News Briefs: Drug clash

MARAWI CITY—An antidrug operation conducted by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Lanao del Sur last week sparked a clash and displaced hundreds of residents in the villages of Bualan and Debarosan in Balindong, Lanao del Sur, a rebel official said on Sunday. Usama Ali, core chair of the MILF’s Ad Hoc Joint Action Group, told the Inquirer by phone the clashes started when a relative of the village chair of Debarosan demanded that the MILF release one of seven persons it arrested. He did not name the Debarosan village chair but identified his brother as an Abu Sayyaf member. One of those arrested for alleged involvement in drugs is sister of the village chair.  —RICHEL UMEL

Bus torched

KORONADAL CITY—Armed men claiming to be communist rebels torched a bus in Tupi, South Cotabato on Sunday after flagging it down, police said. Senior Supt. Franklin Alvero, the South Cotabato police director, said at least five gunmen hailed and boarded a unit of Yellow Bus Line on the national highway in Barangay Polonuling around 4 a.m. After announcing they are members of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed men ordered the driver at gunpoint to bring the bus to a secluded area some 100 meters from the main road. There, more armed men had been waiting. They ordered the bus’ crew and the passengers to alight before dousing it with gasoline and setting it on fire, said Alvero. He said no one was hurt in the attack. —JEOFFREY MAITEM AND EDWIN FERNANDEZ

US device found

MASINLOC, ZAMBALES— Another oceanographic instrument reportedly owned by the United States Navy was found by fishermen on Friday some 50 nautical miles from this coastal town. Galley Gordones, a fisherman from Barangay Inhobol here, said he and and his two companions took the instrument, an electrical glider which bore the markings “Naval Oceanographic Office USA,” to the Philippine Coast Guard detachment in Masinloc. The instrument also bore the name of the company, Teledyne Webb Research. In February, fishermen from Subic town in Zambales province recovered a similar yellow electrical glider produced by Teledyne while they were fishing about 80 nautical miles from the disputed Scarborough Shoal. —ALLAN MACATUNO

VP hopeful

DAGUPAN CITY—Vice President Leni Robredo said that while the electoral complaint against her can go either way, she hoped she would get a fair ruling from the Supreme Court. “If based on merits, we are sure we will win,” Robredo told reporters during the launching of projects under her Angat Buhay program in Barangay Carael here on Saturday. Robredo faces an electoral fraud case filed by losing vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. —YOLANDA SOTELO

Malaysia risky

DAVAO CITY—Majority of 66,000 Filipino workers in Malaysia are women who are vulnerable to abuses by their employers, a labor attache said. Elizabeth Marie Estrada, also head of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office, said more than 40,000 of the women are “household service workers.” Estrada, in an interview aired by Radio TV Malacañang, said most of the women are in “vulnerable occupations.” She said a number of Filipinos had already been rescued from abusive employers. She could not provide a specific number, however. —ALLAN NAWAL