UNDOC warning of
bigger protest
BY LISA GAPAC

LTG photo

The protesters at the UNDOC-led  rally  yesterday.*

About 300 members of the United Negros Drivers Operators Center called on the government to regulate and managethe oil industry again to stop what they called abusive price increases at a rally in front of the Fountain of Justice at Araneta Street in Bacolod City yesterday.

The group also called for the immediate abolition of the Downstream Oil Deregulation Law and for the removal of the expanded value-added tax on oil products.

UNDOC secretary general Jesse Ortega said the law has been abused by big oil companies and corporations and that has led to the suffering of the drivers and the entire nation, especially the marginalized sector.

Ten more vehicles believed to have been stolen in Luzon were recovered by the PNP Highway Patrol Group in follow-up operations in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, HPG director Chief Supt. Leonardo Espina said yesterday.

The recovery of 10 stolen vehicles in Negros Occidental brought to 33 the number of carnapped cars recovered by the HPG since November last year in the province.

Sixteen other stolen vehicles were recovered by HPG operatives in General Santos City in Mindanao.

The Western Visayas Summit on Risk Reduction and Geo-Hazard Awareness will be held tomorrow at the Hospitality Management building of West Negros University in Bacolod City.

Organized by Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, the summit is anchored on his advocacy that “Disaster Risk Reduction is our collective responsibility,” Erickson Balmes, Director I of the Office of Pimentel, said yesterday.

Balmes who met with WNU president Oscar Suarez and Mayor Evelio Leonardia’s executive assistant, Jonathan Lobaton, and other staff at the WNU, said this is the secondsummit organized by Pimentel. The first one was held in Mindanao on Feb. 17-18, 2012 and the next summit will be held in the Bicol Region, he said.