Gov’t declares 5-day
Christmas ceasefire

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday approved a five-day Christmas ceasefire with communist guerrillas.

The “suspension of military offensives, or SOMO,” against the communist New People's Army will begin on Christmas Eve. It was based on a recommendation by the military, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.

It will be from 12:01 a.m. today to 12 p.m. of December 26 and 12:01 a.m. of December 31 to 12 p.m of January 1,  Ermita said.

Police action centers have been put up in bus terminals and seaports in Bacolod City to assist those traveling to their hometowns for the holidays, City Police officer-in-charge Senior Supt. Celestino Guara said yesterday.

Since traffic in the major thoroughfares of Bacolod is now swelling, Guara said, he has tasked the chiefs of police to enforce traffic rules in their areas to help the traffic enforcers.

At the Bacolod South Ceres Terminal in Capitol Shopping Center, personnel of the Ceres liner bus company are checking all the luggage of the passengers before allowing them to board.

The Negros Occidental media yesterday again called on President Macapagal-Arroyo to give swift justice to the victims of the Maguindanao massacre, 31 of whom were journalists and media workers, amid fears that the government was building a case on a stack of cards that could only lead to the acquittal of the suspects.

At 9:30 a.m. yesterday, about the same time the massacre victims were rounded up and mercilessly killed on Nov. 23, around 50 members of the Negros media joined a caravan that stopped at the offices of Bombo Radyo and DYEZ Aksyon Radyo in Bacolod City to light candles in memory of their slain colleagues.