COTABATO CITY
Exec survives slay attempt
A planning officer of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DENR-ARMM) survived an assassination attempt here on Friday evening, the police said on Saturday.
Senior Insp. Reynaldo Delantin, Police Station 1 chief, said Alexar Cruz Palawan, 47, DENR-ARMM planning officer, and his companion, Baharudin Baulo, 29, also a DENR-ARMM employee, were on board a Kia car when two men on a motorcycle fired at them along Oblate Drive in Barangay (village) Rosary Heights 6 around 7:40 p.m.
Delantin said the two victims suffered minor injuries in their bodies and were recuperating in a local hospital. He said the motive and identities of the gunmen, who immediately sped off, remained unknown. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
KIDAPAWAN CITY
Sleeping guard loses revolver
A security guard here learned a hard lesson when he lost his sidearm while he was sleeping at his post.
Apolinario Balinera, 26, a resident of Barangay Paco here, told police that he had dozed off while on duty at one of the city’s commercial establishments.
He said that when he woke up, he found that his .38-cal. revolver was missing. Balinera said he believed an unidentified person took his gun while he was asleep. Police investigators said Balinera would face charges, including neglect in the performance of his duty. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
LUCENA CITY
P3.5-M ‘shabu’ seized
Police arrested the leader of a notorious drug syndicate in Quezon province in a buy-bust operation and seized some P3.5 million worth of suspected shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).
Senior Supt. Ronaldo Genaro Ylagan, Quezon police chief, said the suspect, Roderick Guevarra, was arrested on Friday afternoon in his safe house in Tiaong town by a police team led by Supt. Joel de Mesa.
The lawmen confiscated an estimated 300 grams of shabu, one unlicensed 9-mm cal. pistol and several pieces of ammunition from the suspect, whom the police tagged as head of the Guevarra drug syndicate that operates in the central part of the province. Ylagan said the suspect was now under further investigation at the provincial police headquarters in Camp Nakar here. Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon