Negros Comelec ready
if special elections held
IGGY’S WAKE MAY BE IN HINIGARAN
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Commission on Elections in Negros Occidental is ready to conduct a special election for a new congressman for the fifth district following the death of Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. if ordered to do so, Provincial Elections SupervisorJessie Suarezsaid yesterday.

Suarez said he has directed the election officers of Himamylan City, and Hinigaran, Binalbagan, Isabela, Moises Padilla and La Castellana towns to prepare their records for a possible special election after a resolution was filed in Congress calling for it.

A special election should be held within 90 days after a congressional seat is declared vacant, Suarez, said, adding that such exercise in the fifth district could cost about P10 million.

A teenager sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation in Bacolod City yesterday claiming that her stepfather, a policeman, has made her a sex slave for almost 12 years now in their residence in a town in Negros Occidental.

The victim, 17, whose name is being withheld by the DAILY STAR, was accompanied by her biological father in reporting her ordeal.

She claimed that her stepfather, who is assigned in one of the towns in Negros Occidental started molesting her when she was just 6 years old. There was even a time when her stepfather raped her in his workplace, she said.

Sixteen victims filed large scale illegal recruitment charges yesterday before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office against a call center agent who, they claimed, took their money and duped them.

Out of 41 complainants, not 60 as reported earlier, only 16 filed the charges against Charles Josef Nillas of Iligan City and a temporary resident of Brgy. Banago, Bacolod, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief, Supt. Julius Ongkiko said.

Ongkiko said other complainants failed to file charges against Nillas as they were working. He said they could no longer locate the whereabouts of Nillas, who had resigned from his work effective February 15.