Palanca, Borromeo
seek reelection, too
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Victorias Mayor Severo Palanca, who is wheelchair bound, and Candoni Mayor Cicero Borromeo, who suffered from a stroke in May, yesterday filed their Certificates of Candidacy for re-election in the May 2010 polls, Provincial Election Officer Jessie Suares said.

Two candidates also filed their COCs for vice mayor of Victorias – incumbent Francis Frederick Palanca and Joel Garganera.

Victorias candidates for councilor who filed their COCs are Mark Palanca, Vincent Marie Roa, Audie Malaga, Jerry Jover, Dexter Senido, Daniel Tornea, Joseph Andrei Garcia, and Plandino Galinato.

MANILA – Feared and loathed by his enemies, Andal Ampatuan Jr., is known as the "hatchet man" of a powerful Muslim clan in the southern Philippines whose family history is written in blood.

A chubby, stone-faced man in his 40s with a penchant for expensive guns, Ampatuan Jr. is the son and namesake of the clan patriarch who has ruled as governor of Maguindanao province for most of this decade.

Ampatuan Jr. surrendered to authorities yesterday after police named him as the top suspect in this week's massacre of 57 people who were allegedly targeted to end a political challenge from a rival clan.

COTABATO – Twenty-seven journalists were among 57 people killed in a massacre in the southern Philippines blamed on an ally of President Gloria Arroyo, the military said yesterday.

Negros media groups are staging a march rally in Bacolod City on Monday against the killing of the 27 journalists.

The Negros Press Club, Congress of Active Media Practitioners, NPC Council of Past Presidents, National Union of Journalists-Negros, and Correspondents, Broadcasters and Reporters' Associations-Action News Services are joining the protest.