NEWS BRIEFS

TWO MORE IN PROBE OF REPORTER’S MAULING

TWO other government employees will be investigated in relation with Tuesday’s mauling of a radio reporter outside the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Mandaue City office.

The two male employees and 55-year-old job order employee Edgar Paulin figured in a scuffle with dySS reporter Norman Mendoza.

Mandaue City Legal Officer Giovanni Tianero said the incident will be investigated to see if there was misconduct involved.

Renewal of work contracts of job order employees depend on a performance review of their department head, he said.

“We will assess if they have justification for their actions. They may have been provoked,” he said.

Mendoza, who is also a Cebu Daily News correspondent, was punched in the head several times by Paulin, whose two companions held the reporter’s arms.

The three were angered by Mendoza’s loud complaint that the Comelec Mandaue office was disorganized and the staff was inefficient (“pagka mga bulay-og).”

Mendoza went there to ask for a list of winning candidates but was only given a partial list.

After the scuffle in the parking lot, both sides were taken to the Mandaue police office where they settled their differences amicably. Reporter Jucell Marie P. Cuyos

PROHIBIT PARKING IN NAT’L ROADS, LGUS TOLD

THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is asking Cebu’s local government units to repeal their ordinances that allow pay-parking on national roads, saying it is against the law and causes traffic.

DPWH legal staffer Brando Rey Raya said a recent agency inspection showed that the cities of Lapu-Lapu, Mandaue, Cebu and Talisay allow pay-parking which is in conflict with Presidential Decree No. 17.

He said V. Rama Ave. is lined with parked cars whose owners frequent commercial establishments there, damaging the pavement.

“The government spends billions to construct, maintain and widen national roads and this is what’s happening,” Raya said. Correspondent Victor Anthony V. Salva

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