Escudero quits NPC,
surprises partymates
BUT HE'S NO GREAT LOSS,
ALVAREZ SAYS
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Nationalist People's Coalition leaders in Negros said they were surprised at the announcement of Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero yesterday of his resignation from the NPC, while asking for more time to decide on his plans for the 2010 polls, but added that they would remain loyal to their party.

Senator Loren Legarda, in a hastily called press conference, said she would remain the vice presidential candidate of the NPC.

“I don't consider Escudero's leaving a great loss to the NPC, there are many others in the party who feel the same and do not believe in him,” Rep. Genaro Alvarez (Neg. Occ., 6th District), said.

A man who only wanted to settle an old rift between his friends and a group of young men was shot to dead in Bacolod City at about 11 p.m. Tuesday, Police Officer 3 Celito Dullan said yesterday.

Dullan identified the victim as Prience Alro Bueno, 20, of Purok Mainabyanon, Brgy. Singcang-Airport, who died on the spot from multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigation disclosed that, earlier on Tuesday, Bueno and his friends Grace Salilig and Paul Aragon, all of Purok Mainabyanon, were having a drinking spree at the Pinang store in the Purok.

Transport sectors in Negros Occidental will oppose the implementation of the Radio Frequency Identification Project of the Land Transportation Office by filing a motion in court questioning its legality before its full implementation on January 4, 2010.

RFID is a technology that involves the use of a tag with microchip that stores unique numbers assigned to a vehicle for the identification of its information and a reader, which will be used to retrieve and pass on digital information from the LTO database through radio waves.