Intelligence network
tapped vs. hoarders
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Local Price Monitoring and Coordinating Councils in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City are assisting the Department of Trade and Industry in ensuring strict compliance with a price freeze on basic commodities in the province following recent typhoons that have hit the country.

Gov. Isidro Zayco said he is calling on the mayors of the towns and cities of Negros Occidental to assist the DTI so that sanctions can be imposed on retailers who fail to comply.

At the same time he called on businessmen to comply with the price ceiling on basic commodities.

A couple was hacked dead, while their son survived, despite multiple injuries when they were attacked by a relative who was drunk Sunday night, in Sitio Granada, Brgy. Poblacion, Toboso, Negros Occidental.

Senior Insp. Nestor Tuadles, Toboso police chief, yesterday said the killing spree claimed the lives of Gonzalo Pidilion and his wife, Evelyn, both 50 years old.

Their son, Jimmy, 30, who survived, is now being treated for hack wounds, at the Vicente Gustilo Memorial District Hospital in Escalante City .

The Negros Occidental provincial government is initially allocating P300,000 to assist the Luzon typhoon-hit victims, Gov. Isidro Zayco said yesterday.

He said that, with the president's declaration of a state of national calamity, assistance can be allocated by local governments from their 5 percent calamity fund.

The League of Provinces is asking provincial governments to send their contributions to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for proper allocation to those in need, he said.