News Briefs

DAGUPAN CITY—Migrants from Mindanao have left their communities in the cities of Urdaneta and Dagupan that had been tagged by police as lairs of drug users and pushers. Five migrant families were forced to leave in August when a fire razed their houses in Sitio Tondaligan in Barangay Bonuan here. Tondaligan was notorious for drug peddling “that was not even done clandestinely,” said Supt. Neil Miro, Dagupan police chief. But he said police did not target migrants during the campaign against illegal drugs. Miro said the fire could be the work of arsonists. Tondaligan used to have a population of 200 but most left due to the place’s reputation. Before the fire, Miro said he tried to convince the migrants to return to Lanao in Mindanao. In Urdaneta, Mindanao migrants also left the city after their neighborhood was identified by police as a suspected drug lair.—YOLANDA SOTELO

Grenade kills boy

ZAMBOANGA CITY—A 14-year-old boy was killed while two other children were critically injured when one of two grenades they found by the shore in a village in Tabuan Lasa in Basilan province exploded, according to police. Supt. Shephard Reyes, the Basilan police chief, said the boy, Aidil Sarahadil, was killed instantly by the explosion. Reyes said the boys threw one grenade into the sea but Sarahadil tried to open up one by hitting it with a stone. Dr. Arlyn Jawad-Jumaoas, head of the group Save the Children in Basilan, expressed frustration over the incident. She appealed to armed groups to “exercise more care” in disposing of war materiel. “We don’t just lose children to war, we also lose precious lives due to abandoned or unattended unexploded ordnance,” she said. —JULIE ALIPALA

Du30’s soft spot: Kids

DAVAO CITY—President Duterte revealed his soft spot for children, saying children calm him down. “Even if I am very angry and I have a child in front of me, I would easily become calm,” Mr. Duterte said at a recent visit to the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao government center in Cotabato City. He said even his aides know his soft spot for kids so that when he gets angry at them and summon them, they would bring their wives and children along. “They will arrive with their wives and children so I would just say: ‘Don’t commit the same mistake anymore’,” Mr. Duterte said. He said when he was still city mayor, he would personally apprehend traffic violators. “But when I see they have their wives and children with them, I’d just let them go,” the President said. —ALLAN NAWAL

8 soldiers wounded

SULU—Eight soldiers were wounded in a recent clash with at least 100 members of the terror and crime group Abu Sayyaf in Patikul town. There had been no report of casualties on the part of the Abu Sayyaf but officials said they number at least 100. Thousands of residents had been displaced by the fighting in at least five towns, reports from relief agencies said. —JULIE S. ALIPALA