Pangasinan soon to have DFA Regional Consular Office

LINGAYEN—  Passports and other documents for  Filipinos bound to foreign countries will soon be processed  in Pangasinan.

This was disclosed by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Regional  which said that  a Consular Office will be located at the third floor of Robinson's Pangasinan in Calasiao by the end of this year.

Photo By: Reginald Agsaloln

The closest consular office of DFA is in San Fernando, La Union but most OFWs still get their passports and other travel documents.processed in Metro-Manila.

Revealed during the August 5, 2013 Provincial Board regular session, the DFA Regional Consular Office will not cost the national government any rental fee, said Board Member Ranjit Shahani.

The Board Member also remarked that the opening of a DFA office in the province will encourage people to get passports as such are not only travel documents but are means of identification.

"In fact,passports are more effective-as a notary public- than cedula (community tax certificate)," he said.

In addition, Shahani said that Governor Amado Espino Jr. together with  Ex-President Fidel Ramos, Vice President Jejomar Binay, DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario, and Senator Grace Poe are expected to lead the inauguration of the office in December. (PIO)

Pangasinan OTOP goes Google Seminar, A Huge Success

Held last July 29, at the Pangasinan Training and Development Center, the OTOP Pangasinan goes Google seminar was positively another pioneering step for the province  to make its local products known all over the world through Google mapping and divulging more to the business community - an "intervention to make the invisible visible" so to speak.

Welcoming you at your arrival are elated attendees coming from the diverse towns of Pangasinan hoping to learn something about bringing their produce globally through a more constructive platform, and the food, needless to say, which got everyone tasting and saying, “Yum!” A photo booth was also installed for everyone's enjoyment and remembrance of the event.

Attendees include LGU representatives and OTOP entrepreneurs

A hundred of participants were in attendance during the event. Entrepreneurs brought some of their town products for display.

The exhibit was surely an eye candy for all, and for someone who have not yet been to the corners of the province, definitely had good time familiarizing himself with the new discovery. I, for one, did not know we had a Duhat wine production.

In terms of pasalubong alone, Pangasinan offers a veritable feast. And when we talk about that ubiquitous term, it isn't simply a token of affection, or a tribute piece of places traveled. When visitors come and visit Pangasinan, they inevitably lug home, say a bottle of "bagoong" or a bag of fresh "tupig", but more than that, they bring home with them history, culture, and even future possibilities.

Other products put on display were: 

Calasiao's best-tasting glutinous rice cakes or the popular ‘puto’ which comes in different colors and flavors;

Bolinao's “binungey” or rice cakes cooked in bamboo tubes over open fire,

and quality shell works;

Lingayen's famous “bagoong” products - that Filipino condiment made of partially or completely fermented fish or shrimps and salt;

Salt which is the catalyst for bagoong, has been the heart of an ancient industry that has built the local economy and given a province its name, and Dasol its business veneration;

"Bangus" or milkfish, and your fill of your various seafood from Alaminos and Dagupan cities and other coastal towns;

Burgos' weaved bamboo products ranging from small wallets to the native "bayong" bags; and

Recycled handicrafts and vermicompost presented by the Solid Waste Management in its endeavor to promote KAP knowledge, and right attitude and practice of proper waste supervision in the province.

The Speakers

Provincial tourism officer Ma. Luisa Elduayan imparts on the participants how OTOP can boost a town's tourism potential. 

Entrepreneurs will surely get a boost and confidence in their businesses as JR Padilla, GBG co- manager, talks on how Google tools can help them.

Vanj Padilla, the manager of Google Business Groups Dagupan, co- presenter of the event, discusses how women entrepreneurs will dominate the world wide web in the years to come.

Speakers from Google South East Asia, Aileen Apolo-de Jesus and Chelle Obligacion-Gray discuss the empowerment of women respectively, and how to go global through Google.