PNoy okays P300M for
Negros ARB loans
DAR ASSURES LANDOWNERS
OF DUE PROCESS
BY CARLA GOMEZ

President Benigno Aquino III has approved the allocation of P300 million for loans to agrarian reform beneficiary (ARB) groups in Negros Occidental for 2012, to be made available through the Land Bank of the Philippines, Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio delos Reyes said yesterday.

This is on top of support services and other programs being undertaken by the national government to boost productivity and incomes of ARBs in the province, Delos Reyes told participants to the “Children of the Canes III” national conference at L'Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City.

He said poverty drives children in the sugar industry to work, and increased farm incomes will help eliminate the problem.

Twenty exotic birds were recovered yesterday from a wildlife trafficker in an entrapment operation conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, in cooperation with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bacolod Office, at the Ceres Bus Terminal in Brgy. Bata, Bacolod.

Joan Nathaniel Gerangaya, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office-Bacolod head, said they recovered four Kalaw Hornbills and 16 Tariktik Hornbills from Rosita Gonzaga Formentera at the Ceres Terminal in Bata at about 3 a.m. yesterday.

Formentera, 57, separated, of Brgy. Compostela, Liloan, Cebu, was arrested after she handed two-month old birds placed in separate plastic bags to a DENR operative, who acted as poseur buyer, Gerangaya said.

Several boxes containing fake food seasoning were confiscated by an Anti-fraud Division Team of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group national office from four stalls at the Libertad Public Market in Bacolod City at about 10 a.m. yesterday.

CIDG-Bacolod head, Chief Insp. Fernando Salvatierra, said that the raid, led by Supt. Maria Isabel Santos and Nestle Philippines representative Stanley Zambarrano, was conducted on the strength of a search warrant issued by a Manila judge.

Salvatierra said Nestle Philippines, the maker of Maggi Magic Sarap food seasoning, received information that their product was being forged and sold in different stores in Bacolod.