Tornado slams 3 schools,
flattens houses, kills one
In EB Magalona, Silay;
Destruction rising elsewhere, too
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A tornado ripped through Silay City and EB Magalona town in Negros Occidental Monday night hitting three elementary schools and 158 houses in its path, and leaving one dead and one injured, two mayors said yesterday.

The tornado that hit Silay City at about 7:30 p.m. Monday slammed Barangay Nanca in EB Magalona town 15 minutes later.

Classes at the Adela Elementary School in Silay City and the Nanca Elementary School in EB Magalona were cancelled yesterday as clearing operations were underway.

Twenty-six passengers, some of them college students, were injured when the jeepney they were riding fell into a roadside canal at the national highway in Brgy. Calumangan, Bago City, Negros Occidental, past 8 a.m. yesterday.

Traffic investigator Police Officer 2 Roel Perenio said fare collector Edwin Mellizo, 19, of Brgy. Ubay along with passengers Chander Yen Mondia, 17, of Brgy. Tagda, Christy Joy Estares, 16, of Brgy. Zone 5, Ray Roquero, 55, of Brgy. Tapong, Jerimy Arimay 19, of Brgy. Zone 2 and Zenaida Pandro, of Brgy. Tapong, all of Pulupandan town, Negros Occidental, were rushed to the Bago District Hospital.

The City Development Council decided yesterday to hold in abeyance the request of Philippine Ports Authority for an endorsement of a port zone delineation for the Port of Banago in Bacolod City and to create a committee to study its overall economic effect, Bacolod Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said.

The motion was presented by Barangay Captain Antonio Ongsingco of Brgy. 4, during the CDC meeting yesterday at the Bacolod City Government Center .

Sayson said the meeting presided over by Mayor Evelio Leonardia was attended by representatives from the business sector, non-government organizations and private organizations.