Vietnam invites Duterte to visit, again
President Duterte has been invited anew to visit Vietnam later this year or in 2020, Malacañang said on Thursday. The invitation was made by Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, who paid a courtesy call on the President on Wednesday. Duterte first visited Vietnam in September 2016, meeting with the late Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang. In 2017, Duterte visited Danang, Vietnam to attend that year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. —JULIE M. AURELIO
Alleged ecstasy supplier gunned down
A suspected ecstasy supplier in Cebu was gunned down in Mandaue City on Wednesday. Neil Benjamin Yap was driving a Hyundai Eon on a busy street in Mandaue when attacked by two men on a motorcycle. Witnesses, according to Col. Julian Entoma, Mandaue police chief, “heard multiple gunshots.” Yap was declared dead on the spot. Establishing the killers’ identities could be difficult as they wore full-face helmets, according to police. Entoma said investigators were checking if Yap’s killing was linked to his alleged involvement in drugs. Yap, Entoma said, had been arrested in January 2018 for selling ecstasy. It wasn’t clear if he was out on bail. —NESTLE L. SEMILLA
Mayor tells employees: Play games, be fired
The mayor of Naval town in Biliran province has barred computer games during office hours and warned municipal employees they would be terminated if caught violating his order, even if they were using their mobile phones. Mayor Gerard Espina said in a memo that it came to his attention that several employees were playing games, like Mobile Legends and Player Unknown Battle Grounds, during office hours. —ROBERT DEJON
4 dead in fire in North Cotabato town
Four people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a fire that destroyed an ancestral house in a remote village of Arakan town, North Cotabato province. Senior Fire Officer Ronald Valle identified the dead as Ronnie Montesser, his pregnant daughter Mary Jean, her live-in partner Rainheart Carugda and Montesser’s year-old granddaughter, Andrea. The fire started past 1 a.m. while the victims were asleep, Valle said. He added that the four were charred beyond recognition. —EDWIN O. FERNANDEZ
Gang operating in prison source of ‘shabu’ in Cebu
A syndicate operating out of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) and led by an inmate is able to dispose of 20 kilograms of “shabu,” or crystal meth, in the province of Cebu every month, police said. Debold Sinas, Central Visayas police chief, said the group, headed by inmate Rustico Ygot, used the village of Inawayan in Cebu City as a distribution area. Sinas said information from seized mobile phones, interrogation and other pieces of evidence supported months of intelligence work on Ygot’s group. Ygot operates his drug syndicate from his cell at the NBP, according to Sinas. He said officials of Inawayan village appeared to be negligent. “They are not doing their jobs,” Sinas said. He added that the regional police had already passed on the information to the Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Malacañang. —DALE ISRAEL
1 dead as cop’s car hits vehicle
A woman died while seven others, three of them children, were injured after the vehicle they were riding was hit by a car being driven by a police officer in Calbayog City, Samar, on Tuesday. The lone fatality was identified as Carlota Dalino, a resident of Calbayog. A police report said the vehicle carrying the victims was unloading passengers when it was hit by another vehicle driven by policeman Noel Dura. —JOEY GABIETA