2 dead, 8 hurt in Bataan mishaps

BALANGA CITY — Two drivers were killed while eight others, including four elementary students, were injured in road accidents in Orion and Dinalupihan towns last Friday, authorities said.

In Orion, a school bus carrying students of the Bataan Montessori School smashed into a passenger jeepney in Barangay General Lim, killing jeepney driver Joel Ranan on the spot.

Injured were two of the jeepney passengers and four of the students.

In Dinalupihan, meanwhile, a speeding ambulance rammed into a tricycle along the MacArthur Highway in Barangay Luakan, killing the tricycle driver, Dean Atrero, and injuring his two passengers. — Raffy Viray

AWOL soldier tagged as shabu supplier

CABANATUAN CITY — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has launched a manhunt for an Army sergeant who was tagged as the top shabu supplier in northern Nueva Ecija.

Pedro Roque Jr., agent-in-charge of the NBI Cabanatuan district office, said his men are now tracking down Army Sgt. Fernando Padre, a former member of the 7th Infantry Division based in Palayan City who has gone AWOL (absent without official leave).

NBI director Reynaldo Wycoco ordered the manhunt after Padre eluded arrest during a raid on his house last Aug. 18.

Padre managed to escape after he shot it out with the NBI agents who subsequently seized a quantity of shabu, a water pipe, two tooters, four disposable lighters, a grenade, 20 live bullets for a caliber 5.56-mm pistol and an Armalite rifle in his house.

— Manny Galvez

Robbers take P.4-M town payroll

CAMP MIGUEL MALVAR, Batangas — Ski mask-wearing armed men robbed the municipal treasurer of Tuy town of more than P400,000 in payroll she had just withdrawn from the Land Bank of the Philippines branch in Balayan last Friday afternoon, the police said.

Senior Superintendent Francisco Don Montenegro, Batangas police director, said municipal treasurer Leonila Malina, 56, together with disbursing officer Zenaida Gonzales, casual employee May Castillo and driver Wilfredo Rosales Jr., was cruising the national highway in Barangay Luntal in Tuy town when the robbers, who were riding an unlicensed white car, blocked their Toyota Hi-Lux pick-up and announced the holdup.

The robbers took the P434,903 payroll, P8,000 in market fees collected, their P37,000 personal money and cellular phones, and important documents, and then ordered them to drive to a sugarcane plantation where two other armed men aboard a motorcycle were waiting. — Arnell Ozaeta

‘Declare our lands protected areas’

COTABATO CITY — Timuays (chieftains) of different tribal groups in North Cotabato have called on President Arroyo to declare their ancestral lands, now threatened by wanton cutting of trees, "protected areas."

The Mindanao Cross, a local weekly newspaper of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate congregation, said the chieftains of the Aromanon, Manobo, Bagobo, Atah, Uboh and B’laan tribes have passed a manifesto calling on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to focus attention on the illegal cutting of trees in a watershed in Kabacan, North Cotabato, where many of their people dwell.

The Mindanao Cross quoted Datu Apoh Maninguit, chairman of North Cotabato’s Federation of Tribal Councils, as saying that the cutting of trees in Barangay Pisan, a known ancestral land of the Manobos, started in 2001.

If declared a "protected area," Maninguit said it would be easy for them to prevent cutting of trees in the watershed.

Two of the illegal loggers in Barangay Pisan are former soldiers, he said. — John Unson

Rabid dogs attack 23 Lanao villagers

MAGSAYSAY, Lanao del Norte — A provincial executive of the Department of Health urged provincial and municipal officials to enact ordinances on responsible pet ownership after four stray, rabid dogs attacked at least 23 people in two villages here last week.

Dr. Elmo Tomada, the DOH’s provincial team leader, lamented that the department’s national and regional offices lack supplies of anti-rabies vaccines.

But thanks to the provincial government’s response, anti-vaccines were procured from Manila and 11 of the 23 dogbite victims received their first shots at the provincial hospital last Saturday morning.

The other victims were advised to avail themselves of the free vaccines, although two of them have reportedly gone to Ozamiz City and Metro Manila to seek treatment.

Nubel Alfeche, secretary of the Magsaysay town council, said they have formed a "death squad" to go after stray, rabid dogs, six of which were killed last Saturday.

Alfeche said the town council is expected to pass an ordinance this week on responsible pet ownership. — Richel Umel

Ex-Isabela dean’s abductor falls

SANTIAGO CITY — The police have arrested a female car agent for the Aug. 20 kidnapping of a former university dean here.

Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, Cagayan Valley police director, said Dr. Carolina Garcia, 62, former dean of the La Sallete University, went missing after she negotiated the sale of her Isuzu Crosswind with the suspect, Monette Castroverde.

Informed about Garcia’s disappearance by her husband, Soriano formed a team to locate her and arrest her abductor.

The team managed to trace the buyer of Garcia’s vehicle who, in turn, tipped off the suspect’s possible safehouses.

Garcia was eventually rescued in one of the rooms of the Deocita’s Hotel here where Castroverde temporarily stayed last Friday afternoon.

Soriano said Castroverde injected Garcia with tranquilizers, making her sleepy.

Five more people have come forward to complain that they, too, had fallen victim to Castroverde’s modus operandi. — Charlie Lagascsa

DOJ junks murder raps vs mayor

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan — The Department of Justice (DOJ) has junked the murder complaint filed by the Manila prosecutor’s office against the mayor and vice mayor of Buguey town and two others in connection with last year’s killing of a Manila-based lawyer and his daughter.

In a three-page resolution, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales ordered the Manila prosecutor’s office to withdraw the information against Buguey Mayor Licerio Antiporda Jr., his son, Vice Mayor Lloyd Antiporda, Romulo Awingan and Richard Mecate.

Gonzales granted the Antipordas’ motion for reconsideration of the Manila prosecutor’s earlier resolution indicting them for the killing of lawyer Franklin Tamarga and his daughter, Franciel Gail, based on the extra-judicial confession of a certain Columna, originally tagged as a suspect.

Gonzales said Columna’s confession "does not suffice to make probable cause for murder" against the Antipordas and the other accused. — Charlie Lagasca