A hold departure order has been issued by the Sandiganbayan on 28 persons, most of them Silay City officials and employees, in connection with a criminal case for alleged violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act lodged against them for an P18 million computerization project.

Their accuser, Jose Lindy Chan, said yesterday that the Sandiganbayan Second Division, in its July 11 order said the court   ordered the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation to hold the departure from the Philippines of the 28 and to include their names in the Hold Departure List of the bureau.

The order penned by Sandiganbayan Second Division chairperson Teresita Diaz-Baldos and Associate Justices Napoleon Inoturan and Oscar Herrera Jr. said the hold departure was necessary to preserve and maintain the effectiveness of their jurisdiction over the case and the accused.

A Zamboanga resident was sentenced yesterday to life imprisonment   for being part of a syndicate that recruited a Bacoleña to work as a receptionist at a hotel in Malaysia, where she was instead sold to a pimp and forced into prostitution.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 48 Judge Gorgonio Ybañez found Richard Angeles Reyes guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the offense of Illegal Trafficking in Persons and sentenced him to suffer the penalty of life imprisonment, to pay a fine of P2 million, and to indemnify the complainant P100,000 as moral damages.

The judge also ordered his commitment to the Bureau of Corrections in Muntinlupa.

The four vehicular and road accidents in Negros Occidental that took place within the past four days since Friday, claimed the lives of seven persons, including an Indian national, with 24 others injured, police records show.

Tricycle driver Dionesio Aycayde, 45, and Reynold Diodoco, died yesterday, after a Mitsubishi Strada pick-up vehicle driven by Richard Steven Milan,19, smashed into the tricycle at the highway of Brgy. Zone 16, Talisay City.

PO3 Jerry Alegado, traffic chief of the Talisay police station, said Ana Rose Hermosora, 12, who was also hit by the vehicle while crossing the highway, was also reported in a critical condition.