‘NPA hitmen’ kill
rebel-turned-pastor
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Suspected New People’s Army members 10:30 a.m. yesterday shot and killed a former member of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade turned pastor in Cauayan, Negros Occidental.

1Lt. Rey Balibagoso, 47th Infantry Battalion Civil Military Operation officer, identified the victim as Timoteo Salazar, who succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds that caused his death.

Balibagoso said Salazar, 54, who also used to be a member of the RPA-ABB, was shot by three unidentified NPA members with an M-16 assault rifles, at a riverbank in Sitio Calapnisan, Brgy. Inayawan, Cauayan.

Senator Franklin Drilon yesterday said separate charges against Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo (Neg. Occ., 5th District) as an alleged accessory in the helicopter sale scandal are now being finalized by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

The congressman faces charges for being an “accessory to the crime,” as he insisted that the helicopters had been leased to the Arroyo family-owned LTA Inc., Drilon said.

The Philippine National Police filed plunder charges before the Office of the Ombudsman Friday against the congressman’s brother, former First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, in connection with the alleged anomalous sale of two second-hand helicopters refurbished to appear as brand new in 2009 to the PNP.

The Bacolod City government will impose the full force of the law on drivers of southbound public vehicles who continue to violate City Ordinance No. 187, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson warned yesterday.

Sayson, vice chairman of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Council, said those who continue to use the DAALCO waiting station in Bacolod City will be apprehended by the Bacolod Traffic Authority and the Traffic Management Unit starting today.

Southbound mini buses returned to the DAALCO waiting station in Libertad Saturday morning to pick up passengers and this caused tension in the area.