Newsbriefs

BAGUIO CITY

Feb. 14 turns cold

VALENTINE’S Day for this mountain city may be cool enough for cuddling.

The cold has returned to the summer capital after a week of warm weather, bringing down the mercury from 14.4 degrees Celsius on Sunday to 11.5 degrees on Thursday.

Leticia Dispo, weather specialist of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) station here, said the city was starting to experience the tail end of the cold front, which is expected to last until next week.

On Thursday morning, participants in this year’s Ronda Pilipinas 2014 raced up Mt. Sto. Tomas, which is 2,025 meters above sea level, where the temperature plunged to 7.5 degrees Celsius. The temperature climbed to 13.2 degrees on Tuesday before sliding down to 12.2 degrees on Wednesday. Gobleth Moulic, Inquirer Northern Luzon

DAVAO

‘Barkers’ warned

AFTER warning rice smugglers that he would personally shoot them, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has turned his ire on jeepney dispatchers in the city who are allegedly harassing female passengers and mulcting from jeepney drivers.

“If you won’t listen,” Duterte told at least 41 dispatchers gathered by police in the city, “I will run you over.”

The dispatchers, known locally as “barkers,” appeared shaken when they were brought to Duterte after police picked them up from the streets.

Duterte said jeepney drivers were complaining because the barkers have started demanding regular fees when the drivers are supposed to just voluntarily give the barkers money.

Duterte added that female passengers have also been complaining against barkers molesting them when they board jeepneys.

“I told you not to touch women,” Duterte said, scolding the barkers.

“I understand you need to earn a living but you’ve been demanding money from drivers, whose operations are legal, while your activity is against the law,” Duterte said. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao

Alien TV firms sued

KABATAAN Rep. Terry Ridon on Wednesday filed a case in the Supreme Court against two international cable network companies for “encroaching” on the local TV industry.

Ridon, in a complaint against AXN and Fox Network filed in the Supreme Court, said the two foreign-owned companies had been illegally engaging in mass media and advertising through the cable TV system in the Philippines.

“The direct but unwarranted competition with legally existing domestic corporations engaged in similar activities poses a threat to the continuing viability of constitutionally protected domestic industries and the employment of thousands of their workers,” Ridon’s complaint said.

Ridon asked the high court to put a stop to the supposed intervention of unwarranted foreign-owned cable TV firms in nationalized and protected industries.

“The Constitution limits the ownership and management of mass media to citizens of the Philippines or to corporations, cooperatives or associations wholly owned and managed by such citizens,” he said in the complaint. Inquirer Mindanao