Visayan bloc set
for budget lobby
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Twenty-nine legislators yesterday launched the Visayan bloc to collectively push legislations in the Lower House to advance the concerns of the Visayas, Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said yesterday.

“In fact, we already intend to make our presence felt in the budget hearings where we will lobby for government agencies to allocate adequate priority programs and resources for the Visayas,” Benitez said.

The majority of the 29 congressmen who attended the Visayan bloc meeting in Quezon City over lunch yesterday were from the Visayas, with a few from other areas who are sympathetic to the issues of the Visayas, Benitez said.

Overseer meted
48 years for rape
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A Bacolod farm overseer was sentenced to 48 years imprisonment yesterday for the sexual assault and rape of his then 16-year-old neighbor.

Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 41 Judge Ray Alan Drilon sentenced the farm overseer, whose name is being withheld to protect the identity of his victim, to reclusion perpetua, or 40 years imprisonment, for rape, and four years and two months to eight years and one day for sexual assault.

He was also ordered to pay his victim P75,000 as moral damages, and P25,000 as exemplary damages.

Drugs found
hidden in toilet paper
BY SHIELA GELERA

Suspected shabu worth P50,000, wrapped in toilet paper, was recovered from the bag of another visitor at the Bacolod City District Jail Male Dormitory, three days after the recovery of marijuana hidden in the sanitary napkin of a woman visitor Saturday.

BCDJ Control and Security chief, Senior Jail Officer 2 Jayson Baltazar identified the suspect this time as Ma. Fatima Uy, “alias Maripa”, 30, of Fortune Towne, Brgy. Estefania in Bacolod.

Uy was charged yesterday for violation of Section 11 of Republic Act 9165, or possession of illegal drugs, before the Bacolod City Prosecutors Office, Baltazar said.