Local News

An alleged commander of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Negros Occidental who was arrested in November last year, was released from prison yesterday after posting bail of P100,000.

Romeo Nanta, 54, whom the military tagged as the head of the NPA’s Regional Operations Command, was given temporary liberty after he posted P100,000 for the robbery-in-band charges yesterday, Supt. Felixberto Jagorin, warden of the Negros Occidental District Jail where Nanta was jailed, said.

At least 26 houses were damaged after a tornado hit Barangay Bantayan in Kabankalan City Monday afternoon, reports yesterday said.

Brgy. Bantayan officials said last night that 26 houses, along with several structures, were damaged.

Team Merci & Team NGP giving out breads to evacuees on the Red Cross tent grounds in Guihulngan City.*

Merci Bakeshop and Negros Grace Pharmacy took a day off from work to do relief operations for the victims of the 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Negros Oriental. Team Merci led by Jonathan Lo and the Negros Grace Pharmacy team led by Bea Lo Yao gave out canned goods, rice, noodles, breads, gallons of purified drinking water, and vitamins for the residents of Barangay Manghulyawon and Barangay Talayong in the municipality of La Libertad.

The theme for the Diamond Jubilee of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) was finally been chosen after 144 entries have been screened.

The theme, “Transforming Lives, Building Communities, Shaping Futures,” crafted by senior Mass Communications student Kamille Borromeo, bested other entries submitted by alumni, students, faculty and staff in the theme-making contest conducted last January 18 to February 1.

Borromeo’s theme emerged as the best choice for its relevance, creativity and rhythm, sensory appeal and impact.

Two transport groups in Bacolod City, the Federation of Bacolod City Divers Association (FEBACDA) and ACTION, INC. led by its presidents, Elizabeth Katalbas and Teddy Macainan, respectively, are urging the city officials to provide office space for the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), at the city hall or any space that the city could provide.

More than 20,000 members of urban poor families, in several subvillages in Bacolod City, are awaiting the support and assistance of incumbent and even prospective officials in the city and when and if they do so, they will surely get the votes of this neglected sector of Philippine and Bacolod society.

Thus spoke urban poor Kaisahan leader, Berlita Ante during an interview with the radio program “Tungkaron ta Ini” hosted by journalists Edgar Cadagat and Jeffrey Gelangre.

An aerial survey of Kanlaon Volcano and its vicinity yesterday discovered a “very long, wide crack” near the volcano’s crater.

The aerial observation using a helicopter also showed signs of “landslide spots and areas prone to more landslides.”

The suspects in the more than the week old Kabankalan City heist victimizing a sugar trader and which resulted in the death of the bodyguard of her secretary, both of whom had withdrawn about P2-M from a local bank have been identified by Police Chief Supt. Calixto Mabugat during an interview with Aksyon Radyo yesterday morning.

Mabugat identified one of the suspects as one Richard Gonzales, who has also a pending anti-drug case with the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in the city.

Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said he will invite President Benigno Aquino III to the inauguration of the 150-bed extension facility of the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.

The schedule of the inauguration was not determined yet.

Complaints related to graft and corruption filed against Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, city councilors and executive officers in the past several years under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act are still being heard, investigated or considered by the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas, several copies of a letter which are in response to the query of whistleblower, Sarah Teresa Esguerra from the national Ombudsman, and also from Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas, Pelagio Apostol showed.

The response to her queries (Esguerra) by Asryman Rafanan and Apostol himself, was furnished this reported by Esguerra yesterday.