The Ilocos Times

  EMMANUEL  S. Tipon with grandson Robbie at Kailua Beach in Hawaii. By Emmanuel Samonte Tipon “Oh God, please make Donald Trump win if you love America.” That was my prayer at the new Iglesia Ni Cristo Diamond Head congregation. This was the first time I ever prayed hard for a candidate to win. I had told Mr. Trump when I met him in Cleveland during the Republican Convention.  “Mr. President, I will pray for you.” “Thank you, thank you very much,” he whispered. Millions prayed for Mr. Trump to win. You all know God’s answer.  God spoke through the silent majority. Vox populi. Vox Dei . Congratulations Mr. Trump and Mr. Pence. The silent majority hearkened to Mr. Trump’s clarion call “I am your voice. I will speak for you.”  “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” promised Mr. Trump in his victory speech after Hillary Clinton conceded the election. Donald Trump will be the 45 th president of the United States. Many of M

President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos’s remains is finally interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Now, the healing process of a fragmented nation can begin. Or so, claimed the former president’s family and most vocal and ardent supporters. The Marcos family interred the former president on November 18, 2016 with “honors befitting a soldier.” Expectedly, anti-Marcos forces did not take this peacefully. Protests began as soon as the burial was confirmed. The unannounced plan only stoked the flames of protests. The Marcos family, in justifying the “surprise” burial, said they want the internment to be a “private, family affair”. It was the wide belief of the Marcos family and their supporters that the burial would start the healing process towards real unity in the country. President Duterte, himself, said the burial would signal the end of the “great divide”; and that the country would move on from the issues of Martial Law and all other inconveniences that occurred from 1972 to

A police officer interviews the suspect. Laoag City --The police here arrested a suspected abortionist in an entrapment operation. According to Laoag police chief P/Supt. Edwin Balles, intel-operations elements conducted an entrapment operation after a report of “intentional abortion” on November 16, 2016 at the Vigare Clinic reached them. The said clinic is located at Brgy. 8 this city. The operation resulted in the arrest of Mary Jean Lagmay, 48 years old, registered and resident nurse of Vigare Clinic, owned by Dr. Teresita Vigare. The arrest was implemented after the nurse was “caught in the act” while in the process of employing intentional abortion procedures and dispensing abortive drugs to a pregnant female police asset at the said clinic. The police confiscated and seized pieces of abortive evidence in the crime scene. Among which were 1 D5LR Dextrose, 9 vials of Popicin (Oxytocin), 1 tablet of Cytotec, 1 vial of ambidol, 1 disposable syringe and ₱ 12,

By Alfredo c. Garvida Jr. The Marcos family has pulled a fast one on the anti-Marcos loyalists last Friday, November 18 th , when they buried the former president in his rightful place in simple, private ceremonies attended only by his family and their friends.  The furor now cast by the Marcos enemies all over the media outlets in consequence of this brilliant move by the late president's family, frankly, is very understandable—and I commiserate with them contras for being made to look more stupid. But they were stupid, to begin with, because they wanted the Supreme Court to hold the burial in abeyance until they have filed their motion for reconsideration. They were stupid for waging their appeal first to the public in vicious propaganda attacks against the late strongman and his family via the news media instead of going directly, and immediately, to the highest court for relief. They were stupid for trying to make the Supreme Court stupid for upholding—by a big ma

(The space below has been left intentionally blank. We respectfully suggest that Congress start with a clean slate in enacting THE TRUMP IMMIGRATION ACT that will serve the national interest and is fair to lawful immigrants. Congress must repeal and replace the entire Act which is a leaky cauldron containing an alphabet soup of laws like AEDPA and IIRIRA, is chock-full of grammatical errors, enmeshed in a bundle of self-contradictions, such as using the term “removal” in one place and “deportation’ in another, very harsh on lawful permanent resident aliens who commit petty offenses, and employing big and vague words without defining them like “crime involving moral turpitude” thereby wasting the time of the courts in explaining what they mean often with contradictory results.)  (Atty. Tipon has a Master of Laws degree from Yale Law School where he specialized in Constitutional Law. He has also a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of t

Batac City —The city government here plans to put the whole city in closed circuit television (CCTV) coverage. The plan was given an initial ₱ 6- ₱ 7 million budget for 2017. Mayor Albert D. Chua said there will an initial 23 high definition CCTV system to be installed in strategic areas. Among the locations include the city hall, city inn, city health office, motor pool, city plaza, public market, busy intersections and the five entrance and exit points in the city:  Batac-Banna road, Batac-Pinili via Maipalig road, Batac-Currimao road, Batac-Paoay road and Batac-Laoag road. The mayor said that the CCTV to be installed will be equipped with solar power in case of power interruption for continuous and wide monitoring. He added that the city-owned CCTV will be an independent network to be put up by the city government of Batac; this means no provider from any telecommunication networks will be needed. “ Ta uray no awan signal, maka operate latta dagitoy CCTV c