SK needs reforms,
not abolition: NYC
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The National Youth Commission supports the bill approved by the Senate postponing the Sangguniang Kabataan elections  set on October 28.

NYC national chairman Leon Flores III said yesterday that they support the Senate version that was approved Monday afternoon because it allows incumbent SK members to remain in a holdover capacity until elections are held in 2014, he said.

The 2014 elections sets a natural deadline for putting reforms into the SK system, said Flores, who was in Bacolod City for an SK focus group discussion on the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law.

Not all PDAF at
hospital stopped
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Not all payments of patients’ bills funded by the Priority Development Assistance Fund of senators and congressmen have been stopped, Dr. Julius Drilon, chief of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, clarified yesterday.

What have been stopped are the payments of patients’ bills from the PDAF of six senators and congressmen who have overdrafts in their allocations at the CLMMRH, he explained.

The CLMMRH is still honoring payments from the PDAF amounts allocated by lawmakers during the 15th Congress, which have remaining balances, he said.

Rebels send surrender
 feelers: Aying
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Col Jon Aying, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, yesterday said they have received surrender feelers from several members of the New People’s Army who also want to lay down their guns, after the recent encounter at the boundary of Sagay City and Toboso in northern Negros.

Military records show that the 89 rebels who surrendered to the 303rd Infantry Brigade since 2011, have availed of assistance from the provincial government of Negros Occidental, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace Process.

While he did not elaborate on the details of the surrender feelers they got, Aying said the two recent encounters believed to have caused the wounding of several rebels and even deaths of some, have stung the entire NPA organization in northern Negros.

Mayor seeking P1.2M
for poll overtime pay
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

Bacolod Mayor Monico Puentevella is asking the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Bacolod City to pass an ordinance, re-appropriating P1.2 million for “overtime pay”, for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on October 28.

The amount of P1,249,800 will be taken from the election reserve fund of the city purposely for the overtime pay of personnel of the City Treasurer’s Office during the Barangay and SK elections, broken down as follows: representation expenses - P861,600; gasoline, oil and lubricants – P40,000, and gasoline from Ordinance No. 9 – P260,000.

City Treasurer Annabelle Badajos has issued a certification that the P1,249,800 is still available from the appropriated balances under the CTO-election reserve fund.