Newsbriefs

HELP IN CYBER PORN CASE

CEBU Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale yesterday said they are seeking help from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a cyber pornography case.

The Provincial Women’s Commission and National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas will ask help for help in recovering data from a computer seized during the raid of a home-based cyber pornography business in Cordova town.

The computer may contain material that law enforcers can use in the case, Magpale said.

“Our technology is weak but their (Homeland Security) expert said that they can definitely recover at least 40 percent of the data.

“I am glad that they are going to help,” she said.

Arraignment for qualified trafficking of the parents who were arrested is scheduled on June 22 in Lapu-Lapu City.

Their children are under the care of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and will not return to school until they have undergone stress debriefing, Magpale said. /Reporter Carmel Loise Matus

CUENCO COURTS CAPTAINS

FORMER congressman Antonio Cuenco told Cebu City’s south district barangay captains that he is willing to run again to represent the district in the Lower House.

“I will be available if you will allow,” Cuenco told the barangay captains in a series of dinner meetings in his house in M. Velez Street, Cebu City last Saturday and Tuesday.

Cuenco said his term as Secretary-General of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly will end in 2013.

Cuenco was not qualified to run last year at the end of a third consecutive term in Congress.

When asked by barangay captains if he will run under Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) or under a party headed by Mayor Michael Rama, who recently left BO-PK, Cuenco did not give a definite answer, said Basak-Pardo barangay captain Dave Tumulak, who attended the Tuesday meeting.

“I will not intervene in the rift between Tommy and Mike. I will help when they will be on good terms again. What is important is that I am ready to serve again,” Tumulak quoted Cuenco. /Correspondent Fatrick R. Tabada

‘GET DUAL CITIZENSHIP’

A CONSULTANT of the office of Cebu City Michael Rama was asked to secure dual citizenship before the City Council approves his consultancy contract.

Oliver Echivarre, the mayor’s consultant on systems and procedures, is a U.S. citizen and is in Cebu using a balikbayan visa.

Councilor Edgar Labella said there may be legal impediments if the council authorizes Echiverra’s employment now.

Acquiring dual citizenship with the Bureau of Immigration is “is a rather simple procedure,” Labella said in a committee report.

Councilor Leah Japson presented to the council in its June 8 session a draft resolution authorizing Mayor Rama to enter into a consultancy contract with Echiverra, a U.S. Air Force reservist.

Echiverra was to receive P18,000 monthly for his consultancy services rendered from January to June 2011.

If his consultancy contract is approved, Echiverra would be the city’s 43rd consultant. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

UP IN SOUTH ROAD PROPERTIES

AN official of the University of the Philippines System (UP) asked city officials to move the deadline to begin the construction of the school’s annex building at the South Road Properties (SRP).

UP vice president for development Elvira Zamora met with City Administrator Jose Mari Poblete and City Attorney Joseph Bernaldez to update them on the status of the donated lot.

Zamora said they asked the officials to allow them to build the annex building beyond March 2012, the deadline set by the city.

The officials asked them to make a written request to Mayor Michael Rama.

Zamora told Cebu Daily News that UP has to attend to some technical issues over the building project but assured that “they will pursue the construction.”

The city donated 51,372 square meters of the SRP to UP in 2009 on the condition that the building will be operational in three years.

According to the deed of donation, the building will be used for a master’s degree in business administration evening program and continuing education in the English language for business process outsourcing workers in Cebu.

UP allotted at least P491 million for the new building at SRP Lot 1-G. /Correspondent Fatrick R. Tabada