NEWSBRIEFS

LIPA CITY, BATANGAS

Journalists lose equipment to thieves

A Filipino photojournalist and a British TV reporter lost video equipment and accessories estimated at P560,000 to the “Basag Kotse” gang, robbers known for smashing the car windows of their victims, on Thursday noon, police said.

Chief investigator Senior Police Officer 4 Marshall Saludo of the Lipa City police identified the victims as Filipino Noel Celis, 27, and British national Charlotte Turner, 31.

The two had just finished having lunch at a restaurant in the city when they discovered that the rear window of their car had been destroyed and their belongings gone, said Saludo. He said the car was parked in the parking area in front of the establishment when the robbers struck.—Jerome Balinton, Inquirer Southern Luzon

PAMPANGA

3 dead, 18 hurt in road accident

At least three people were killed while 18 others were hurt when a bus hit the rear of a trailer truck along the Bocaue-Sta. Rita stretch of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) in Bulacan on Saturday.

The Traffic Management Center (TMC) of the Manila North Tollways Corp., the expressway’s operator, said Candida Bondoc, 20, and Jenoshiva Medina, 32, died instantly when the bus they were riding in smashed into the truck at 1:19 p.m.

The third victim, a woman between 40 and 50 years old, died at the Bulacan Polymedic Hospital in Guiguinto town.

A TMC report said the driver of the trailer truck had parked the vehicle on the expressway’s northbound shoulder. It was when the driver maneuvered the bus and entered the expressway’s Lane 3 when its rear was hit by the Saulog bus bound for central and northern Luzon.

The truck driver was among those hurt and taken to a hospital in Bulacan.

TMC said the accident slowed down vehicle flow in that section of the NLEx, with the traffic jam stretching about 2 kilometers from the accident site.—Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY

Drug pushers nabbed

Three suspected drug pushers were arrested and suspected shabu sachets were seized during yet another raid by police on a shabu tiangge here Friday afternoon.

Senior Inspector Ariel Philips Pontillas, chief of police precinct 1, said the suspected shabu tiangge on Abellanosa St. was raided following weeks of surveillance. “One of the houses there is where buyers can freely do their drug sessions,” he said.

Pontillas identified the suspected pushers as Ruben Amper, Virgilio Pagapular and Subahane Bayani, who yielded several sachets of suspected shabu and drug paraphernalia.—Bobby Lagsa, Inquirer Mindanao

DAVAO CITY

CPP lauds Duterte

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) lauded Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for standing up against US interference.

In a statement posted on the Philippine Revolution Web Central, the CPP praised Duterte’s “independent attitude” against US interference in the Philippines, describing it as “remarkably different from the obsequiousness of most Filipino politicians who control the Philippine neocolonial state.”

“Save for Vice Mayor Duterte, not a single reactionary politician has protested the out and out imperial domination and interference of the US government in the internal political, military and economic affairs of the

Philippines as revealed in these cables,” the CPP statement said.

Duterte had reacted to leaked secret cables from the US Embassy in Manila which virtually accused him of masterminding the spate of “gangland-style” killings of suspected criminals in Davao City.—Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao