NEWS BRIEFS

Lights off for Cebu

METRO Cebu residents are being asked to turn off lights for 30 minutes at 7:30 p.m. today to protest the 40-centavo power rate increase petition by the Napocor.

Councilor Michael Rallota, also incumbent president of the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC), asked the barangay officials to support the campaign by turning off lights in their barangay halls for 30 minutes.

The City Council passed a resolution to support the protest move asked by the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC). /Correspondent Edison delos Angeles

DILG to remain in charge in Compostela

THERE won’t be a leadership vacuum in Compostela town with the transfer of one director of the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) to another region, the agency said yesterday.

“The DILG was tasked by the President to intervene in Compostela. It should be someone from the DILG who will oversee the matter until the Commission on Elections (Comelec) decides,” Elias Fernandez, assistant regional director of DILG-7, said.

Outgoing DILG-7 Director Pedro Noval Jr., who was appointed caretaker of Compostela town, will be replaced by DILG Reigonal Director Ananias Villacorta of Region 11 in Davao. Noval will be transferred to Eastern Visayas.

Fernandez said only Interior and Local Governments Secretary Jesse Robredo can appoint the caretaker official in Compostela town, which is embroiled in an election dispute case between Mayor-elect Joel Quiño and Ritchie Wagas since last year.

Quiño denied reports of another planned takeover of the Compostela municipal hall as claimed by Noval, who ordered the deployment of additional police personnel in the site.

“We are adopting a proactive stance. Thus whether the said info is true or not, we have to deploy PNP personnel so that the May 11 incident won’t happen again. An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure,” Noval told Cebu Daily News. /Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya and Correspondent Carmel Loise Matus

Allowances for barangay officials

BARANGAY captains in Cebu City will get their allowances before Christmas, Mayor Michael Rama said yesterday.

He said City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete and City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo proposed the P5,000 allowance for each barangay captain and P3,000 for each barangay councilor.

Rama said the allowances to be granted will be retroactive to January next year. About P28 million was approved by the City Council for the purpose.

“If judges can be extended (allowances from the city), I can’t see why barangay captains can’t be given the same benefit,” he said.

The barangay officials will also enter into an agreement for the payment of their dues to the Association of Barangay Councils (ABC).

ABC president Michael Rallota said the association needs to raise P7 million for its operations next year.

“I already have authority from the (ABC) board to enter into MOA with barangay captains,” said Rallota.

Rallota said the collection of the P25,750 membership due and the ABC proportionate share that covers 1.5 percent of the barangay’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share is mandated in their by laws. /Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac