Newsbriefs

CAPITOL EXTENDS AID TO KIN OF SAN FERNANDO CAVE-IN VICTIMS

THE Cebu provincial government has extended cash and food assistance to the families of a nine-year-old boy and his uncle who were buried alive last Friday in a quarry site cave-in at sitio Malta in barangay Tinudban, San Fernando town in southern Cebu.

Provincial Social Welfare and Development (PSWD) chief Evelyn Sinajon said sacks of rice, boxes of noodles and a box of coffee were sent to the Alikaway and Geraldiso families.

Sinajon said the Capitol will pay for the burial of Jecan Geraldiso as well as the medical expenses of his uncle, Ponancio Alikaway.

Their families also received P1,000 each from San Fernando Mayor Antonio Canoy and another P1,100 assistance from their barangay captain.  Jecan will be laid to rest this Sunday at the San Fernando public cemetery.

Josephine Geraldiso, Jecan’s mother, said they are keeping out anyone from hauling sand in the quarry site where her son and Ponancio were buried. Josephine said the area where the incident happened is owned by her uncle.

Gemma Alikaway, Ponancio’s wife, said they want to widen the area because the heavy rains would cause water from the river to overflow to their houses.

Ponancio sustained a broken bone in the back and is supposed to undergo operation in the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC).

He earns P10 per sack of sand and had been quarrying for three years. Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus

BUSINESSES GRIPE ON LOCKED LTO GATE

FOUR drug testing and medical laboratories and some commercial establishments in barangay Looc, Mandaue City, are complaining about the closure of the Land Transportation Office’s (LTO) exit gate.

Dr. Uldarico Padron and Dr. Danilo Dionson said their clinics and other businesses were affected by the gate’s closure for the past 14 months. They said they and others also use the lone exit gate as an entrance. “It favors those on the other side because the people don’t want to go to the farthest area,” they said.

But LTO Mandaue chief Armando Avila said they cannot open the gate yet since they only have two security guards.

One guard is in charge of the entrance/exit gate while the other is detailed at the licensing area which is usually filled with long lones of people securing their driver’s license. Avila said they need another security guard for the exit gate but he still needs to raise this during a conference with their central office. He said having only one opened gate is safer to regulate the flow of people entering and leaving the LTO office. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos