Guv seeking reelection,
gets 18 mayors’ support
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday announced he is running for reelection in 2013 after 18 of the 31 mayors of the province assured him of their support.

“Since the mayors want me to run, I have decided to run…With their support, how can I say no,” Marañon announced before a gathering of mayors, who had gone to his office at the Capitol in Bacolod City, to receive P2.2 million in assistance for various projects.

The governor’s announcement that was met with applause was made after EB Magalona Mayor David Lacson said that if Marañon seeks reelection, he will get the support of the majority of the mayors of the province, who are members of the United Negros Alliance.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said he has dismissed four of the six city employees charged for alleged tampering of receipts during the Valdez administration, in compliance with an order from the Office of the Ombudsman.

The case was filed by the Commission on Audit Regional Office VI against Management and Audit Service officer-in-charge Ricardo Dahildahil Jr., Crafts and Trade helper Salvacion Ortega, accountant IV Eduardo Ravena, Office of the City Treasurer clerk II Lalaine Villalva, former executive assistant Renato Rojo and former city accountant Pioquito Quinones.

Rojo and Quiñones are already deceased.

The elite Special Action Force unit of the Philippine National Police is back in Negros Occidental after its pullout from the province in 1998.

Headed by Supt. Mario Baquiran, the 6th Special Action Force Battalion is up for deployment to what Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, Western Visayas police director, calls the “center of gravity” of the New People’s Army in northern Negros.

The SAF, a national mobile unit of the PNP, is trained in domestic counter-terrorism, law enforcement and commando-type unconventional warfare.