Negros stunned by
Pacquiao KO
BY NIDA BUENAFE

Shocked. Stunned. Saddened.

The common reaction among Negrenses yesterday as Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao slumped down on the canvas after Juan Manuel Marquez caught him with a right hand a second before the bell rang ending the sixth round of their fourth battle at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Nevada yesterday.

National boxing team coach and Olympic bronze medalist Roel Velasco said Pacquiao’s loss taught a big lesson to all boxers about defense and defeat. He said Pacquiao should have not lowered his arm and left his face exposed, but then losing is a part of every fight.

Kiko defends law
on juvenile justice
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

The issue is not on lowering the age of discernment for minor offenders in the Philippines, it is on how to implement Republic Act 9344, or the Juvenile Justice Welfare law properly, Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said in Bacolod City Saturday.

Philippine National Police records show that from 1,825 young offenders in 2007, the number has jumped to 5,318 cases in 2011, or a 290 percent increase.

Pangilinan, who authored the law in 2006, said lowering the age of discernment of children in conflict with the law or locking them in the jail may not be the absolute resolutions to stop minors from committing crimes.

Senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri Saturday said he is happy to hear that the sugar industry has a master plan, but government’s push for its implementation to cushion the impact of the impending drop of tariffs on imports should move faster.

“We’ve got to speed things up for the sugar industry to survive,” he said.

Zubiri, who attended a mass wedding in Murcia town (story on page 3), was referring to the drop in tariffs on foreign sugar entering the country to 18 percent next year and to 5 percent by 2015.