Bomb threat holds ship for six hours

Six hundred passengers of Negros Navigation’s M/V Sao Paolo found themselves stranded for six hours in Dumaguete City last Tuesday following a puzzling report of an alleged bomb aboard the vessel.

In a report, Visayan Daily Star correspondent Romy Alvarado said a police bomb squad, accompanied by the Maritime Police, combed the ship for six hours to search for the bomb.

None was found, but the passengers had to disembark from the boat. Sao Paolo left the Dumaguete port for Iloilo City at about 5 a.m. Wednesday.

SPO4 Enrique Zendon, deputy Maritime Police station commander, said Sao Paolo skipper Henry Ledesma decided to make an emergency stop in Dumaguete City after receiving a radio message from the Iligan City Coast Guard that there was a package with a bomb on board the ship.

The Coast Guard reportedly cited Iligan City Mayor Franklin Quijano as the source of the information.

At least, that was one report that turned out to be a dud. Still, that showed the security-consciousness of the vessel’s crewmembers and the Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, as the campaign season is nearing its end, Negrenses were startled to hear about the conviction of an Aglipayan priest and three lay companions for performing an exorcism of two girls — Antonia Magbilin and Erma Hilado — who were believed possessed by a demon.

Fr. Jerry Siason and his companions Lolita and Lilia Lastierre and Milagros Varona were found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of grave coercion and were sentenced to suffer six months to four years and two months’ imprisonment.

Judge Gorgonio Ybanez of the Bacolod Regional Trial Court said the priest forced the two women to undergo exorcism to rid themselves of alleged evil spirits that had possessed them.

The judge, however, acquitted the group and 38 others of charges of robbery in band.

Actually, the complainant was Wilfredo Tortosa, a psychic healer. The accused reportedly barged into his house and chapel in Barangay Sum-ag on Aug. 1, 1986, smashed the doors and jalousie windows and ransacked and robbed the house.

Delfina Villanueva testified that Fr. Siason and several women surrounded her, made her kneel and poured holy water on her.

The judge ruled that Siason and his companions went to Tortosa’s house with the only intention to exorcise and shake off the demons that had reportedly possessed Antonia Magbilin and Emma Hilado.

The story provided Negrenses respite from the increasingly strident political brickbats that led former Rep. John Orola Jr. to file a libel case against a local broadcaster who brandished on television documents purportedly showing that the former solon had asked for a three percent commission for the P500-million loan of the Bacolod City Water District from Japan.

Both Orola and Baciwa chairman Pompeyo Querubin claimed that the documents were fake and contained only the super-imposed signatures of Orola.

Political Turnaround

Negrenses found themselves startled by the twists and turns of politics yesterday. This was when several politicians, who earlier had announced that they were withdrawing support for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, had a change of heart and abandoned FPJ instead.

Last Wednesday, Don Salvador Benedicto Mayor Cynthia de la Cruz went on air to announce her support for GMA. The president of the provincial mayors’ league, she earlier had hinted that she might join the camp of presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr.

"Boss Danding does not dictate to us. He gave us the choice of who we want to support for President," she said.

Cynthia’s husband, Nehemias, a former mayor of the town, is a close aide of businessman Eduardo Cojuangco.

That stand by Mayor De la Cruz threw a lot of Negros politicians into disarray since several of them had followed the cue of Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon and his brother, Rep. Alfredo Marañon Jr., in severing their support for President Arroyo late last month.

Meanwhile, Talisay City Mayor Anthony Lizares called a press conference the other day to announce the shift of support of his entire ticket from FPJ to GMA.

Lizares reportedly resented the brush-off of the rally he and his supporters had readied for Susan Roces, spouse of FPJ, during the weekend. From the grapevine, it was clear that a political mogul from Talisay stopped Susan from going to the rally so that the Talisaynons waited until midnight for her. They were only informed later that Susan reportedly had backed out because of back pains.

Everybody, however, buzzed with rumors about what actually happened even when Bigot Velez, FPJ bet for Silay mayor, reportedly reminded her that she should not miss Talisay.

Officially, Lizares paid tribute to GMA as a leader who was willing to sacrifice for the country and praised her for decisive acts on behalf of the sugar industry.

That made GMA’s return to Negros Occidental yesterday a sort of triumphal return to her former bailiwick. In the case of Talisay, Lizares’ strong opponent, Ramon Lacson, has consistently remained loyal to GMA.

In short, GMA now has two rival camps in the bag although both are fighting against each other tooth and nail.

Lizares’ exit from the FPJ camp turned the tables on the mayors who earlier had joined the opposition camp. That leaves now 14 mayors for Poe versus 16 for GMA.

There were reports as of press time that the "re-converted" mayors were just waiting for the chance to reverse their previous decision.

The mayors are free to choose the national candidates they will support. I just hope they do not forget the local candidates, said Gov. Marañon.

The counterflow is on. What everybody is waiting for is just the headcount.

Nacusip For GMA

But the more exhilarating news for GMA was the manifesto issued the other day by the 400,000-member labor group Nacusip-TUCP that they are supporting GMA.

The more important point is that most of the worker-members of the group are sugar farm and mill workers, Nacusip national president Zoilo de la Cruz pointed out.

The Nacusip-TUCP manifesto was distributed by the labor union officials to the local media the other day.

It cited the release of the P600-million sugar ACEF, the transfer of sugar from the temporary exclusion to the sensitive list of AFTA, the upward adjustment of the final bound tariff on raw and refined sugar from 50 to 80 percent in the World Trade Organization, and the maintenance of applied tariff on raw and refined sugar at 65 percent until 2005 through EO 264, among several other points.

Her acts, according to the manifesto, "proved to be very beneficial for the best interest and protection of sugar industry workers and their dependents."

Among the signatories were Bernardo Remo, national president of the United Sugar Farmers Organization; De la Cruz; Arturo Ronquillo, national president of the Workers Amalgamated Union of the Philippines; Jun de la Cruz, national coordinator of the Congress of Independent Organizations (CIO-ALU); Randy Ronquillo, national president of the Trade Union of Filipino Workers (TUFW); and Ronaldo Esponilla, of the Philippine Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Workers Union (PACIWU).

The other signatories included Editha Caceres of the Fraternal Labor Organization-ALU; Luciano Ilon, of the Association of Negros Cooperatives Inc.; Marcela Villaones, Noel Villarin, Loi Montebano and Fortunato Salado.

"Our campaigners have already gone into the hinterland farms of the province campaigning for GMA," quipped Ilon when we met the other day.

In short, this is a group that is really working hard to assure that GMA retains her foothold in Negros Occidental.