Among the three electric cooperatives in Pangasinan, there is no doubt that the Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Panelco) III serves best.
This is because I still have to hear complaints against its services and personnel from its more than 105,000 member-consumers in 17 eastern Pangasinan towns. And that includes me.
Unlike those from the central part of the province, where “Cen-pultot” has become a byword to denote the kind of service that the Central Pangasinan Electric Cooperative (Cenpelco) offers to its consumers to date, Panelco III assures an uninterrupted and stable supply of electricity. No unscheduled outages. No voltage fluctuations.
This may be the reason why the National Electrification Administration (NEA) upgraded Panelco III’s category from B in 2003 to A in 2004, compared to Panelco I’s and Cenpelco’s B category.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Sunday, August 14, 2005
A dangerous road culture
To date, I still have to actually see a traffic enforcer apprehend a tricycle or jeepney driver glaringly defying the city’s traffic rules.
I say this because everytime I’m stopped by the red light in an intersection, I obediently stop right before the pedestrian lane marked by two thick white lines. But as I patiently wait for the green light, a tricycle, and even a jeepney, suddenly appears from nowhere and occupies the space right in front of me, blocking the pedestrian lane in the process.
Isn’t this is a clear traffic violation? Unfortunately, to the city’s traffic enforcers, this is not because this has been happening everyday right under there very noses and they did not do anything.
At the intersection of Burgos St. and Perez Blvd. one early evening, I was tailing the vehicle of then city executive Elmer Lorica. I supposed he was going to turn left to Perez Blvd. while I was on my way to Guilig St.
From the left lane of Burgos, outside the iron railings, a white van suddenly appeared. He is not supposed to be there, I thought.
But just when I was looking for the traffic enforcer to see if he noticed the vehicle, Elmer got out of his vehicle and called for the traffic enforcer to direct him to apprehend the driver of the erring white van. At that moment, I had wished Elmer would always be at that intersection.
To my mind, most tricycle and jeepney drivers violate traffic rules simply because they do not know that what they are doing are violations. Or, if they do know, they do it simply because they know that they can run away with it.
The Land Transportation Office should partly get the blame for the emergence of this road culture. This is because the LTO does not have a stringent process in the issuance of driver’s licenses.
For instance, drivers do not even have to go through actual driving tests before they are issued their licenses. And with fixers still hounding the LTO, getting a driver’s license is still as easy as buying cigarettes. Somebody I know did not even know how to drive when he got his professional driver’s license.
On the part of law enforcers, they should be more aggressive in enforcing traffic rules. Those repeatedly apprehended for the same offenses should be made to undergo an honest-to-goodness seminar on road courtesy.
There has to be a way to discipline erring drivers. Otherwise, even if we fill up our streets with concrete barriers and iron railings and install traffic light in every intersection, our traffic will continue to worsen if we have drivers who think they are above the law.
ENDNOTES: It was Bayambang Mayor Leo de Vera’s birthday last Thursday, August 11. I missed his party at his residence in Barangay Bical. But those who were there swore that his spacious compound was teeming with guests that included Police Regional Director Freddie de Vera. I’m sure everybody left Mayor De Vera’s house happy… The Rotary Club of Dagupan led by Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez had a bloodletting activity last week. The vice mayor himself, after passing the screening, donated blood and it was almost immediately used to save a dengue fever victim confined at the Region1 Medical Center. Mabuhay ka, Vice!
QUICK QUOTE: To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. -- Emily Dickinson
I say this because everytime I’m stopped by the red light in an intersection, I obediently stop right before the pedestrian lane marked by two thick white lines. But as I patiently wait for the green light, a tricycle, and even a jeepney, suddenly appears from nowhere and occupies the space right in front of me, blocking the pedestrian lane in the process.
Isn’t this is a clear traffic violation? Unfortunately, to the city’s traffic enforcers, this is not because this has been happening everyday right under there very noses and they did not do anything.
At the intersection of Burgos St. and Perez Blvd. one early evening, I was tailing the vehicle of then city executive Elmer Lorica. I supposed he was going to turn left to Perez Blvd. while I was on my way to Guilig St.
From the left lane of Burgos, outside the iron railings, a white van suddenly appeared. He is not supposed to be there, I thought.
But just when I was looking for the traffic enforcer to see if he noticed the vehicle, Elmer got out of his vehicle and called for the traffic enforcer to direct him to apprehend the driver of the erring white van. At that moment, I had wished Elmer would always be at that intersection.
To my mind, most tricycle and jeepney drivers violate traffic rules simply because they do not know that what they are doing are violations. Or, if they do know, they do it simply because they know that they can run away with it.
The Land Transportation Office should partly get the blame for the emergence of this road culture. This is because the LTO does not have a stringent process in the issuance of driver’s licenses.
For instance, drivers do not even have to go through actual driving tests before they are issued their licenses. And with fixers still hounding the LTO, getting a driver’s license is still as easy as buying cigarettes. Somebody I know did not even know how to drive when he got his professional driver’s license.
On the part of law enforcers, they should be more aggressive in enforcing traffic rules. Those repeatedly apprehended for the same offenses should be made to undergo an honest-to-goodness seminar on road courtesy.
There has to be a way to discipline erring drivers. Otherwise, even if we fill up our streets with concrete barriers and iron railings and install traffic light in every intersection, our traffic will continue to worsen if we have drivers who think they are above the law.
ENDNOTES: It was Bayambang Mayor Leo de Vera’s birthday last Thursday, August 11. I missed his party at his residence in Barangay Bical. But those who were there swore that his spacious compound was teeming with guests that included Police Regional Director Freddie de Vera. I’m sure everybody left Mayor De Vera’s house happy… The Rotary Club of Dagupan led by Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez had a bloodletting activity last week. The vice mayor himself, after passing the screening, donated blood and it was almost immediately used to save a dengue fever victim confined at the Region1 Medical Center. Mabuhay ka, Vice!
QUICK QUOTE: To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. -- Emily Dickinson
Friday, August 05, 2005
Saving the new Malimgas market
Last week, several vendors occupying the stalls at the second floor of the New Malimgas Public Market trooped to the Sangguniang Panlungsod session hall to ask the city government for lower rental fees saying that their small businesses are already losing heavily.
Very few people, according to them, go the area despite its being fully air-conditioned, despite its escalator, despite its two-level parking and despite the city government’s full-blast tri-media advertisements of the new public market as the most modern and cleanest in the country.
In fact, 46 stalls have closed and many more vendors are contemplating to give up theirs if they could not cut their overhead expenses, such as the rental fees.
What could have gone wrong? Wasn’t the market built on the premise that a cleaner, brighter and air-conditioned market will attract more buyers? That people would not mind spending a little more as long as they can buy what they need comfortably?
When the city government borrowed P256 million to construct the public market building, and P30 million more for its centralized air-condition system, Mayor Benjamin Lim was very optimistic that the revenues the new market will generate will be more than enough to pay for the annual amortizations of these loans that on the 5th or 7th year, the city will already be earning millions from its operations.
But with stalls closing down, Mayor Lim’s projections do not seem at the moment to hit the right path. The city hall is in for a long rough ride ahead.
Interviewed by hard-hitting commentator Orly Navarro last week, Mayor Lim could only blame the economic crisis that hit the country “because of the present political crisis” and of course, he said, because this time of the year, it’s gawat or lean season.
He, too, as owner of the Magic Group of Companies, which is engaged in retail business in the province, experienced dramatic decrease in sales.
But wasn’t there supposed to be a feasibility study? Didn’t the planners factor in the rising cost of oil and electricity and the possible economic crisis as an offshoot of a possible political crisis, like what we are in now?
With higher rental fees in the New Malimgas Market, it also means higher prices of goods that those found outside its premises. For instance, a buyer would prefer to buy bangus at the Magsaysay Fish Market not only because the fish there is cheaper by P5 to a kilo but because it is fresher.
Those buying clothing would rather go to the adjacent CSI Market Square or Magic Centerpoint than to the New Malimgas Market because they would have a lot of clothes to choose from and in many cases, they are cheaper.
We can only hope that Mayor Lim can reverse the situation at the New Malimgas Market. Fast. Otherwise, we may have just created a white elephant.
ENDNOTES: The Rotary Club of Dagupan, under the leadership of Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, had PENRO Juan delos Reyes as its first guest speaker in its regular meeting last Wednesday. Delos Reyes talked about environmental laws that Rotarians should know to familiarize themselves with these laws… Nandaragupan, a coffee table book about Dagupan City edited by Ms. Carmen Prieto, was launched at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Thursday. The book project cost the city government at least P500,000. With each book selling from P2,500 to P3,500, we hope the city government can recoup its expenses.
QUICK QUOTE: There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle. -- Albert Einstein
Very few people, according to them, go the area despite its being fully air-conditioned, despite its escalator, despite its two-level parking and despite the city government’s full-blast tri-media advertisements of the new public market as the most modern and cleanest in the country.
In fact, 46 stalls have closed and many more vendors are contemplating to give up theirs if they could not cut their overhead expenses, such as the rental fees.
What could have gone wrong? Wasn’t the market built on the premise that a cleaner, brighter and air-conditioned market will attract more buyers? That people would not mind spending a little more as long as they can buy what they need comfortably?
When the city government borrowed P256 million to construct the public market building, and P30 million more for its centralized air-condition system, Mayor Benjamin Lim was very optimistic that the revenues the new market will generate will be more than enough to pay for the annual amortizations of these loans that on the 5th or 7th year, the city will already be earning millions from its operations.
But with stalls closing down, Mayor Lim’s projections do not seem at the moment to hit the right path. The city hall is in for a long rough ride ahead.
Interviewed by hard-hitting commentator Orly Navarro last week, Mayor Lim could only blame the economic crisis that hit the country “because of the present political crisis” and of course, he said, because this time of the year, it’s gawat or lean season.
He, too, as owner of the Magic Group of Companies, which is engaged in retail business in the province, experienced dramatic decrease in sales.
But wasn’t there supposed to be a feasibility study? Didn’t the planners factor in the rising cost of oil and electricity and the possible economic crisis as an offshoot of a possible political crisis, like what we are in now?
With higher rental fees in the New Malimgas Market, it also means higher prices of goods that those found outside its premises. For instance, a buyer would prefer to buy bangus at the Magsaysay Fish Market not only because the fish there is cheaper by P5 to a kilo but because it is fresher.
Those buying clothing would rather go to the adjacent CSI Market Square or Magic Centerpoint than to the New Malimgas Market because they would have a lot of clothes to choose from and in many cases, they are cheaper.
We can only hope that Mayor Lim can reverse the situation at the New Malimgas Market. Fast. Otherwise, we may have just created a white elephant.
ENDNOTES: The Rotary Club of Dagupan, under the leadership of Vice Mayor Alvin Fernandez, had PENRO Juan delos Reyes as its first guest speaker in its regular meeting last Wednesday. Delos Reyes talked about environmental laws that Rotarians should know to familiarize themselves with these laws… Nandaragupan, a coffee table book about Dagupan City edited by Ms. Carmen Prieto, was launched at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last Thursday. The book project cost the city government at least P500,000. With each book selling from P2,500 to P3,500, we hope the city government can recoup its expenses.
QUICK QUOTE: There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle. -- Albert Einstein
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