P7M in shabu seized,
bulk found in footwear
BY SHIELA GELERA

More than a kilo of suspected shabu with market value of about P7 million, was seized in a buy-bust operation on a Murcia resident at about 2 p.m. yesterday, at the parking lot of the Gaisano City Mall at Araneta Street in Bacolod City.

Director Paul Ledesma, of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Region 6, said this was the biggest apprehension in the Western Visayas, so far, in the seven years since he assumed office.

The suspect was identified as Edgardo Justo, alias “Rey Roman”, 36, of Brgy. Santa Cruz in Murcia, Negros Occidental by Agent 1 Jayr Espares, team leader of the PDEA-Negros Occidental.

FOR YOLANDA VICTIMS
Negros getting P8.6B in houses
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The National Housing Authority is building 29,650 houses for victims of super-typhoon Yolanda in five cities and four towns in Negros Occidental, worth P8.6 billion, a NHA official said yesterday.

Architect Susan Nonato, head of the NHA project implementation team for Negros Occidental and Cebu, met with Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. and the mayors of the nine local government units at the provincial Capitol in Bacolod to discuss the project.

Each typhoon resilient house on a developed lot is estimated to cost P290,000, she said. The house will have a 22 square-meter floor area to be built on a 40 square-meter property, she added.

NPA bombs transloading
station of mill
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Suspected New People’s Army rebels raided and bombed again another transloading station of the Lopez Sugar Corp.-this time in Sitio Santa Ana, Brgy. Mabini, Escalante City, Negros Occidental.

Senior Supt. Milko Lirazan, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, said yesterday that the suspects, who introduced themselves as members of the New People’s Army, placed Improvised Explosive Devices or homemade bombs, in two cranes and the core sampler laboratory.

Lirazan said the explosions damaged a crane and the core sampler laboratory, which is used to determine the quality of the sugarcane. The other IED that was placed in another crane, however, did not explode.