Police seize 13 guns
from security guards
COMELEC CONTROL
OF PULUPANDAN SOUGHT
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Policemen yesterday confiscated 13 firearms from security guards hired by landowner Magdaleno Peña, who were dispatched outside their duty area in Pulupandan, Mayor Luis Mondia said.

Mondia said two security guards of the Cornerstone Agency were initially arrested by the police, while others appeared at the police station last night to explain their sides.

Documents of the 12 shotguns and a 9mm pistol reportedly owned by the security guards are now being checked by the Pulupandan police.

San Carlos may be
NPC 'free zone'
BY CARLA GOMEZ

San Carlos City may be declared a free zone by the Nationalist People's Coalition in the May elections, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon said yesterday.

Marañon had earlier asked the national NPC officials to rule on the problem in San Carlos City where its mayor, Eugenio Lacson, who is a member of the party, is supporting former Rep. Julio Ledesma. Rep. Tranquilino Carmona, the official NPC candidate for congressman of the first district, in reaction to Lacson's stand, said he is fielding board member Elmero Layumas of the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino, as mayor of San Carlos.

Lacson has pointed out that since the party is acknowledging the equity of the incumbent he should be the official NPC candidate for mayor of San Carlos.

Court metes 17 years
to cashier's killer
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A Bacoleño was sentenced yesterday to 17 years imprisonment for killing the cashier of a pension house in Bacolod City by shooting him in the eye on Nov. 1, 2004.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Anita Chua found Melvin Mabayag Mendoza guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of homicide and sentenced him to suffer imprisonment in the indefinite period of eight years minimum to 17 years as maximum.

Mabayag was also ordered to pay P50,000 to the heirs of his victim Dioscoro Carpentero as civil indemnity for his death. The prosecution told the court that at about 5:30 a.m. of Nov. 1, 2004, Carpentero, the cashier of Jacqueline's Pension House at 13th-Aguinaldo streets, was shot by Mendoza in the right eyeball and caused his death.