News Briefs
CEBU COMELEC OFFICERS OFF TO ARMM
Voters registration in the province of Cebu has been temporarily suspended for at least month as its personnel were sent to assist the voters registration in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
About a hundred election officers and staff of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in the province left for special duties in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) last Tuesday.
Election officer, Atty. Ferdinand Gujilde told reporters that they would be staying there for at least a month.
“Dunay reservations sa mga first timers. Confident ko nga dunay mga military ug PNP nga moabaga namo (The first timers have their reservations. But I am confident that the military and the PNP will aid us),” he said.
Election officer, Carla Espina of Bogo City said she is not worried on being sent there.
“Naay gamay pero trabaho man ni. Willing ra kaayo ko (I have reservations myself but this is our job. I am willing to do this),” she said.
She trusts that the PNP and the military will give them security.
Gujilde also said that there will be other election officers from other regions that will be sent there./Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus
1 OUR 26 ‘RESCUED’ WOMEN LEFT IN CUSTODY
Of the 26 “rescued” girls in a bar last Friday, only one, believed to be a minor, is left with social workers.
“We still need to secure her birth certificate and contact her family in Bislig, Surigao del Sur,” Edna Regudo of Reception and Study Center for Children (RSCC) told Cebu Daily News.
The girl told social workers she just turned 18, but authorities doubted it.
“Granting that she just turned 18, it could still be possible that she started while still a minor,” Regudo added.
It appeared the girl’s family in Surigao del Sur does not know that she worked as a dancer in a bar in Mango Avenue in Cebu City.
“I think her family does not know about her work because she does not want us to contact them,” Regudo said.
Three girls were released Sunday while two others were also released last Tuesday after securing birth certificate as proof of adulthood, she added.
The DSWD earlier said rescued girls, even adults, may avail of livelihood and education assistance programs to “normalize” their lives./Correspondent Jessa J. Agua
