Bishop takes fight vs.
Comelec to SC
SEEKS PERMANENT STOP
TO TARP REMOVAL
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra yesterday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections from implementing its order to remove the “Team Buhay/Team Patay” tarpaulin in front of the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod City.

On Thursday, Comelec Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. said the election body will file criminal charges against officials of the Bacolod Diocese if they continue to refuse to remove the oversized poster mounted on the facade of the Cathedral.

The Diocese and Navarra, though counsel Ralph Sarmiento, filed an urgent petition for certiorari and prohibition, asking the High Tribunal to declare the Comelec order unconstitutional and void.

Covenant signing
sealed with hug
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The former allies turned political opponents in the race for the governorship of Negros Occidental shook hands, hugged and smiled for the cameras after signing a covenant for peaceful and fair elections at the San Sebastian Cathedral in Bacolod City after a noon mass yesterday.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. (United Negros Alliance) and Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez Jr. (Nationalist People's Coalition), who are both running for governor, led Negros Occidental candidates for congressional and provincial seats in signing a covenant for peace at the altar of the Cathedral in the presence of Church, Commission on Elections, police and Army officials.

The body of a former convict, believed to have been executed, was found in a sugarcane field in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental, at about 6 a.m. Thursday, city police chief, Senior Insp. Eduardo Corpuz, said yesterday.

The body of Cesar Sarmoyco, 26, of Galo Street, Brgy. 21, Bacolod City, was identified by his live-in partner, Pia Verdillo, 24, yesterday, Corpuz said.

A passerby found Sarmoyco in a sugarcane field at Hacienda Elena in Brgy. Ayungon. Policemen recovered four empty shells of a .25 caliber revolver at the crime scene, Corpuz said.