2 dog meat traders arrested

LAGUNA–POLICE arrested two men suspected of involvement in the illegal dog meat trade.

Senior Supt. Pascual Muñoz, Laguna police director, said in a text message that the policemen chanced upon Joshua Salandanan and Roldan Villanueva, both of San Pedro town, buying dogs in Barangay Sinalhan in Sta. Rosa City on Sunday. Three live dogs were retrieved from them.

“These men buy the dogs [from nearby municipalities] and take them to San Pedro, where they slaughter the dogs or keep them alive before these are transported to the North,” said Supt. Edwin Wagan, Sta. Rosa police chief.

Demand for dog meat is high in Northern Luzon but illegal traders get the animals from elsewhere, according to animal welfare groups. The traders buy the dogs for P100-P300 each but sell the meat for P1,500-P2,000 per kilo, the Animal Kingdom Foundation has reported. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon

Engineer held for neighbor’s slay

AN ENGINEER in a semiconductor company was arrested hours after the murder of a man in Calamba City on Monday.

Fernando Zapa, 42, an employee of Austria Microsystem Philippines Inc., was taken at around 12:30 p.m. in Bauan, Batangas, where he went into hiding, according to Supt. Cesar Tannagan, Calamba police chief.

Zapa was suspected of killing his neighbor, Frinz Jon Gonyabo, 30, a technical operator at a company in Cabuyao town. According to witnesses, the two had a fight while drinking at Zapa’s house in Barangay Tulo in Calamba at around 11:30 p.m. Zapa’s daughter found Gonyabo dead with a stab wound and reported it to the police.

Insp. Glenda Cleofe of the Calamba police said Zapa had confessed to stabbing the victim to a neighbor before fleeing to Batangas. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon

Legazpi gets P300M for drainage project

ALBAY–THE CITY government of Legazpi has received P300 million more for the continuing implementation of its urban drainage project.

Lucy Castaneda, spokesperson of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Bicol, said the fund was on top of the P500 million released last year to the city for its project designed to prevent perennial flooding in 20 villages.

The Urban Drainage Project involves the construction of three pumping stations in Barangays Victory, Bonot and San Roque, repair and construction of a dike along the Macabalo river system near Legazpi City Boulevard, and canals and streams encircling the area.

Government engineers will also set up a jetty structure at the Yawa river channel, which cuts through most of the downtown area, to control the flow of water and prevent floods due to clogged dikes. Mar S. Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon