Skip to main content

Blessed


AS THE CITY celebrates the 20th Pamulinawen Festival, we can’t help but agree with its theme for this year: Blessed.

Indeed, Laoag City has been blessed in the past few years. Progress and development came in full force and with full intensity. Big supermarkets opened one after the other; not only giving local consumers more to choose from but more so, providing the boost in revenue and employment. Other businesses have since also entered the fray; and the once sleepy most agriculture city has slowly awakened into a robust and vibrant economic center.

Indeed, Laoag City continue to be blessed. Tourist arrivals have reached unprecedented heights. New edifices—both public and private—keep on rising around the city. And Laoag residents continue to reap all the benefits of the economic progress brought about by the local government.

The progress and development however come with a price. Traffic around the city’s business district has tightened. There are now times when what was a five-minute ride has turned into 30 minutes or more during rush hour. It does not help when either the Laoag or Ilocos Norte governments choose to use the city’s main thoroughfare to hold various events.

Multiple traffic schemes have been bruited about. A centralized terminal has also been established. But the main problem remains—narrow roads and a finite number of streets around the city’s centro. Private and public vehicles continue to jostle along the city’s streets; and with progress booming, this will only get worse.

As in traffic jams, rising criminality also comes with progress and development. Theft, homicide and swindling are rising. And even if the local police redouble their effort, their puny number vis-à-vis the city’s population would not really make a significant difference. They still will not be able to prevent crimes by themselves. Force multipliers through barangay security officers may help, but the best help the police can attain are the cooperation and coordination of local residents.

The problems and difficulties that accompany economic booms is manageable. The city’s leadership only needs to learn from experience.

And this is something incumbent Laoag Mayor Chevylle V. Fariñas can do as she will run unopposed for her second term in the coming May elections.

More progress is expected in the city. And it may be a good thing, that the mayor who reaped the success of previous administrations is holding fast and tight—not only to claim the success; but more so to build on them to bring more smiles to Laoag residents.

Blessed, indeed. And here’s hoping for more blessings to come in the future.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.