Reporters’ Notebook
NAVARRA
Negros Occidental
Bishop to pols: Bury the hatchet
THE PROVINCE’S highest ranking Church official called on rival politicians to bury the hatchet and start working to improve people’s lives.
Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, in an interview, said rival politicians “should not harbor grudges and ill feelings now that the elections are over.”
In Bacolod, Navarra said rivals should now reconcile and cooperate for the common good.
Those who won the elections, the bishop said, should thank God and the people and fulfill their promises.
Those who lost, Navarra added, should accept defeat and help the winners.
The final count of the Commission on Elections showed that Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo won in the presidential and vice presidential race in the province.
Robredo, through Facebook, expressed gratitude to voters in Negros Occidental.
The Robredo camp said results showed that the Liberal Party vice presidential candidate won in every town and city in the province. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas
DOMOGAN
Baguio City
Water issue takes precedence
WITH THE campaign and elections out of the way, Mayor Mauricio Domogan, who won reelection said he would pursue new talks with a neighboring Benguet town to resolve an impasse over water rights that has prevented the city from operating its American-era mini-hydroelectric power plants.
The city owns the Asin hydro plants, which were built on a Baguio lot in Barangay Tadiangan and Nangalisan in Tuba town in Benguet.
But the Tuba municipal council passed a resolution endorsing the community opposition to the city’s acquisition of water permits granted to the Baguio Water District (BWD) when it operated Baguio’s three mini-hydro plants.
The Aboitiz subsidiary Hedcor Inc. has assumed the operation of the plants until 2006. The plants were recently shut down by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) over permitting issues.
Tuba also opposed the renewed operations of the plants because of the dispute over water resource management.
“We have to continue talking,” Domogan said in a statement.
The city government recently awarded the plants’ management and operations to Kaltimex Energy Philippines but the city council has not confirmed the deal. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
Zamboanga City
Top school exec dies from fall
THE ASSISTANT vice president of the Zamboanga State College of Marine Sciences and Technology (ZCSMST) died after falling from the third floor of one of the school’s buildings on Monday.
Chief Insp. Helen Galvez, information officer of the Zamboanga City police office, said the body of Dr. Constancio Teofilo, 52, also dean of ZCSMST’s College of Marine and Food Science, was found by guards around 6:30 a.m.
Galvez said Teofilo was brought to the Zamboanga City Medical Center but doctors there declared him dead.
Police are investigating if there was foul play or if it’s a case of suicide. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao
Inmates flee as fire raged
THREE inmates bolted the police detention facility in the city as fire raged through a commercial district here.
Supt. Luisito Magnaye, city police chief, said he has ordered an investigation.
“We are taking this seriously,” said Magnaye. He said the inmates were “able to leave the police station unnoticed.”
Chief Insp. Helen Galvez, information officer of the city police, identified the escapees as Fahad Arip, 34, who is facing theft charges; John Zivas Ferrer Lim, who faces robbery and homicide charges and Arby Aquicesca, also a suspected theft. Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao
Misamis Oriental
Ex-cop, cult founder killed
A FORMER policeman who founded a religious group was killed by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Monday, authorities said on Tuesday.
Stabbed to death was Francisco Baguiz, a retired police officer and founder of Apocalypse International Ministry, Inc. (AIM Inc.) based in Barangay Malinao in Gingoog City.
Police said Baguiz was driving his car when flagged down by armed men wearing Army uniforms in Sitio Kibalikin in Malinao.
SPO4 Teddy Macarayo, of the Gingoog police, said Baguiz got out of the vehicle and must have thought that it was soldiers who flagged him down.
Macarayo said Baguiz was handcuffed and brought by the armed men to a secluded area, where he was stabbed four times. He did not reach the hospital alive.
Witnesses identified the suspects as NPA rebels, police added. The NPA has not issued a statement on Baguiz’s killing. Jigger Jerusalem, Inquirer Mindanao
