SC junks with finality
cases vs. gov’t
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The Supreme Court First Division has denied for lack of merit the motion for reconsideration filed by retired policeman Victor Eduardo on the cases he had filed against Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia et al, involving the Bacolod City Government Center.

The high court decision upholds the earlier resolution of the Ombudsman and of the Supreme Court denying the same cases.

“This the final nail on the coffin of Eduardo’s dead cases,” Bacolod City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan said yesterday, upon receipt of the SC decision promulgated on September 5, 2011.

A joint task force of the Department of Justice, Department of Interior on Local Government and Commission on Human Rights has been created, on instructions of President Benigno Aquino III, to investigate the reported extra judicial killings and other alleged illegal activities in Escalante City, Negros Occidental.

The order creating the joint task force is signed by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Etta Rosales.

The joint order cited a DILG report on the alleged alarming rate of extra judicial killings in Escalante.

The candidate representing Bacolod City, Vickie Marie Milagrosa Rushton, 19, was crowned Mutya ng Pilipinas International 2011 early Saturday morning at the pageant held at The Arena in San Juan City.

Rushton, a third year Interdisciplinary Studies student at the University of Saint La Salle in Bacolod, told the DAILY STAR she was surprised that she won.

“There were 30 candidates who joined the pageant, with eight from overseas…I don’t know why I won, but am very happy about it,” said Rushton who returned to Negros late yesterday.