Mayors want fair,
swift Escalante investigation
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The mayors of Negros Occidental welcomed the creation of a top-level special task force to look into allegations of extra legal killings in Escalante City, EB Magalona Mayor David Lacson, head of the Negros Association of Chief Executives and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Negros Occidental, said yesterday.

“But we are calling for a fair and swift investigation so the names of the innocent can be cleared,” Lacson said.

Escalante Mayor Melecio Yap and Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, Negros Occidental police provincial director, also said earlier that they welcomed the creation of the task force to, once and for all, resolve the allegations.

The Central Negros Electric Cooperative board is seriously considering forming a committee that will study the possibility of the electric cooperative applying with the Cooperative Development Authority, its president, Arnel Lapore, said yesterday.

Lapore said they will take the matter up as part of their agenda in their December 21 board meeting and discuss the pros and cons of having CENECO become a member of the CDA.

Meanwhile, Lapore said the city government has already paid P18 million out of its P33 million account with CENECO and has agreed to settle the balance in February.

Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) yesterday said he will file his Sugar Act bill next week and that he hopes it is passed into law by both houses of Congress soon.

Benitez, who joined the 14th Tinabu-ay Festival in Murcia town yesterday, said he has presented the bill to the different stakeholders of the industry, including the Sugar Regulatory Administration, to get inputs.

“We have sent the copy of the proposed bill to sugar associations and the SRA for them to take a look at it so that they can suggest on it. If we have to move faster, there has to be unity in what we want to do,” he said.