The Ilocos Times

By Dominic B. dela Cruz Staff reporter Batac City— Officials here are seeking the permanent declaration of their Charter Day as a special non-working holiday in the city. Batac mayor Albert D. Chua said he has signed the resolution requesting Rep. Imelda R. Marcos (Ilocos Norte, 2 nd district) to file a bill at the House of Representatives declaring June 23 as Batac’s Charter Day and as a non-working holiday in the city. The Sangguniang Panlungsod here earlier unanimously approved the said resolution. Batac councilors Bernardo K. Marders, Joel R. Garcia and Mary Coleen Columbia L. Cajigal were the main sponsors of the resolution. The sponsors said Batac “deserves the declaration of its cityhood to be a non-working holiday for the people of Batac to have the chance to witness and participate in all the activities during the said celebration.” In signing the resolution, Mr. Chua said the city needs a permanent declaration of the non-working holiday so everyone ca

THE immediate answer is to humanize and Christianize it. Politics all over the world has been at the mercy of man’s baser passions for so long that it now screams to high heavens for its humanization and Christianization. And this can only mean that it is in dire need of charity. It has to be guided by the requirements of charity, which should not be considered as some kind of drag or hindrance but rather as the perfection and fulfillment of politics. It just cannot be left alone, fully under the power of our passions, brute force and worldly forces. In fact, it can and should be a massive way of sanctification of the people. Politics ought to be pursued always in charity. It cannot be any other way, since charity is the mother of all virtues and good values. If we want justice, truth and fairness, charity has them all. If we want competence, order, discipline, etc., again charity has them. If we want objectivity, charity has it. And that’s because charity covers all our need

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter LAOAG CITY—Fisher folks in the coastal municipalities of Ilocos Norte will soon have fully operational Community Fish Landing Centers (CFLC) courtesy of the Department of Agriculture through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). Pegged at P3 million per CFLC, Arthur Valente, Fishery Regulatory Coordinator of the Provincial Agriculture Office said the construction of fish landing sites in five of the six municipalities here had already been completed while the remaining two are almost done. Meant to improve the socio-economic conditions of fisher folk communities with high poverty incidence, the recipient municipalities include the towns of Badoc, Paoay, Pasuquin, Bangui, Burgos, Pagudpud, and Laoag City. Upon completion, Mr. Valente said these will be turned over to local government units and later on to fisher folk cooperatives. The CFLCs will also house post-harvest equipment and tools that will enable fishers t

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter PIDDIG, Ilocos Norte—At least 120 municipal employees and elected officials of this town can be the first to claim, they are clean and free from illegal drugs. In a surprise mandatory drug testing activity held at the municipal hall, newly-elected town mayor Georgina Guillen said the result turned out all negative. Led by Ms. Guillen, she invited representatives of the Philippine National Police Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) Crime Laboratory and the Department of Health and ordered all local government employees and officials here to undergo drug testing right away. “Our municipal mayor is doing everything she can to make our town drug free. A number of drug pushers has been arrested, some are in jail already and other cases are still undergoing court proceedings,” said former town mayor Eduardo Guillen, now acting as consultant to the mayor. In Piddig, police reported more than 20 drug users who surrendered while the

By Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporter LAOAG CITY — A government doctor dismissed from government service failed to persuade the Court of Appeals that he should be reinstated after he was found guilty of leaving his post ahead of his end of duty without any replacement. In a two-page resolution signed by CA Associate Justice Francisco P. Acosta promulgated on May 18, 2016 and later received by the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte on June 3, the petition of Dr. Baldomero C. Tapia Jr. versus the Ilocos Norte government has been denied as it affirmed the October 9, 2012 decision of the Civil Service Commission. The appeal was meant to lessen his offense for neglecting a patient at the Gov. Roque B. Ablan Memorial Hospital (GRBASMH). Like an earlier resolution of the CSC, the CA favored the decision of the provincial government through a recommendation of the hospital management council dismissing Mr. Tapia from government service. Though the petitioner reiterate