Newsbriefs

PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT FOR UNCLE

A MONTH after the brutal killing of his 6-year-old niece, Tabuelan resident Efren Matedios has been recommended to undergo a psychiatric treatment.

The 29-year-old Matedios was sent to the psychiatric department of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMCC) in Cebu City, said Algier Commendador, acting jail warden of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.

“We had him endorsed to the VSMMC for periodic checkups because he has lucid intervals,” said retired colonel Cesar Veloso, Capitol consultant on peace and order.

“He was very wild. He is behaving now,” he said, adding that he was thankful Matedios did not resist when two jail guards escorted him to the hospital.

Psychiatrists looking after Matedios, who was kept in solitary confinement at CPDRC, want to interview his relatives to know how Matedios got the psychiatric condition, Veloso said.

Commendador said no family member has visited Matedios yet. But jail officials made sure he eats properly and they also kept him clean.

The Tabuelan resident shocked neighbors when he attacked his niece last May 23, cut open her belly and ate her internal organs.

He later said he was trying to stop her from changing into a “manananggal,” a half-human, half-monster in Philippine folklore./Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus

SUPPORT FOR PAGTAMBAYAYONG

RESIDENTS who belong to the New Alaska Beach Association (Naba) yesterday pledged to support urban poor group Pagtambayayong Foundation Inc., if it will face charges filed by another urban poor group.

Carlito Ybanez, Naba president, visited the Pagtambayayong office and denied reports that they complained to the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) about houses built by the foundation.

He said Pagtambayayong helped build houses for Naba members who lost their homes to fires in 2005 and 2009. The foundation built “starter houses”—concrete walls while residents completed the new houses.

The residents said Pagtambayayong didn’t ask them to pay for the starter houses.

DWUP head Collin Rosell earlier said the city might file criminal charges against Pagtambayayong after Kamagayan residents who were relocated to Canduman, Mandaue City, complained that the foundation collected from them mortgage fees amounting to P1.6 million.

Pagtambayayong President Francisco “Bimbo” Fernandez said they built at least 50 houses in Canduman at P50,000 each.

Pagtambayayong earlier invited the Kamagayan residents to a dialogue but the group did not visit the Pagtambayayong office./Correspondent Fatrick R. Tabada

MAYOR’S MANAGERS SACKED

TWO members of the Mayor’s Management Team (MMT) were asked to cease reporting for work starting July 1.

Loubert Tan, operations head of the South Road Properties (SRP), and Claire Cabalda, the SRP administrative officer, were told last Monday that their contracts would no longer be renewed because of their “lack of cooperation” with the SRP’s current management.

Tan’s and Cabalda’s terminations came after Mayor Michael Rama announced a revamp in City Hall.

“We feel slighted. If the reason is because we are Rep. Tomas Osmeña’s MMTs, it is unacceptable,” Cabalda told Cebu Daily News.

Mayor Rama earlier ordered a performance evaluation of City Hall department heads and employees as part of his “corporate management.”

Casual employees were also asked to reapply for employment.

Public Information Officer Carlo Dugaduga said he was among those who reapplied for employment at City Hall.

Juvy Morellos, the city’s Human Resource Management Office head, said most of the city’s casual employees reapplied for employment.

Aside from Cabalda and Tan, several other MMTs are now waiting for notice from the mayor if their services are still needed at City Hall.

Osmeña employed over 80 MMTs to help him work on his systems management. Only 30 were retained when Rama became mayor./Correspondent Edison A. Delos Angeles