Firm dredging for Sagay
also extracting magnetite
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A firm hired by the Sagay City government to dredge the mouths of two rivers of silt also has a Mines and Geosciences Bureau mineral processing permit to extract magnetite from the materials it dredged, MGB Regional Director Leo Van Juguan confirmed yesterday.

He identified the firm as the ASPAC Dredging and Restoration Inc.

Complaints have been circulating in the Old Sagay area about offshore mining operations and of armed guards in the area where its plant is located in Sitio Looc, alleged property of the Marañon family.

Classes and inter-island boat services resume today after Storm Signal No. 1 over Negros and Iloilo was lifted yesterday.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration lifted the storm signal over Negros at 5 p.m. and over Iloilo at 11 p.m. yesterday.

A 15-year-old boy from Purok Tuburan, Barangay Mandalagan,  was missing after he fell into a river in Bacolod City, but as of press time no other  storm related untoward incidents were reported.

The enhanced Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Center, composed of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, 6th Regional Public Safety Battalion, Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office and Bacolod City Police, was activated yesterday in Negros Occidental.

This is intended to ensure unity of efforts in addressing insurgency and criminality, and in responding to disasters.

More than a week before its creation was finalized, however, the JPSCC was already tested by the conduct of random checkpoints, jointly manned by the Army and PNP that foiled the attempt of the New People’s Army to raid vital government installations in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, Col. Oscar Lactao, 303rd IB commanding officer, said.