Boy surrenders,
admits killing of 9-year-old girl
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

A 13-year-old boy surrendered to Bacolod City Police Women’s and Children’s Complaints Desk yesterday and admitted killing the 9-year-old girl, whose decomposing body was found near a creek in a sugarcane plantation in Purok Rose, Brgy. Cabug, Bacolod City last week.

The boy, whose name the police withheld, said the victim Jessica Patiño of Brgy. Cabug followed him to the sugarcane plantation at about 8 a.m. Thursday, and stoned him.

Angered, he said he pushed her into the creek and mauled her when she climbed up.

In more than a decade of peace negotiations with the government, only 50 members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade have been issued special gun permits, out of 100 stipulated in the agreement, rebel spokesman, Victorino Sumulong, said.

Sumulong said the RPA-ABB members should not be arrested for carrying firearms, stressing that the disposition of their forces as contained in the peace agreement, has yet to be discussed.

The issue of the carrying of firearms by RPA-ABB members resurfaced after the arrest of two of its members in Silay City, who were charged in court for illegal possession of firearms.

SRA Administrator Ma. Regina Martin and Prasert Tapaneeyangku, Thai Cane and Sugar Board secretary general (7th and 5th from left) with the Philippine congressional delegation Reps. Abelardo Benitez, Lucy Gomez, Jesus Crispin Remulla, Nancy Catamco, and Jocelyn Limkaichong.*

MAKATI CITY – Sugar Regulatory Administrator Ma. Regina Martin yesterday said her recent visit to Thailand with a Philippine congressional delegation  was  very informative as the  Philippines  determines whether it can adopt certain measures to further advance and insulate the country's sugar sector from the prospect of tariff reduction.

Martin and representatives of sugar farmers and millers  joined a     delegation of six Philippine congressmen, including  Deputy Speaker Jesus Crispin Remulla  and Rep. Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District), to Thailand from Sept. 21 to 24.

They met with Secretary General Prasert Tapaneeyangkul of the Thai Cane and Sugar Board (TCSB) who gave them an overview on the Thai sugar industry, and visited Thai sugar mills and farms, Martin said.