Police on jai-alai in Pangasinan

LINGAYEN -- Much talk about lately in Pangasinan is the numbers game jai-alai, with betting stations already being operated in at least 35 towns and cities.

Senior Superintendent Rosueto Ricaforte, chief of the Pangasinan police, said they cannot stop jai-alai operations as they are legal with business permits issued by the mayors.
However, Ricaforte stressed that they would not tolerate any illegal gambling activities in the province using jai-alai as front such as "bookies."

It was gathered that jai-alai betting stations being operated by Meridien in the province are located in Calasiao, Sta. Barbara, Bugallon, Labrador, Lingayen, Manaoag, Mangaldan, San Jacinto, San Fabian, San Carlos City, Malasiqui, Mapandan, Dasol, Agno, Infanta, Burgos, and Sta. Maria.

Also in San Manuel, Sual, Natividad, San Nicolas, Binmaley, Mangatarem, Urbiztondo, Basista, Laoac, Bolinao, Rosales, Dagupan City, Urdaneta City, Aguilar, San Quintin, Tayug, and Bautista.

Several arrests have been made by the police against persons who are diverting some bets collected for jai-alai to guerilla jueteng, an illegal numbers game.

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Pangasinan’s Religious Heritage

A MUSEUM and what may be considered a spacious reception hall, with a replica of the Blessed Mother, have been added to the Nuestra Señora de Manaoag Shrine, arguably Pangasinan’s most famous religious shrine because of the many miracles attributed to Our Lady of the Holy Rosario.

One account, worthy of Gabriel García Márquez’s magic realism, says that during the drought of 1706, Mama Mary produced miraculous downpours which lasted for days.

The Dominican church, with its impressive interior, dates back to 1772 and was partially destroyed by fire during the 1898 Revolution. When the Dominicans returned in 1901, they rebuilt the transept and the dome, a task which was completed only in 1932.

The exterior of the church has lost its Old World charm, for the bell tower and façade now sport a modernist look. And some portions of the brick walls on the side have been cemented over. We ignore this, and just enter the church to converse briefly with Our Lady of Manaoag.

Our Lady calls

Years ago, on a similar pilgrimage to the shrine, I met a friend of happy memory, Purita Kalaw-Ledesma, who shared: “I am a devotee of Our Lady of Manaoag because she has always granted all my wishes. But one has to have faith.”

Another parish in Pangasinan worth visiting is the church of Labrador, with its new patina of pastel colors. But again, we are confronted with a new belfry out of sync with the Neoclassical style of the façade.

The St. Joseph Cathedral-Parish, under the Diocese of Alaminos, is decked out with the official colors of the province, pastel yellow and gray, and the façade showcases a pantheon of saints: San Juan, San Lucas, San Mateo…

The cathedral has an imposing chocolate-colored retablo (altar backdrop).

Alaminos is one town which has managed to hold on to its heritage despite the onslaught of modernity and tourism (it is home of the Hundred Islands). One can see many ancestral houses in front of the church and plaza.

The high point of the tour organized by the Provincial Information Office, headed by Orpheus M. Velasco (075-542-7030; kokaok77@yahoo.com), on the occasion of Pangasinan’s 431st founding anniversary, was the St. James the Great Church in Bolinao, constructed in 1609 by the Augustinians.

This historical church is now undergoing reconstruction, and one hopes it is that and not renovation. Already, some portions of the façade, with coral stones, have (again) been cemented over. This has happened to many Spanish-era churches in the Philippines, and one wonders if our parish priests are really heritage-conscious.

First Mass?

In front of the church is a marker which pays tribute to Blessed Fr. Odorico, an Italian missionary who, early in the 14th century, traveled to China and, the ship encountering a storm, sought refuge in Santiago Island, Bolinao, the northernmost tip of Pangasinan.

“O glorious Father Odorico,” the monument plaque declared, “you touched our country in your journey to China. May that great nation and all nations open the door to Christ.”

Interestingly, the marker added: “In 1324, Blessed Odorico, after landing in Bolinao, celebrated the first Mass in the Philippines. He also indoctrinated and baptized many of the Malay immigrants in Bolinao.”

(Ambeth Ocampo and Church scholars Fathers Pedro Galende, OSA, and Rene Javellana, SJ, please check this out. I was told that the source is a travel memoir written by Father Odorico, a copy of which is somewhere in the province.)

The pilgrimage made me recall an earlier visit to another grand shrine, the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, now a National Cultural Treasure, in Calasiao. It is Baroque-Romanesque in style, pyramid-shaped like the Bolinao shrine, with castle-like finials on the side and a state-of-the-art computerized musical system.

Also well-preserved is the convent house, with its sense of space and scale, redolent of a bygone era. “I met Padre Salvi in the corridor,” quipped SV Epistola, another friend of happy memory.

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Bolinao residents want moratorium on aquaculture operations in town

Bolinao residents want moratorium on aquaculture operations in town

By Yolanda Sotelo

Exasperated by the environmental pollution caused by the million-peso aquaculture industry in their town, Bolinao residents pressed for temporary moratorium of aquaculture operation, saying it should continue only after the ecosystem has been restored to health and a sustainable plan has been put in place.

“We are not against aquaculture per se, but unfortunately, it has become free-for-all and the number of cages has been too much for the sea water to sustain that fish kill has been occurring on almost regular basis. It has also affected the livelihood of marginal fishermen who used to depend on the sea resources,” Margaret Celeste, chair of the Movement of Bolinao Concerned Citizens Inc., said.

There are over 600 cages and 200 fish pens in Bolinao waters which were affected by red tide and fish kill last month. The damages from fish kill was estimated to be P50 million, but losses from shellfishes due to red tide was not given any cost, according to Municipal Planning and Development Officer Brunner Caranza.

The pollution caused by the fishery industry has caused the disappearance of “barangen dumadalan (a kind of rabbit fish),” lobsters, sea cucumber, corals and other species that used to thrive in the Kakiputan Channel, the residents said.

“We see the importance of Bolinao in the production of fish. The industry has propelled some Bolinao residents to prominence and prosperity. But it is benefiting only a handful of investors while it is destroying the Bolinao ecosystem,” the residents said.

They asked the authorities to act fast because the town’s marine environment is deteriorating quickly and time could come that no fish could survive anymore.

“When that time come, Bolinao could no longer contribute to the fishery sector,” Celeste said.

A position paper of the residents submitted to the local government proposed the complete cessation of aquaculture operations for as long as it would allow the host environment to recover. They also asked the LGU to work closely with towns sharing sea space with Bolinao.

On Thursday, Bolinao Mayor Alfonso Celeste, Anda Mayor Aldrin Cerdan and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Regional Director Nestor Domenden met with the aquaculture operators to inform them about the need to rationalize the industry.

Domenden said the two mayors agreed to the proposal to minimize the number of structures in both towns, as well as to implement the recommended management strategies to protect the marine environment and prevent disasters like fish kill and red tide.

There should be a technical working group to conduct scientific study and craft rules and regulations to be strictly implemented by the local governments, he said.

First district Rep. Jesus Celeste also said the aquaculture problem should be resolved based on scientific recommendations by agencies such as BFAR and the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute and the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center.

“The LGUs should abide by the recommendation of the Bolinao concerned citizens and the technical working group,” he said.

Caranza said Mayor Celeste declared to remove the fish pens or “he will resign from office.”

Among the proposals of the residents include the closure of fishpen operations which impede the flow of current, adopt new zonification and corresponding carrying capacity, free bottleneck areas (Culang to Culangi villages) of fish cages, alternate operations by zones or by year, create a monitoring committee.

They also asked for protection of rights and interests of marginal fishermen employed as caretakers, as well as define their rights and privileges in relation to their work as caretakers.

http://northernwatchonline.com/2010/...tions-in-town/