NEWSBRIEFS
NUEVA ECIJA
War vs plastics
THE PROVINCE’S 27 town mayors have adopted a resolution endorsing a ban on the use of plastic bags to support the campaign to protect the environment.
Mayor Ferdinand Abesamis, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines chapter in Nueva Ecija, said the resolution would be sent to the provincial board for approval. Peñaranda has already banned the use of the plastic bags as part of the municipality’s environmental plan, he said.
The mayors urged consumers to use instead cardboard boxes, reusable green bags, recycled paper bags or native woven bags.
Jaen Mayor Santiago Austria said his town was offering a P10,000 reward for residents who could catch people who indiscriminately dump garbage. Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon
BACOLOD CITY
15 years for shabu
A MAN faces a 15-year jail term for possessing less than a gram of shabu.
Judge Edgar Garvilles of Bacolod Regional Trial Court on Tuesday found Denny Baza Granada guilty of possession of 0.02 gram of shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) in violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Granada was sentenced from 12 years and one day to 15 years imprisonment and was ordered to pay a fine of P300,000. The judge has directed that Granada be committed immediately to the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas
ILOILO CITY
Ex-prosecutor slain
A FORMER prosecutor was killed inside his house in Barangay San Pedro, Jaro District, on Wednesday.
The bloodied remains of Arsenio Villalobos Jr., 50, were found by his 70-year-old mother, Trinidad, at around 7 p.m., said Senior Supt. Marietto Valerio, city police director.
Valerio said Villalobos had several injuries believed to be from hammer blows, including a fatal one in the head. He said a hammer and a kitchen knife were found beside the victim, but investigators ruled out suicide. Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas
COMPOSTELA VALLEY
NPA attack
COMMUNIST rebels on Saturday burned a drilling equipment of a mining company partly owned by an American in Pantukan, Compostela Valley.
At least 30 New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas swooped down on the compound of St. Augustine Copper and Gold in Gumayan, Barangay Kingking, at around 10:30 p.m., disarming the lone guard of his revolver before dousing the company’s drilling equipment with gasoline and setting it on fire, said Lt. Ari Ben Hernandez, civil-military officer of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion.
The raiders also burned the belongings of the firm’s other personnel before fleeing, Hernandez said.
At least P10 million worth of equipment was destroyed. It was the second NPA attack on the firm since it started operating early this year. Frinston L. Lim, Inquirer Mindanao
NAGA CITY
Fire guts 30 houses
SOME 30 houses in Barangay Igualdad were gutted in a two-hour fire on Friday evening.
The fire started at around 9:50 p.m. in one of the two adjoining boarding houses owned by Chona Martinez and Patricia Uy on Sampaguita Street, said SFO2 Ramon Naval, case investigator.
Naval said the two houses are only separated by a thin wall. He said the blaze spread within minutes to neighboring shanties. Shiena M. Barrameda, Inquirer Southern Luzon
