Ghost haunting: Failed flood control project resurfaces
THANKS TO Facebook, the proverbial brevity of public memory gets routinely jolted by the website’s Memories, even at the most opportune moments in many instances. As this Sept. 6, 2024 post in the Punto! FB page finding relevance in the current public discourse on spectral infrastructures: FLOODWATERS UNEARTH INFRA SHORTCUTTING Sheet piles of a diking […]
Finding solons, doing the math in Pampanga flood control projects
IT MAY only be No. 5 in the Top 10, but A.D. Gonzales Construction and Trading Co. Inc., the eponymous company of the immediate past House Senior Deputy Speaker and three-term Pampanga 3rd District congressman, holds the largest funded single flood control projects in the province. Matrix of the A.D. Gonzales Construction company officials among the […]
Pampanga mayors’ vow: To serve with honor, lead with integrity
“CORRUPTION IS not only illegal – it is a betrayal of the trust reposed upon us by our constituents.” Thus, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Pampanga Chapter declared in an official statement during the Pampanga Business and Investment Forum 2025 held at the Kingsborough Convention Center in the City of San Fernando on Aug. […]
Candating contradictions: Sen. Ping’s revelations belie Cong Dong’s declarations
ONLY LAST January then-House Senior Deputy Speaker and Pampanga 3rd District Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. said the flood control project in Candating, Arayat – damaged at the onslaught of Super Typhoon Carina in August 2024 – will be repaired at no cost to the government. “The project, a 110.2-meter flood mitigation structure, suffered damage due […]
Is that Pasudeco’s chimney rising at Capital Town anew?
ICONIC smokestacks that merited a place in the official seal of the Province of Pampanga – detailed in the old, representative in the new – vanished with the dismantling of the storied sugar central that was Pasudeco – registered business name: Pampanga Sugar Development Company – at the start of the groundwork for Megaworld’s Capital […]
A TikTok disconnect
DON’T LOOK now but the political fallout from the fiduciary blowup ignited by Pampanga 3rd District board member Shiwen Lim has drifted to City of San Fernando Mayor Vilma Balle-Caluag. And her honor – if she chooses to – can only blame the newbie bokal, aka Estelito Lim, as he has only himself to blame […]
Politicizing the rule of law
PRINCIPLED politics is a contradiction in terms: mutually exclusive, diametrically opposed, for in politics “no one acts on principles or reasons from them.” There is that generalization arising from the fixity of our intellectual habits that deems the recurring characteristic trait of a segment of one species as representative of that species, if not of […]
Compassionate Superl Relief: CSR redefined in flooded Pampanga
LUXURY BAG manufacturer-exporter Superl Philippines Inc. on July 30 braved the floodwaters of Macabebe town delivering 1,850 relief packs on board trucks provided by the Capitol, its general manager and vice president Alex Fung hanging on the side, handing out bagfuls of food stuff to the residents. “When the floodwaters rise, so does the spirit […]
Monday with Nanay Gov
NO, YOU can’t keep time on a Monday with Gov. Lilia “Nanay” Pineda. You can only keep pace, hardly at that, with the swirl of activities around her. July 21 was typical. Flag rites segueing to the handover of 29 mini dump trucks to 29 LGUs for their waste management efforts. An ambulance turned over […]
Cong Tarzan’s MC paternity cancelled
“WE GIVE credit to whom credit is due. His leadership laid the groundwork for the opportunities Mabalacat enjoys today.” Thus, at the 13th cityhood anniversary, Mayor Atty. Gerald Guttrie Aquino honored mayor-for-the-longest-time Marino “Boking” Morales as the “Father of Mabalacat Cityhood” for his key role in the passage of RA 10164 converting the municipality of […]