NEWSBRIEFS

SULTAN KUDARAT

4 hurt in blast inside videoke bar

FOUR people were wounded on Saturday evening when a bomb exploded inside a bar in Tacurong City.

Insp. Rolly Oranza, city police chief, said the explosive fashioned from an 81-millimeter mortar shell went off at around 8:30 p.m. inside Starlight Videoke Bar along the national highway in Barangay Buenaflor.

Wounded were Elinita Molanalesna, 34; Sorayda Tabon Lagya, 28; Noraya Laguia, 24; and Glaiza Juan, 19; who were rushed to the Quijano Clinic and Hospital.

Police are looking for a man who hurriedly left the bar minutes before the explosion.

Two weeks ago, lawmen recovered and defused an explosive left in front of a shopping center in the city.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Jeoffrey Maitem, Inquirer Mindanao

ZAMBOANGA CITY

Engineer freed

ARMED men freed an engineer they abducted early this month in Basilan.

Brig. Gen. Alexander Macario, chief of Task Force Basilan, said construction engineer Virgilio Fernandez was freed in Tipo-Tipo town at around 9 a.m. on Sunday.

“He is with me right now,” Macario told the Inquirer by phone on Sunday noon. He refused to give details of the release as the victim has yet to undergo debriefing.

Fernandez, a Cebu City-based road contractor, was abducted in Barangay Kaddayan in Akbar town on June 3.

Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay said the kidnappers negotiated directly with the victim’s family who went to Basilan last week. Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao

TACLOBAN CITY

200,000 poor to get Philhealth cards

AT LEAST 200,000 indigent families in Eastern Visayas are set to receive their health cards tomorrow.

Walter Bacareza, Philippine Health Insurance (Philhealth) regional vice president, said 217,098 beneficiaries were identified by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The distribution of the health cards on June 21 would be held at the Pawing Elementary School in Barangay Pawing, Palo town.

This will be the second phase of the health card distribution dubbed as “Philhealth Sabado sa Eskwela,” which is aimed to get the support of the students whose parents are not yet health card-bearers.

Under the program, the students will bring the form for their parents to fill up.

The school was selected as a venue because it is near the Department of Education Eastern Visayas office.