Sugar leaders yesterday said they hope President Benigno Aquino picks a new customs commissioner who will put a stop to sugar smuggling.

Aquino yesterday announced that he had picked a new customs chief to replace Angelito Alvarez but refused to say who the replacement would be.

The president would only say that the person he had chosen had accepted the job and that he had promised the incoming chief of the Bureau of Customs few days of quiet before releasing his name.

A bar-restaurant waiter was shot dead Friday at Osmeña Avenue in Brgy. 3, Victorias City.

Two unidentified gunmen shot and killed Owen Angelo Peña, a 28-year-old waiter, inside the bar and restaurant, and two customers, identified as Jose Pontino, 26, and Eric Canares, 31, were hit by bullets, police investigations showed.

Peña, who sustained a gunshot wound in the chest, was declared dead on arrival at the Ika-ayong Lawas Foundation Hospital in Victorias City, while Pontino and Canares are now recuperating from their gunshot wounds at the Teresita Lopez Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.

Fire hit a coastal barangay of  Cauayan town in Negros Occidental at about 2:30 p.m. yesterday destroying 19 houses and damaging three, Mayor John Rey Tabujara said.

The houses hit were  made of bamboo and nipa in Barangay Guiljungan, Cauayan,   the mayor said.

The fire left 127  residents homeless, and they  are now being housed at the Guiljungan Elementary School, Tabujara added.