Taiwan offers 1,000 jobs, more buses for Cebu City

Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:05pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

CEBU, Philippines—Kaoshiung City officials offered 1,000 jobs in Taiwan to skilled Cebuano workers even as they pledged to donate 20 more Kaohsiung buses next year as an expression of their friendship with their city of Cebu.

 

“We will provide workers with opportunities in Taiwan,” said Hsin Shing Wu, representative of the Taiwan government to the Philippines.

 

Wu led yesterday a delegation of Kaoshiung City officials inside reclaimed land in the South Road Properties.

 

“Cebu has always been a friendly neighboring city,” he said. He was here with Kwo Tsia, the director general of the Transportation Bureau of Taiwan, for the formal turnover of the six Kaoshiung buses to Cebu City.

 

Wu said in his brief speech that 20 more buses will be coming from Kaoshiung next year.

 

In turn, Mayor Tomas Osmeña nominated Kaoshiung as the host city for the Asia Pacific sister cities summit in 2009. Osmeña also invited Kaoshiung officials to the Sinulog grand mardi gras next year to strengthen an exchange of culture and explore more possibilities of commerce and trade in Cebu.

 

“The mutual support and assistance between the two sister cities has become very meaningful,” said Wu. The sisterhood pact between Cebu city and Taiwan’s second largest city was sealed in 1988.

 

Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. said six buses donated by the City of Kaoshiung arrived in Cebu a few months ago but they were refurbished first before the formal turnover.

 

The city allotted P1.2 million for this although it expects to spend only half of the amount. The city spent P500,000 to refurbish four of the six buses turned over yesterday.

 

Pe said the buses have been very useful to the city both in good times and the bad.

 

Four newly refurbished buses ferried guests during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit held in Cebu last January while the first set of buses that arrived from Kaoshiung in 1988 helped evacuate families from coastal barangays at the height of typhoon Ruping the following year.

 

Even buses that are no longer in running condition are useful. They were turned into temporary shelters for fire victims and victims of natural calamities, Pe said. Others were converted into a mobile classroom and library.

 

Reporter Doris C. Bongcac

Three more kids die of dengue

By Jhunnex Napallacan
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:04pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

CEBU, Philippines—With no money for hospital bills, a couple from barangay Pangdan, Naga town, south Cebu hesitated to bring their feverish child to a doctor. Their eight-month- old infant died of dengue on Wednesday.

 

The baby was one of three children who died this week from the mosquito-borne illness, bringing the total number of dengue fatalities in Metro Cebu to 13 since June.

 

The other two recent fatalities came from Mandaue City and Talisay City.

 

Naga rural health midwife Virginia Alinsonorin said the parents brought the infant to the public health center last Friday.

 

“They were told that the baby had to be confined in the hospital. But we found out yesterday the baby died at home because the parents had no money for hospitalization,” she said.

 

The child fatality from Mandaue City was a five-year-old boy who was taken at dawn yesterday to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City.

 

It was too late; he died a few hours after, said nurse Chevy Deiparine of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (RESU 7).

 

A five-year-old girl from San Isidro, Talisay City was taken to the Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu CIty last June 30. The girl died a few days later on July 3.

 

Naga town now counts five deaths from dengue since June, part of a total of 21 dengue cases.

 

The other fatalities came from barangay Pangdan and Mainit.

 

A check with the South General Hospital in Naga showed that 14 patients were confined for dengue and most patients came from Minglanilla and Naga towns.

 

Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong in an interview yesterday said he wanted health authorities to declare a dengue outbreak in his town so that municipal officials could tap the town’s calamity fund.

 

With the devolution of health services to local governments, the declaration has to be made by the municipal government and not the Department of Health although the DOH can recommend one.

 

A dengue outbreak was earlier declared in Minglanilla town after the death of six children since June , affecting six barangays: Poblacion Ward 2, Ward 3, Ward 4, Tulay, Tungkop and Pakigne.

 

Chiong said he issued a memorandum to the barangay captains and school administrators to intensify their cleanup operation and participate in the four o’clock habit to eliminate breeding grounds of mosquitoes.

 

The mayor advised families to bring their children to the hospital as soon as they notice possible signs of dengue like high fever and rashes.

 

They also have to approach the municipal government or their barangay captains if they need financial aid. “If they don’t come to us, we won’t know what kind of assistance we can extend to them,” Chiong said.

 

“Everything boils down to environmental sanitation,” said Dr. Expedito Medalla, regional coordinator of the DOH’s Health Emergency Management Service.

 

He said residents must continue cleaning their surroundings and destroy all possible mosquito breeding places like stagnant pools, water containers and empty tires.

IBP offers legal aid to ‘marriage scam’ victims

By Nilda Gallo
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:03pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

CEBU, Philippines—A lawyer’s group is urging couples who fell prey to marriage “fixers” in Cebu courts to come forward and file charges against those involved. The lawyers offered to provide legal assistance to stop the scam.

 

This appeal was contained in the resolution passed yesterday by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu City Chapter and signed by its president Briccio Joseph Boholst.

 

The IBP said the victims could file their complaints before the executive judges of either the Municipal Trial Court in Cities and the Regional Trial Court.

 

A copy of the complaint could be set to the IBP so the chapter could provide legal aid, the statement said.

 

The lawyers in Cebu City condemned the existence of a marriage racket , which they said gave the judiciary a “bad image”.

 

“The IBP Cebu City chapter condemns the’ marriage scam’ where those who seek to avail of a court-officiated marriage are overcharged or defrauded by unscrupulous individuals,” stated the resolution.

 

A nine-man team from the Supreme Court arrived in Cebu on Tuesday to look into the allegations that some Cebu court personnel were charging P2,000 to P10,000 to fast track arrangements for civil weddings.

 

Under the Rules of Court, the marriage solemnization fee costs only P300.

 

Some couples were also able to do away with a marriage license, a requirement for the ceremony, by availing of the exemption –a submission of an affidavit that showed they had been living in together for five years.

 

The investigating team found out that one judge had officiated 600 civil rites. In this batch, 50 percent to 75 percent of the couples involved presented affidavits of cohabitation.

 

The IBP Cebu chapter passed a separate resolution lauding RTC Executive Judge Fortunato de Gracia and MTCC Executive Judge Oscar Andrino for issuing a joint memorandum, ordering that the solemnizing magistrate would be chosen strictly through a raffle to put an end to the “scam.”

 

“The IBP Cebu City Chapter commends De Gracia and Andrino for issuing the joint memorandum that provides guidelines for court officiated marriages to reduce opportunities for corruption and other improper practices,” stated the resolution.

 

But during a meeting on Monday, the judges agreed that instead of using a raffle, a judge would be designated as solemnizing officer for the week. Yesterday, the investigating team from the Supreme Court continued their scrutiny of four remaining MTCC branches.

 

But there was no need to cancel hearings there because none were scheduled yesterday to allow court employees to inventory their cases, said Judicial Supervisor Rullyn Garcia.

 

The four were the courtrooms of Judge Monalila Tecson of MTCC Branch 1; Judge Oscar Andrino of MTCC Branch 5; Judge Donato Navarro of MTCC Branch 6; and Judge Francisco Seville, Jr. of Branch 7.

 

MTCC Branch 6 is temporarily being handled by Judge Seville pending the result of the request of Navarro to return his administrative power over his courtroom after he was ordered by the SC in 2005 to resolve all the pending cases in his sala.

 

Garcia said they finished their investigation of the first four MTCCs –Judge Monalila Tecson of MTCC Branch 1 Judge Anatalio Necesario of MTCC Branch 2; Judge Gil Acosta of MTCC Branch 3; Judge Rosabella Tormis of MTCC Branch 4 and Judge Edgemelo Rosales of MTCC Branch 8.

 

Also investigated was Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24 of Judge Olegario Sarmiento.

 

Garcia said hearings resumed in these five courts after the inquiry was finished on Wednesday.

 

He refused to tell their findings which would be submitted to the SC.

 

Garcia clarified that the investigation was done after reports of the marriage scam were brought to the attention of the Chief Justice when he visited Cebu last Friday.

 

He said Judge Navarro, who earlier asked the Supreme Court to investigate the same activity, had nothing to do with their probe.

 

“The matter involving Judge Navarro is never a factor of this investigation. The reason we are here is because of the instruction of the Chief Justice to conduct an immediate investigation of this problem,” Garcia told reporters.

 

He also clarified that complaints against a judge who would officiate 40 marriages per day that was referred by the Ombudsman to the legal office of the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA) last year is still pending.

 

“It is not true that the complaint was dismissed. There was an action taken by the legal department of the OCA and that action was referred to the office of the Deputy Court Administrator Zenaida Elepano by Court Administrator Christopher Lock,” said Garcia.

Martinez asks SC to stop Bogo canvass

By Suzzane Salva-Alueta, Jhunnex Napallacan
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:01pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

CEBU, Philippines—The fight for the 4th district congressional race is not over for candidate Celestino Martinez III.

 

His lawyers will go to the Supreme Court in a bid to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from canvassing the remaining election returns from Bogo City using the copies of the election watchdog C-Cimpel.

 

“It’s not time to concede yet. We see this as only the beginning of a much larger litigation through the proper forum,” said Inocencio dela Cerna Jr., a member of Martinez’s legal team.

 

He said they would be filing a petition for mandamus, certiorari and prohibition before the High Tribunal today, a day before Municipal and Provincial Board of Canvassers were to reconvene and canvass the remaining ERs from Bogo using “authentic copies.”

 

Based on the copy furnished to Cebu Daily News, named respondents in the petition would Comelec second division, the board of canvassers and Benhur Salimbangon, Martinez’ rival in the congressional race.

 

Comelec Comissioner Resurreccion Borra, who is in-charge of Western and Central Visayas, ordered the board of canvassers to proceed to the Comelec session hall in Intramuros, Manila on Saturday, instead of Friday.

 

“The Board is further ordered to submit immediately to the National Board of Canvassers the complete/amended/supplemental Certificate of Canvass of the province of Cebu together with its attachments,” said Borra, in his order yesterday.

 

The order stemmed from the July 3 resolution of the Comelec second division that ordered the board of canvassers to reconvene and canvass the returns for the fourth district and then proclaim the winner.

 

But the poll body ruled that the C-Cimpel returns should be canvassed and not the official ERs after these were found to be “spurious and manufactured” after comparing these with the C-Cimpel copies and the Certificate of Votes issued by the Board of Inspectors to Salimbangon’s supporters.

 

In his petition, Martinez asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the Comelec from canvassing the returns using the C-Cimpel copies in place of the official ERs.

 

He asked the SC to order the Comelec to continue the canvassing of the official returns and not the C-Cimpel’s copies as the latter should not be used as basis for the canvass for the votes for a member of the House of Representatives in place of official returns.

 

Martinez said there was no basis to make a “comparison” of the official ERs with the C-Cimpel copies.

 

“It is clearly beyond the jurisdiction of the public respondent Comelec. Again, it falls within the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET). Further, should a comparison really be necessary, the document to be used should be the one intended for the COMELEC; not the C-Cimpel.”

 

He also pointed out that the C-Cimpel through Fr. Mhar Balili did not present any copy of the ER to the Comelec during the June 21 hearing.

 

“To reiterate, the said hearing proceeded squarely on the oral arguments of the counsels of both parties. No evidence was submitted on record during the said time or prior thereto. And notably, that was the only hearing conducted by the respondent Comelec in so far as the three (3) petitions are concerned.”

 

The July 3 resolution, Martinez said, was misleading because Salimbangon did not possess any copies of the ERs of the ruling majority party, Lakas-CMD because he was not the official candidate of the party.

 

Martinez also urged the High Tribunal to include in canvassing the three ERs in the possession of Bogo election officer who was only waiting for an order for him to turnover the same to the board of canvassers.

 

Assuming that Salimbangon was indeed winning by 308 votes, he added the three ERs could determine the final outcome of the canvassing.

 

The Comelec second division earlier said that if the “authentic copies” of the 15 ERs were to be canvassed, Salimbangon would lead by a margin of 308 votes, which is equivalent to the size of one precinct.

 

Salimbangon, for his part, said it is the right of Martinez to go to the Supreme Court and question the Comelec resolution.

 

But he urged him to just wait for the next elections because he said the former Bogo mayor lost the ascendancy to file an election protest because of what happened to the returns from Bogo.

 

He added that his margin would have been bigger than 308 votes had the municipal board of canvassers not insisted in canvassing the other “fake” returns.

 

But he said he would file charges against Bogo officials responsible for manipulating the returns. They were the municipal treasurer (now city treasurer), the election officer and assistant election officer in Bogo.

 

He claimed that the manipulation of the ERs was done at the treasurer’s office where the ballot boxes were brought from the polling precincts.

 

But he could not say if they would include the special board of canvassers at the Capitol, as they had not yet established if they were part of the scheme to rig the results.

 

In the meantime, the Cebu Police Provincial Office is on alert for any untoward incident that may arise during the proclamation of the winner in the congressional race.

 

Senior Supt. Carmelo Valmoria, CPPO head, said they already had a stand by force to augment the police personnel in Bogo to diffuse the tension between the supporters of Salimbangon and Martinez.

 

With a report from Correspondent Rene Alima

Jail guards in exile

By Jolene Bulambot
Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:02pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

CEBU, Philippines—Instead of carrying shotguns, Cebu provincial jail guards who are considered “undesirables” by the Capitol end up in farm lots planting corn.

 

The exile may be indefinite.

 

“It’s really degrading,” said one guard in Cebuano. He started his new duties this week in Sudlon, Cebu City.

 

“We are all regular employees. I don’t think it’s fair that they treat us like this. We are more like inmates now.”

 

He was one of 41 jail personnel, including a nurse and office-based staff, who were reassigned to the Provincial Agriculturist’s Office in a memo issued by Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia last Monday, her first working day of her reelected term.

 

The 41 employees are under investigation for “electioneering”, dishonesty and other offenses.

 

Some of the guards said they were in trouble because they were suspected of campaigning against Garcia in the last May 14 polls.

 

While rain fell yesterday, the exiled jail personnel continued to push rakes and shovels to till the soil in a government-owned lot of the provincial office of the Department of Agriculture in barangay Sudlon II.

 

“Manong Ben”, another guard in his 50s, said he collapsed last Tuesday because of the heat but forced himself to report for farm duties despite having a heart condition because he was afraid of losing his job.

 

Some guards said they hoped the Civil Service Commission (CSC) or other government agencies would look into their case, because it wasn’t clear how long they would be “punished” by doing physical labor and menial jobs.

 

A memorandum dated July 2 signed by Governor Garcia said: “In the exigency of the service, you are hereby reassigned to the Provincial Agriculturist’s Office…. For strict compliance.”

 

No length of time was mentioned for the transfer.

 

“We are so demoralized. I collapsed because of the heat but what can I do, I have to report to work,” said Manong Ben. He denied campaigning against the governor in the last election.

 

“How can we do that when we know it’s a violation and we have been supporting the governor because we believe in her leadership,” he said.

 

Civil service

 

CSC Assistant Regional Director Edita Lozano yesterday told Cebu Daily News her office would look into the matter.

 

Although the commission usually acts on verified complaints filed in their office, in this case the CSC would send a team to check the jail guards’ working condition, she said.

 

She said in cases where regular government employees are assigned to do “menial jobs”, there must be a “mutual agreement” between parties and such assignment should be temporary.

 

“We will have to check on that. We don’t have all the facts now. We will conduct interviews and visit them. In cases like these, there must always be that agreement and the employees must be notified of their reassignment. It must also be done in the exigency of service,” she said.

 

Lozano said the employees could file a complaint with the Capitol’s grievance committee about their working conditions. The CSC could also conduct a conciliation proceeding between the concerned employees and Capitol officials, she said.

 

“If they are willing to file a complaint before our office instead of going to the grievance committee, we can conduct a conciliation proceeding. As of this time, I won’t comment further. We will check on them,” she said.

 

Capitol security consultant Byron Garcia who manages the provincial jail said all except two of the 41 jail personnel received the governor’s memorandum issued July 2.

 

Incorrigible

 

Garcia said the 41 personnel were banned from entering the CPDRC while their cases for electioneering, dishonesty and violations of Capitol policies are being investigated.

 

“For three years they were given ample time to shape up but they are incorrigible,” he said.

 

“They are not even fit for the job. If they want to put up a fight, let’s get ready to rumble.”

 

He said he welcomed any investigation and would defend the Capitol’s decision to transfer the jail personnel to barangay Sudlon.

 

Garcia said most of these employees were hired as part of past “political accommodations” and had failed the series of examinations for I.Q., psychiatric and personal development conducted to determine their competence.

 

Asked how long the transfer to farm duties would last, Garcia said the period was indefinite.

 

In the meantime, the CPDRC personnel will till corn plots as part of the “Maisan ng probinsya” project of the Garcia administration.

 

Regional Director Pedro Noval of the Department of Interior and Local Government in a separate interview said the governor as the appointing authority of the province has the power to assign employees to certain tasks other than their original assignments.

 

“I don’t want to encroach on the jurisdiction of Civil Service Commission. What I can say is that the governor being the appointing authority of the province has the power to assign certain task to the employees if it’s necessary to attain her over-all objectives and goals,” he said.

 

With Suzzane Salva-Alueta

DAR launches two agri communities in Negros

Cebu Daily News
Last updated 02:17pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

CEBU, Philippines—The Department of Agrarian Reform in Central Visayas (DAR-7) launched two Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) in Valencia, Negros Oriental last June 20.

 

The two communities included Valencia Social Development Committee (SDC)-1 and Valencia SDC-2.

 

SDC-1 covers barangays Apolong, East Balabag, West Balabag, Balayagmanok, Bong-ao, Calayugan, Jawa, Liptong and Lunga while SDC-2 includes covers Caidiocan, Cambucad, Palinpinon and Pulangbato.

 

It has a total land area of 1,630.4650 hectares, an agricultural area of 1,218.9835 hectares that will benefit 2,251 households.

 

SDC-1 has 3,375 agrarian reform beneficiaries. SDC-1’s ARC processed products are virgin coconut oil and abaca products.

 

The functional farmers organization/cooperative under SDC-1 are Valencia Community Development Cooperative and the barangay Liptong Small Coconut Farmers Association.

 

SDC-2, on the other hand, has a total land area of 1,426.1870, an agricultural area of 1,204.9965 that will benefit 776 households.

 

It has 1,194 agrarian reform beneficiaries.

 

The functional people’s organizations existing in the area are Valencia Community Development Cooperative Caidiocan Extension and Ticala Ilijan Farmers Association.

 

The launching was attended by Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program officer for Central Visayas Dr. Antonio del Socorro, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer (PARO) II Grace B. Fua, PARO 1 Pacifico Quindo Jr., Valencia Mayor Rodolfo Gonzales and Vice Mayor Deodoro Ulasiman, Valencia Municipal Agrarian Reform Officer Grace Mapili, Development Facilitator Marilyn Teves and barangay captains of the covered ARCs.

 

ARCs serve as basic convergence areas for support services, growth points in the countryside, pilot areas for partnerships/convergence and show-windows of DAR’s development interventions.

 

At present, there are 91 ARCs nationwide including 33 in Negros Oriental.

BFAR denies reported tuna shortage in General Santos City

By Aquiles Zonio
Mindanao Bureau
Last updated 03:30pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines — The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) denied the reported shortage of small tuna in this southern Philippine city.

 

Puresa Duremdes of BFAR information division told the Philippine Daily Inquirer “many” export permits were being issued daily for tuna canning factories and fishing firms here.

 

This, Duremdes claimed, indicates tuna canning plants operate normally in General Santos City.

 

Mariano Fernandez, manager of Ocean canning firm here, had said operations of tuna processing plants in the city were reduced to about 80 percent due to shortage in supply of young tuna.

 

Juvenile tuna are the ones used by tuna canneries in making sardines.

 

Fernandez attributed the shortage to global warming.

 

In a mobile phone interview with Fernandez, the non-renewal by the Indonesian government of the bilateral fishing agreement with the country exacerbated the problem.

 

He said Indonesian Navy has been very strict and closely watching the Indonesian territorial waters, preventing any poachers.

 

Sulu Sea and Indonesian waters have been the traditional fishing grounds of fisherfolk especially tuna catchers from General Santos.

 

Fernandez claimed that if within a week’s time there would be no tuna, he will be forced to temporarily close down Ocean Canning.

 

Rajat Balain of Alliance Tuna International, one of the leading canned tuna manufacturers in the country, denied the reported shortage in young tuna.

 

Balain said Alliance Tuna has not encountered problems in sourcing tuna for its canning operations.

 

He also said that since the company started operating in 2004, its annual growth rate has been about 25 percent per year.

 

“A steady growth in net sales and profits belie the gloom-and-doom scenario frequently cited in news reports,” Balain said in his e-mail to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

 

According to Balain, in the first quarter of the current year, Alliance Tuna operated at a 78 percent capacity, much higher than last year’s 67 percent.

 

This figure, he said, increased in the succeeding quarter, from 64 percent last year to 95 percent this year.

PNP to bus firm: ‘Stick to security arrangements’

By Edwin Fernandez
Mindanao Bureau
Last updated 02:43pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Police in North Cotabato have appealed to the management of Weena Bus Company to religiously observe the security arrangements they have agreed on to avoid a repeat of the recent bomb attacks on the firm.

 

Senior Inspector Joyce Berrey, North Cotabato police spokesperson, said Weena buses have been violating the agreement when they began picking up passengers in between terminals along the Davao-Cotabato route.

 

“We appeal to them to observe self-restraint to save passengers’ lives,” she told radio dxND in Kidapawan City.

 

Following the series of bomb attacks against the bus firm last month that claimed at least 10 lives, Weena decided to allow passengers to board and disembark only at bus terminals.

 

The attacks occurred in Bansalan, Davao del Sur, Cotabato City and Matalam, North Cotabato.

 

Lately, Berrey said, drivers have been violating the security agreement.

 

Eduardo Soledad, Weena bus company terminal manager in Cotabato City, said he will act on the police’s complaint.

 

But Weena drivers, especially of non-airconditioned units, have again begun taking in passengers along the highway, a practice that made the bus firm vulnerable to bomb attacks.

 

“The bus company has lowered its guard,” Berrey said, citing complaints from commuters.

 

Police have deployed marshals onboard the buses to check on bags and boxes carried by passengers.

 

Bomb-sniffing dogs have also been deployed to every bus terminal.

 

Alejandro Simbulan, a regular bus passenger on Davao-bound buses from here, said he overheard bus drivers saying they have to pick up passengers along the highway “to earn more.”

 

“This is dangerous because some buses have no marshals, and passengers notice that the bus conductors do not check the boxes and backpacks carried by riding individuals,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

 

He said security only becomes tight after a bomb attack.

 

North Cotabato Vice Governor Emmanuel Piñol has directed local police to conduct mobile checkpoints to check on buses in between terminals.

Mayor of South Cotabato town nabbed for murder

By Aquiles Zonio
Mindanao Bureau
Last updated 03:50pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines — Police nabbed on Friday a South Cotabato mayor over the 2004 murder of defeated mayoral candidate Gregorio Banal.

 

Tampakan Mayor Bienvenido “Bonbon” Barroso did not resist arrest when police personnel served the arrest warrant, Senior Superintendent Robert Kiunisala, South Cotabato Provincial Director, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

 

Kiunisala said his office received a copy of the arrest warrant issued by Judge Jose Mendoza of the Regional Trial Court Branch 55 based in Manila just a few days ago.

 

Barroso and his uncle Henry Barroso were tagged by witnesses as the masterminds in the killing of Banal.

 

Banal, a businessman in Tampakan, was gunned down on July 28, 2004 by three motorcycle-riding men in downtown Tampakan.

 

The Barrosos, however, denied the charge.

 

The family of the victim petitioned the court to transfer the venue of the court hearings to Manila for security reasons and to ensure a fair trial of the case.

 

Kiunisala said the arrested mayor will be brought to Manila Friday afternoon via commercial flight.

 

“We have to implement the court order. This is to show that nobody is sacred cow in the application of laws here in the province,” Kiunisala said.

 

Barroso was then a municipal administrator of his father, former mayor Bing Barroso, when the Banal killing took place. He won as mayor in the last May 14 election.

27 Davao students downed after eating stale crackers

By Dennis Jay Santos
Mindanao Bureau
Last updated 02:51pm (Mla time) 07/06/2007

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — At least 27 pupils at a public school here were brought to the hospital after eating stale crackers Friday morning.

 

Jenielito Atillo, spokesperson of the Department of Education (DepEd) here, said the children, all from the Pichon Elementary school in Tibungco district, suffered stomachaches and dizziness.

 

However, the children were declared “out of harm’s way” after they were treated at the Davao Medical Hospital.

 

Atillo said a Grade 3 student, whose parents make a living as scavengers at a dumpsite in Calinan district, brought with him two packs of Graham crackers and sold it to other children.

 

The crackers had an expiration date of June 14, 2007.

 

“The child thought he could still sell it to his classmates,” Atillo said.

 

Teacher Judith Eslit said among the students who fell ill were those who bought the crackers at P2 each.

 

“The[se] children might have shared it with their classmates and friends,” Eslit said.