182 families affected
by Sagay, Cadiz floods
BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III

Continuous heavy rain since Tuesday caused floodwaters to rise in the cities of Sagay and Cadiz, Negros Occidental, affecting a total of 182 families.

Liane Garcia, Provincial Social Welfare officer, reported yesterday that in Sagay City, 119 families from Barangay Paraiso fled from their homes and stayed temporarily at the Lopez Sugar Central and at the Holy Family Parish, while 40 families in Barangay Fabrica evacuated to their barangay hall.

Reports said some of the affected families already returned to their homes yesterday while others are still at the evacuation centers and are waiting for the floodwaters to subside completely.

The technical team created by the Commission on Audit to evaluate and re-appraise the value of the property that is the subject of a deed of sale and contract of lease between the Negros Occidental provincial government and Ayala Land Inc. arrived in Bacolod City yesterday.

The team is tasked to look into the price of the property and appraise the reasonability of the sale, State Auditor Encarnacion Esmino, who heads the team, said.

Created just last week to evaluate and re-appraise the value of the 7.7-hectare property that belongs to the provincial government, Esmino said they will be in the city for three days to do their job.

The deputy police chief of Bago City and the guard-on-duty, during the escape of three detainees, were relieved from their posts yesterday and assigned to the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office headquarters, while investigation on the March 19 jailbreak is ongoing.

Supt. Simeon Gane, Bago police chief, said the relief order for deputy chief, Insp. Jerry Nacion, and SPO2 Reynaldo Abijito, was issued Tuesday by Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, NOPPO director, and took effect yesterday.

Nacion was the officer-in-charge of the Bago police, while Gane was on official leave, and Abijito was the desk officer and guard-on-duty, when the suspects Aris Chicuva, Ryan de la Torre, and Michael Victor Vergara, escaped. They were able to do so by sawing off the iron window grills of their detention cell, three days after their arrest March 16.