Gokongwei named
city honorary mayor
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

Business tycoon John Gokongwei Jr., considered the third richest entrepreneur in the Philippines, will be declared honorary mayor of Bacolod City at the Bacolod City Government Center today, Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced yesterday.

Leonardia said Gokongwei will be the third honoree of the BacoLaodiat Festival, after former ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and business tycoon Lucio Tan.

Gokongwei will also be proclaimed as an adopted son of Bacolod.

Negros politicians warned
vs. using armed groups
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Acting Provincial Comelec Supervisor Wil Arceno yesterday warned candidates in Negros Occidental, who may enlist the services of partisan armed groups in the May 13 elections, that such act is prohibited by law.

Arceno, who presided over the joint conference of election officers, and PNP and Army officials in Negros Occidental yesterday, said themaintenance of partisan armed groups (PAGs) whether during the election period or not, is illegal.

An election offense, including intimidation of voters and violation of the Comelec gun ban, is punishable by one to six years imprisonment, without probation, he said.

Dr. Marilyn Marañon opening her wedding gifts with her groom  Alfredo “Freddie” Marañon Jr., in June 1967.*

He sent her beautiful love letters and roses, and showed up at the hospital where she worked in the middle of the night to bring her snacks.

That is how Dr. Marilyn Dalisay Marañon remembers the way Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo “Freddie” Marañon Jr. courted her after he first set eyes on her at the University of the East-Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center, where she was a fourth year medical student in 1966.

Marilyn, who is from Romblon, says she was on duty when a very ill Alfredo Marañon Sr. was admitted to the hospital and she was tasked with writing down information about his condition for the consultant who would attend to him.