Bus catches fire in Global City

TRAFFIC was snarled at Fort Bonifacio Global City in Taguig yesterday afternoon after a passenger bus caught fire due to faulty electrical wiring. Chief Insp. Jenny Tecson, Southern Police District spokesperson, said a The Fort shuttle bus burst into flames at 2:43 p.m. on 21st Street near Rizal Drive, prompting its driver to immediately order his passengers to alight from the vehicle. Taguig firefighters declared the fire out after a few minutes. Arson investigators, according to Tecson, were eyeing faulty electrical wiring as the cause of the fire. Niña Calleja

Robbers kill man in Manila

ROBBERS stabbed to death a still unidentified man before dawn yesterday. Manila Police District homicide investigators said they had yet to identify the victim because the robbers took his wallet and even his T-shirt. Case investigator PO3 Jay Santos described the victim as between 30 and 35 years old, of slim built, 5? 5? feet and clad only in a pair of denim pants. He had been stabbed several times all over his body. Santos said the man was found at around 2:15 a.m. yesterday at the corner of Mayhaligue and Balintawak Streets in Tondo. Jeannette I. Andrade

MMDA to repair collapsed Malabon dike

THE METROPOLITAN Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will be repairing a dike in Malabon City that collapsed due to raging floodwaters over the weekend. However, it may take some time before residents of Barangay Tenejeros in Malabon could feel safe again. City engineer Ulysses Tumbocon told the Inquirer that the dikes?built on the boundary of Tullahan River?are under the jurisdiction of the MMDA and that it may take the agency two weeks to repair the damaged dike. The MMDA, he said, had also asked for more time in processing the documents for the necessary project materials since the agency?s new chair, Francis Tolentino, just assumed his post yesterday. Engr. Baltazar Melgar, head of the MMDA Flood Control Management Service, said the damaged dike in Tenejeros is about 50 meters long and cementing the whole stretch may take at least two weeks. ?We will be rushing its repair because the problem here is that residents will experience floods at high tide,? said Melgar. Most of the dikes lining the banks of the river are already old, dilapidated and thus unable to provide adequate protection to residents. In September last year, three dikes were breached at the height of Tropical Storm ?Ondoy,? leaving Barangays Tenejeros, Maysilo and Muzon in neck-deep floods. Beverly T. Natividad

Man drowns after diving into river

THE BODY of a 24-year-old man who dove into a river in Quezon City to retrieve his girlfriend?s things that had been carried away by floodwater during Sunday?s heavy downpour, was fished out of a river in Manila yesterday. Filipinas Ladao, a resident of Villa Espana II in Barangay Tatalon, Quezon City, who had been missing for two days was identified by his brother through a tattoo on his body. PO3 Jay Santos of the Manila Police District homicide section said that Ladao?s body was fished out at around 6:30 a.m. yesterday from the San Juan River in Bacood, Sta. Mesa. Santos said that scavengers found the body and took it out of the water before informing the police of their discovery. The case investigator pointed out that the body was already bloated. Santos narrated that Ladao had jumped into the Tatalon River in an attempt to recover his girlfriend?s things, mostly clothes, which had been carried away by floodwaters. The strong current, he said, might have overpowered Ladao, who drowned. Jeannette I. Andrade