Zambo mayor to gov’t: Don’t bring deportees here
ZAMBOANGA CITY — Mayor Ma. Isabelle Salazar is asking the national government not to use the city’s port as a drop-off point for some 7,000 Filipinos who were deported from Malaysia because the city government lacks resources to help them. Salazar said the deportees were expected to arrive at the seaport anytime this month. They will be assisted by social workers here before they are sent back to their hometowns. “We will propose a resolution if it’s okay not to use Zamboanga to receive them,” Salazar said. “We are still suffering from the [impact of the 2013 Zamboanga] siege and we were not able to send displaced families back to their respective places. Now, we are again receiving more visitors,” she said. Hassan Gabra Jumdain, director of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Western Mindanao, said the latest batch of deportees was bigger than the group that arrived here in February 2014. Kuala Lumpur launched a massive crackdown on illegal settlers in Sabah following the siege of Lahad Datu by followers of the Sultanate of Sulu. Malaysian authorities had either deported or arrested hundreds of Filipinos in Sabah in the aftermath of the siege four years ago. —JULIE ALIPALA
Romualdez named RDC head for Eastern Visayas
TACLOBAN CITY — President Duterte has named Tacloban City Mayor Cristina Romualdez as the new chair of the Regional Development Council (RDC) for Eastern Visayas. Romualdez, a first-term mayor and wife of former Mayor Alfred Romualdez, will serve for three years. Romualdez, who was nominated by 60 RDC members, said she would prioritize projects that would boost the region’s economy and support the full rehabilitation of Tacloban, which was devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) on Nov. 8, 2013. —JOEY A. GABIETA
US sailors help clean Subic coastline
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — About 150 American sailors who made a brief port call to this free port took time off their stopover routines for a coastal cleanup at a beach resort here and a visit to a center for people with disabilities, said Norman Tuzon, a US military liaison officer in this former American naval base. Tuzon said the sailors picked up garbage at All Hands Beach here on Feb. 15. Another group visited the Association for Differently Abled Persons in Zambales, a center for mostly deaf school-aged and poor children in nearby Olongapo City on Feb. 16. The sailors were on board the submarine USS Louisville, which arrived here on Feb. 14 for a five-day routine port call and to allow its crew to participate in a series of community service projects and sporting events. —ALLAN MACATUNO
San Jose Bridge in Lingayen, Pangasinan –WILLIE LOMIBAO
4 hurt in Pangasinan bridge collapse
LINGAYEN, PANGASINAN — Four workers were hurt on Tuesday when a bridge that was being demolished here collapsed. Vivencio Conise, 57, Kenneth Castro, 21, Roberto Llanillo, 38, and Bartolome Aqui, 48, were dismantling the steel trusses of the old San Jose Bridge when it fell apart. The bridge across the Basing River in Barangay Baay here was being torn down and would be replaced with a new bridge. The workers’ harnesses prevented them from falling into the river. —GABRIEL CARDINOZA
Ex-Bocaue Mayor Serafin de la Cruz; 67
BOCAUE, BULACAN — The mayor of this town when the Bocaue pagoda tragedy happened in 1993 died on Monday due to an ailment. He was 67. Serafin de la Cruz served as Bocaue mayor from 1992 to 2000 and again from 2001 to 2004. On his second year as mayor, a 6-meter floating pagoda capsized on July 2, 1993, during the fluvial parade honoring the “Mahal na Poon ng Krus sa Wawa.” About 200 people died in that accident. The eldest of six siblings, De la Cruz was a businessman who invested in the manufacture and sale of basketball shorts before he was appointed Bocaue councilor after the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, an appointment which started his political career. He will be buried today at the Bundukan Memorial Garden in Bocaue. —CARMELA REYES-ESTROPE