Peña hits Marañon for raid;
Guv: Blame self for arsenal
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Mayor Magdaleno Peña yesterday charged Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. with being behind the raid on his ancestral house in Barangay Ubay, Pulupandan, Thursday.

He also warned that he will file counter charges against the police if they charge him for illegal possession of explosives.

Recovered in the raid were 90 firearms, that includedshotguns, AK-47 and M-16assault rifles, .40 and .45 caliber pistols, a 357 revolver, two sniper rifles, and two canisters of one-fourth pound of TNT high grade explosives, the police reported.

Pulupandan police chief
now under investigation
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The recent raid at the ancestral home of Mayor Magdaleno Peña in Brgy. Ubay, Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, that yielded a cache of firearms and ammunition, also led to the investigation of Senior Inspector Anthony Grande, town police officer-in-charge, under the principle of command responsibility.

Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz, Negros Occidental police officer-in-charge, yesterday said Grande, although he is newly-assigned in the town, failed to monitor the activities of his men, who were in civilian clothes and carrying firearms near the Community Police Outpost in Brgy, Ubay, Pulupandan, during the raid.

Grande had replaced Senior Inspector Edfel Balibadlan, who is now being investigated for allegedly escorting Peña, when he challenged the chief of staff of Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. to a fist fight at the Capitol last month.

Drilon defends PNoy
endorsement of bets
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The convenors of the Negrenses for Noynoy Movement yesterday questioned the request of the Commission on Elections Office in Bacolod for the additional fund and the transfer of the canvassing of the election returns from the BAYS Center to the Sangguniang Panlungsod session hall at the Bacolod City Government Center.

Convenor Nana Yulo claimed that they, together with the “citizenry,” were disturbed by the request of acting Bacolod Comelec Registrar Salud Milagros Villanueva from the city government of P5,141,550 because the Comelec is financed by the national government.

She also questioned the decision of the Bacolod Comelec to transfer the canvassing of the ER’s to the SP session hall as opposed to what she called the “spacious and transparent” BAYS Center.