‘Pray for peaceful end
to Zamboanga standoff’
Return to Negros of 3 infantry
brigades unlikely now
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Religious leaders in Bacolod City yesterday called for prayers for a peaceful resolution to the standoff in Zamboanga City.

Government troops were locked in a standoff with hundreds of Muslim gunmen who killed six people and took at least 20 hostages in Zamboanga City yesterday in a bid to derail peace talks.

A night-time curfew was imposed in the southern port city of Zamboanga as armored security forces surrounded between 200 and 300 Moro National Liberation Front gunmen holed up in six coastal villages on the outskirts of the city.

Contractor hits
OBO for ‘extortion’
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The newly-designated head of the Electrical Division of the Office of the Building Official and several other employees were accused by an electrical contractor of allegedly engaging in bribery and extortion activities, during a public hearing at the Bacolod Government Center yesterday.

The hearing was conducted by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Laws, Ordinances and Good Government, headed by Councilor Caesar Distrito.

Antonio Jayme, proprietor of C5 General Services, presented an 18-minute video-taped conversation while they were having cofee with OBO employee Peter Plantillo and Electrical Division head Venancio Baja, who was assigned to the OBO only last month, during the committee hearing.

Ilahas clears bizman
of tree-cutting claim
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The businessman son-in-law of Perfecto Marañon who is the executive assistant of Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., has been cleared of alleged involvement in timber-poaching activities at the Northern Negros Natural Park by Task Force Ilahas investigators.

Negros Occidental Board Member Rolando Ponsica had earlier alleged that Albert “Ali” Divino spearheaded the cutting of trees at the forest reserve of Brgy. Marcelo, Calatrava, citing the claims of Jeremias Diotay, the barangay chairman of Marcelo in Calatrava.

However, Diotay, denied having told Ponsica that Divino engaged in timber poaching in the barangay, Chief Inspector Gabriel Gutierrez, TFI Action Officer, said in his report to TFI Executive Officer Jose Ma. Valencia.