Court junks SM case,
Ayala dev’t set - guv
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Regional Trial Court has denied the petition of SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPHI) to declare it the winning bidder of the 7.7-hectare property of the Negros Occidental provincial government in Bacolod City, Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said yesterday.

The decision paves the way for AyalaLand Inc. (ALI) to finally begin its multi-billion peso development of the property adjacent to the provincial Capitol in Bacolod, the governor said.

Negros Occidental Branch 50 RTC Judge Estefanio Libutan Jr., in a 22-page decision dated January 23, denied the petition of SMPHI against Marañon and the members of the Committee on Awards and Disposal of Real Properties of Negros Occidental for lack of merit.

Police apprehend four,  
seize P100,000 in shabu
BY SHIELA GELERA

About P100,000 worth of suspected shabu was seized in a buy-bust operation in Purok Cereza 1 in Brgy. 27, Bacolod City, at about 11:45 a.m. yesterday,

Four persons, one of them a minor, were arrested for illegal possession of illegal drugs, by operatives of the City Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group, its chief, Senior Insp. Neil Exaltado, said.

Arrested were Elsie Go, 27, of Brgy. 27, her father Reymundo Guillero, 63, of Brgy. Handumanan, Marilou Tan, 37, also of Brgy. 27, and a 15-year-old boy, whose name the police withheld for being a minor, Exaltado said.

Ceneco halts add’l collection
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

Central Negros Electric Cooperative will temporarily stop collecting an additional P0.0457 per kilowatt hour in the February billing of their member-consumers in relation to its settlement agreement with the Panay Energy Development Corp., CENECO president Arnel Lapore, said yesterday said.

Lapore said the amount they collected for the January billing will be held by the electric firm and will not be remitted to PEDC yet, until the Energy Regulatory Commission gives a final order to do so.

Generally, he said, any ERC order should not be implemented immediately if a motion has been filed against it, although there is an exception that it may still push through despite the motion, so long as the commission approves it.