PDEA monitoring bets
linked to drugs in WV
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is looking out for some candidates in the 2013 elections in the Western Visayas who are allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.

PDEA Region 6 Director, Edwin Layese, who confirmed this to the DAILY STAR yesterday, however, refused to give details about such candidates to avoid compromising their ongoing monitoring.

He said some of these bets had been in the illegal drug trade before throwing their hats into the political ring probably with the intention to widen their network in carrying out their illegal activities.

Julius out if no show at Comelec
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The name of Bacolod mayoralty candidate Julius Sayson will be removed from the list of candidates if he fails to appear at the preliminary conference at the Commission on Elections in Manila on Monday, Bacolod Comelec registrar Mavil Majarucon-Sia said yesterday.

Majarucon-Sia said the preliminary conference on the petition filed by mayoralty candidate Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson against Julius Sayson will proceed at the First Division of the COMELEC in Manila on Monday despite the statement of withdrawal he filed.

The Vice Mayor filed a petition asking COMELEC to declare Julius a nuisance candidate for mayor.

Elections Provincial Supervisor Jessie Suarez yesterday sent a petition submitted to him by Negros Occidental farmers, demanding the restoration of their Alliance for Rural Concerns to the list of accredited partylist groups, to the COMELEC head office in Manila.

He is also set to submit a list of nuisance candidates in Negros Occidental to the COMELEC regional office in Iloilo today for evaluation and submission to their head office for possible purging.

Suarez said he is recommending the purging of two provincial candidates whose names he withheld, and is also submitting lists of nuisance bets from the towns and cities of Negros Occidental.