Newsbriefs

SAN FERNANDO CITY

Town bans smoking

This tobacco-growing city has banned smoking, foregoing the city government’s P30 million share from tobacco excise taxes.

Mayor Pablo Ortega signed a new smoke-free covenant with Fr. Robert Reyes and members of the Philippine Medical Association, who mounted a Luzon advocacy run to fight smoking and the noncommunicable diseases it spawns. Ortega said the city had banned smoking as early as 2002 in theaters, public vehicles, public offices, assembly halls, hospitals and schools.

He said violators would be fined P300 for every offense. He also said the casino operating at the Poro Point Economic Zone is the sole smoke-free casino in the country because of the ban.—Charles Keith, Inquirer Northern Luzon

DAGUPAN CITY

2 boys drown

The bodies of two boys, both 8, who drowned in the Angalacan River on September 20, have been recovered, according to the police.

Police Officer 3 Mercenario Guba said the bodies of Kenneth Ducusin and Jerick Estrada were found two hours apart by rescuers who scoured the river.

The boys went for a swim in a creek, instead of heading home to Barangay (village)  Lekep-Butao, said Guba, citing accounts of residents who saw the victims. He said the boys then proceeded to the Angalacan River, which was swollen because previous storms had damaged its spur dike. The boys were reported missing on Tuesday night.—Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon

BATANGAS CITY

Carpenter nabbed

A carpenter wanted for the rape of his two daughters was arrested by police at a construction site in this city on Thursday.

The carpenter went missing after his wife, Francia, submitted statements to police in August alleging he had raped their two daughters aged 15 and 22, police said.

Chavez said the victims’ mother had asked help from the City Social Welfare Office in filing charges against her husband, who was detained at the Batangas City police station.—Jerome Balinton, Inquirer Southern Luzon

BACOLOD CITY

Ex-convict slain

The so-called “public enemy number 1” of Kabankalan City in Negros Occidental is now dead.

Ex-convict Joy Voluntate, who had escaped after killing Police Officer 2 Rafael Gemoto on September 19, was found dead on September 20 at a sugarcane field in Coloso Extension, Barangay 6, Kabankalan City, police said.

However, the 9mm pistol he used in trading shots with Gemoto, 45, was nowhere to be found, Superintendent Calixto Mabugat, Kabankalan police chief, said on Tuesday.

Gemoto was about to arrest Voluntate for his involvement in two fatal shooting incidents in Kabankalan City on September 15 and 17.

The shootout between Gemoto and Voluntate also claimed the life of Noel Garcia, a tricycle driver, who was reportedly caught in the crossfire, police records showed.-Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas

SORSOGON

2 cops hurt in attack

Two policemen were hurt when around 30 New People’s Army rebels attacked the Barcelon town police station on Friday evening.

Barcelona police chief Inspector Edgar Azotea said the rebels bearing M16 armalite rifles positioned at the police station gate near the town hall and fired at the posted police sentinel at around 11:30 p.m.

The rebels withdrew after 12 policemen on duty fired back at them. Wounded were Police Officer 3 Joel Encinares and PO1 Jessie Doloiras.—Mar Arguelles, Inquirer Southern Luzon

Pharmacist dies in US

Avelina Chang, a pharmacist from La Union, died in Houston, Texas, on Tuesday at age 70.

Her remains will be brought back to her hometown in San Fernando, La Union, on October 10, with the wake scheduled at the Tanyao family chapel.

Interment will be at Forest Lake, La Union on October 12.