacceptable” could have pushed Dindin out of the Urduja House after serving as Gov. Victor Agbayani’s provincial attorney in the last six and a half years.
Strangely, the Urduja House kept mum about her resignation and instead chose to work silently to control the damage that her resignation may have created. From radio commentaries and listeners’ reactions in the days that followed, Dindin’s resignation was met with sadness, most especially by ordinary people and lowly barangay official she was able to help in the past. To these people, Dindin was Urduja House’s saving grace. Some listeners even hinted that Dindin was a victim of a power play.
What happened between her and the governor, or the governor’s coterie of advisers and consultants for that matter, generated an outpouring of support to her, being the victim. Realizing this, and before Dindin could open her mouth, we were informed that provincial administrator Boy Solis was asked to cut short his US trip and rush home to talk to Dindin. Board Member Angel Baniqued is said to have been given the same assignment.
What they have talked about is only known to them. But certainly, those meetings were not intended to massage damaged pride or hurt egos to convince Dindin to go back to her position. She had said loud and clear that her resignation was “irrevocable” and the Urduja House had no choice but to let go.
Dindin was certainly the province’s loss, but Dagupan’s gain.
ENDNOTES: Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez’s directive to police chief Dits Quijardo for an increased police visibility to minimize street crime in Dagupan City is now producing good results. Fewer people are complaining now about snatched celfones, bags or wallets. Alvin issued the directive when he was Acting City Mayor last week. If this is sustained, we might not see any snatcher or pickpocket in the city anymore… On March 3 and 4 -- that’s next week – the Computer Manufacturers, Dealers and Distributors Association of the Philippines (Comddap) will be holding its national convention at the Dagupan City People’s Astrodome. As this happens, a Jobs Fair will also be conducted at the City Library, courtesy of Comddap, Bitstop Computers, trabaho.com and the City Government of Dagupan… Again, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez was the moving force to make this event happen.
QUOTE: Dream is not a revelation. If a dream affords the dreamer some light on himself, it is not the person with closed eyes who makes the discovery but the person with open eyes lucid enough to fit thoughts together. Dream -- a scintillating mirage surrounded by shadows -- is essentially poetry. -- Michel Leiris
It was simply because I was too preoccupied with other tasks in the past months, especially during the months immediately preceding the 2004 elections, that I temporarily stopped writing. I had my hands full of equally pressing work then that everytime I attempted to write Windows, I couldn’t collect my thoughts and I ended up with bad copies. I thought it best to rest my keyboard for a while.
After the elections was completely a different story. After the euphoria brought about by some friends’ election victory, I went back to the academe to teach Journalism after a semester’s leave of absence. But while I was doing this and my usual office work at the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Dagupan City, I stumbled into an online journalism course offered by the Konrad Adenauer Center for Journalism of the Ateneo de Manila University. And from September to November last year, I completed two courses, both through grants.
These were what have kept me very busy. Anyway, my workload these days has not changed so much. Everyday remains a busy day for me. But I have promised our editor that never again will this column disappear from this paper, no matter where I am and whatever other tasks I’m attending to.
And to our dear readers who kept asking what has happened to this column, thank you for your support. I hope you will warmly welcome me back.
*****
It certainly was heartwarming to see Dindin Baniqued report to work at the Dagupan City hall last week as the city’s new legal officer.
She has just emerged from Mayor Benjie Lim’s office when we saw her. She was all smiles as she ushered us – city information chief Butch Velasco, veteran radioman Tito Tamayo and I -- into an office assigned to her just outside Mayor Lim’s office.
No, she did not say anything about her sudden resignation from the provincial government, which kept Pangasinenses speculating that “something very wrong and unacceptable” could have pushed Dindin out of the Urduja House after serving as Gov. Victor Agbayani’s provincial attorney in the last six and a half years.
Strangely, the Urduja House kept mum about her resignation and instead chose to work silently to control the damage that her resignation may have created. From radio commentaries and listeners’ reactions in the days that followed, Dindin’s resignation was met with sadness, most especially by ordinary people and lowly barangay official she was able to help in the past. To these people, Dindin was Urduja House’s saving grace. Some listeners even hinted that Dindin was a victim of a power play.
What happened between her and the governor, or the governor’s coterie of advisers and consultants for that matter, generated an outpouring of support to her, being the victim. Realizing this, and before Dindin could open her mouth, we were informed that provincial administrator Boy Solis was asked to cut short his US trip and rush home to talk to Dindin. Board Member Angel Baniqued is said to have been given the same assignment.
What they have talked about is only known to them. But certainly, those meetings were not intended to massage damaged pride or hurt egos to convince Dindin to go back to her position. She had said loud and clear that her resignation was “irrevocable” and the Urduja House had no choice but to let go.
Dindin was certainly the province’s loss, but Dagupan’s gain.
ENDNOTES: Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez’s directive to police chief Dits Quijardo for an increased police visibility to minimize street crime in Dagupan City is now producing good results. Fewer people are complaining now about snatched celfones, bags or wallets. Alvin issued the directive when he was Acting City Mayor last week. If this is sustained, we might not see any snatcher or pickpocket in the city anymore… On March 3 and 4 -- that’s next week – the Computer Manufacturers, Dealers and Distributors Association of the Philippines (Comddap) will be holding its national convention at the Dagupan City People’s Astrodome. As this happens, a Jobs Fair will also be conducted at the City Library, courtesy of Comddap, Bitstop Computers, trabaho.com and the City Government of Dagupan… Again, Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez was the moving force to make this event happen.
QUOTE: Dream is not a revelation. If a dream affords the dreamer some light on himself, it is not the person with closed eyes who makes the discovery but the person with open eyes lucid enough to fit thoughts together. Dream -- a scintillating mirage surrounded by shadows -- is essentially poetry. -- Michel Leiris
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