Fire hits QC hospital

Beware of being too dependent on electrical appliances to cool off this summer. An overheated air-conditioning unit was determined to have caused an hourlong fire that broke out in a hospital and medical school in Quezon City before dawn on Sunday. The blaze that started around 3:30 a.m. at the University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center on Aurora Boulevard, Barangay Doña Imelda, reached the fourth alarm before it was put out at 4:40 a.m. According to Quezon City fire marshal Supt. Jesus Fernandez, the fire started in the computer room on the second floor of the five-story administration building.  Fernandez said one of the air-conditioning units in the room was apparently left running overnight and overheated. No one was hurt in the blaze although the damage to property was pegged at P150,000. Jaymee T. Gamil

Call center agent robbed

A Vietnamese call center agent was robbed at gunpoint on Saturday night by four motorcycle-riding men as he was walking home to his condominium unit in Mandaluyong City. Anh Nguyen Hoang lost his cell phone worth P60,000 and $30 in cash to the still unidentified thieves around 9:40 p.m. on Pinatubo Street in Barangay Barangka Ilaya. The 26-year-old victim told police that he had just left work and was a few meters away from the condominium building where he lives when four men on two blue motorcycles without license plates suddenly stopped in front of him. According to SPO1 Joemer Puzon, two of the men pointed a gun at him and took his valuables before speeding away.  Late last week, Mandaluyong City extended for another three years Ordinance No. 550 which bans two men who are not related to each other from riding together on a motorcycle. For security purposes, the city council introduced an amendment exempting members of the local police’s tactical motorcycle group from the ordinance. Mayor Benhur Abalos earlier said that while the ordinance was not perfect, it has helped decrease the number of motorcycle-related crimes in the city. Jovic Yee

Caloocan urges senior citizens to avail of benefits

THE Caloocan City government has encouraged its senior citizens to claim their benefits by registering at the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca). There are at least 75,000 senior citizens in the city’s 188 barangays based on the civil registry although only 45,571 have been issued an Osca identification card as of December. Mayor Oscar Malapitan said that among the benefits the city’s senior citizens were entitled to were a birthday grocery package and a P500 quarterly stipend for indigents. Rima Granali