Guv seeking PNoy help
vs. killings in Escalante
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday called on President Benigno Aquino III to look into the continued pleas of residents and the families of victims of extrajudicial killings in Escalante City for justice.

The governor made the appeal after Police Officer 1 Bejein Tanguan and police asset Joseph Lutrago were gunned down in front of the public market in Barangay Balintawak, Escalante City, at about 6:35 p.m. Monday, by alleged New People's Army assassins.

Lutrago was a campaigner of mayoral candidate Santiago Barcelona and the United Negros Alliance, that Marañon heads.

Body of suspected
assassin found
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

One of the injured New People's Army assassins believed to be among those behind the killing of Police Officer 1 Bejein Tanguan and police asset Joseph Lutrago, was found dead at about 5 p.m. yesterday in Brgy. Jonob-Jonob, Escalante City, Negros Occidental.

Lt. Col. Efren Morados, 62 nd Infantry Battalion commander, said the rebel suspect succumbed to a gunshot wound in the breast.

Senior Supt. Celestino Guara, caretaker of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, however, said the identity of the slain suspected rebel, whose body was found in a sugarcane field, has not been established yet.