AMID RALLIES
Expect fighting GMA
at SONA – Remonde
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Priests in churches throughout the Diocese of Bacolod urged their congregations at masses yesterday to join a Church-led rally at the Bacolod public plaza 2 p.m. today to demand that President Gloria Arroyo step down in June 2010 and never seek an elective position again.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to deliver her State of the Nation Address at the House of the Representatives at Batasan Hills, Quezon City, 3 p.m. today, which Bacolod and Negros Occidental officials are also expected to attend.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said yesterday that the president will tackle the issues against her in her SONA.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Negros held a vigil at the Fountain of Justice in Bacolod City on the eve of the State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to mourn the death of democracy in the country.

The group marched around the downtown area yesterday carrying a black coffin to the Fountain of Justice in front of the old City Hall where the Teatro Obrero held a satirical drama dubbed “Bilasyon sang Banwa.”

Bayan secretary general Felipe Levy Gelle yesterday said the drama portrays the real plight of the Filipino people who are mourning the death of democracy under the Arroyo administration, especially the moves to amend the Constitution.

Ten football players of the University of St. La Salle Integrated School, their coach and their driver were injured when the Toyota Hi-Ace van they were on figured in a head-on collision with an Isuzu dump truck in Brgy. Kumaliskis, Don Salvador Benedicto town, Negros Occidental, at about 5 a.m. Saturday.

Traffic investigator, Police Officer 2 Edgardo Corteza, told the DAILY STAR yesterday that the dump truck driven by Ronilo Barcoma, 50, of Montilla Street, Isabela, Negros Occidental, was ascending from west to east on the road, while the van, driven by Ernick Hojilla of Hacienda Pilar, Brgy. Alicante, EB Magalona was descending from the opposite direction.

The two vehicles collided upon reaching the curve, Corteza said noting that the road was slippery and foggy.