CITY OF SAN FERNANDO

PAF helicopter crashes

A Philippine Air Force helicopter crashed at the Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga, during training flight on Monday but its two pilots were unhurt, PAF officials said.

The Huey helicopter landed with its tail rotor touching the ground, said Col. Francisco Cruz, commander of the PAF’s 600th Air Base Wing at the Clark Freeport.

Col. Allan Ballesteros, spokesperson of the 1st Air Base Wing in Basa Air Base, called the accident a “minor training incident.”

“It’s a touch-and-go flight. They were on their 16th round. The chopper’s tail hit the ground,” Ballesteros said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

BACOLOD CITY

3 cops charged with abuses

The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) on Monday recommended the filing of a criminal complaint against two police inspectors and three non-commissioned officers linked to the alleged maltreatment of policemen and women undergoing training at the 6th Regional Mobile Group (RMG) headquarters in Victorias City.

Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, NOPPO provincial police director, said his office recommended charges of less serious physical injuries against Police Inspectors Stephen Somosot and Dianne Grace Aquitania, Police Officers 1 Cherry Lacson, Jean Hiponia and Joemarie Arboleda. Four of them served as tactical officers and instructors of the 6th RMG.

Franco said the recommendation was based on medical findings that showed the 51 policemen and women enrolled in the Special Counter-Insurgency Course Training (SCOUT) at the RMG suffered swelling and contusions. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas

COTABATO CITY

Suspected arsonist hunted

Police are hunting a man believed responsible for the arson that razed seven houses in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato on Saturday.

Insp. Joanne Maganto, Lake Sebu police chief, said they have yet to determine the motive of a certain Eddie Labo, who was identified as the man who torched the houses of the Toncay-Francisco families and their relatives in a remote mountain village of Ned in Lake Sebu.

Labo, according to Maganto, has gone into hiding. Charlie C. Señase, Inquirer Mindanao

CAMP VICENTE LIM

2 cops nabbed for extortion

Two Calamba policemen were arrested for alleged extortion, police said.

A police report said PO2 Neil Llanes, 52; and PO2 Nestor Atienza, 42, both of the mobile patrol unit of the Calamba police station, were mulcting from businessmen transporting their goods in Barangay Real in Calamba City.

A businesswoman, identified as Vida Tanhueco, filed the complaint against the two policemen who were arrested while receiving marked money during an entrapment operation set up by the regional unit of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the report added.

Llanes and Atineza were taken, along with the evidence, to the CIDG headquarters. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon