Valentine’s Day for 374 Bacolod couples

Valentine’s Day will be celebrated today by 374 couples who will wed at the Bay Center before City Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

This will be the biggest number of couples to be wed by the mayor.

"Since I assumed office, I have always called on couples who have been living together for years without the solemnity of marriage to legalize their union as husband and wife, especially for those who have postponed their wedding for financial reasons," said Leonardia.

In short, for those who had been living together without the benefit of legally binding ties can now marry.

These concerns are often overlooked by live-in couples and government must help them legalize their unions.

DOJ reinvestigates Molo massacre

The justice department yesterday directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to undertake a re-investigation of the recent slaying of businessman Francisco "Bobby" Tan, his wife, Cynthia "Cindy" Zayco and their daughter, Kathy.

The Iloilo City prosecutor’s office was poised to continue its preliminary hearing on the controversial case.

Actually, the request for reinvestigation of the case came from Conchita Tan, grand-aunt of the two Tan boys, Archie and Jan Michael, who were accused in the slay by the CIDG.

Mrs. Tan said the CIDG hastily tagged her grandnephews as the prime suspects in the killing of Tan, the boys’ father, and two other members of his family in their Molo District mansion.

The two are facing two counts of double murder and one count of parricide.

Lawyer Nelia Gonzales, the defense counsel of the Tan children, said she is going to file a motion to suspend yesterday’s proceedings in the face of City Prosecutor Efraim Baldago’s earlier announcement that he will continue the preliminary investigation despite the go-signal by Sec. Raul Gonzalez for the NBI to reinvestigate the case.

Baldago said he will have to get a notice of suspension of the proceedings.

Besides, he added, the order for the NBI to reinvestigate the case does not preclude automatic suspension of the proceedings.

CIDG Region 6 Chief Superintendent Renato Gumban expressed confidence that the charges they filed against the Tan brothers is supported by circumstantial evidence they have gathered during the course of their investigation.

NBI Region 6 director Mario Sison stressed that he will conduct a separate probe as instructed by their head office in Manila.

Philip Sigfrid Fortun, a known counsel of deposed President Joseph Estrada, is also the counsel of Archie Tan.

The case has become celebrated because of the kidnapping or abduction charges filed by Conchita against an uncle of the Zaycos for taking away the other Tan siblings post the burial of Tan and his family members last week.

Cynthia is a niece of the prominent Zayco family of Kabankalan City, including their pater familias, Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco.

CHR probes NBI agents’ mauling

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is now assisting in the investigation of the mauling of six NBI members in Pamplona town, Negros Oriental, last Feb. 4.

The NBI team, headed by Menci Mamaspas, was reportedly attempting to serve the search warrant on businessman Ha Hae Bong, a Korean, when allegedly mauled by members of the Pamplona police.

CHR head Romeo Baldevarona said his agency is now compiling the affidavits of those beaten up. These will be forwarded to the CHR regional office in Cebu that is probing the incident.

Negros Oriental belongs to Region 7 or Central Visayas.

Mamaspas claimed that he and his team members were mauled by Negros Oriental policemen and civilians.

Among those allegedly manhandled were NBI agent Ed Kawada, NBI consultants Bernie Belleza and Francisco Ramos, and Immigration agents Cyrus Alazan and Eric Piamco.

Ramos, who was seriously injured, was hospitalized in Bacolod City.

Last week, the Negros Oriental police filed charges against the members of the NBI team before the Negros Oriental prosecutor’s office.

The eyes of Negrenses are focused on the outcome of the investigation by the CHR, especially as one of those complainants, a certain Korean pastor, reportedly had a string of cases filed against him by several Bacolod minors for having allegedly taken advantaged of them.

The incident could blow up into a major explosion because of the background of some of the Koreans involved.

SC fines Negros Oriental municipal judge

The Supreme Court fined the judge of the municipal trial court of Sta. Catalina in Oriental Negros for gross ignorance of the law and procedure. The high court also sternly warned Judge Rogaciano Rivera of the Sta. Catalina MTC that a repetition of the offense would be dealt with more severely.

In its Jan. 23 decision, penned by Associate Justice Carpio Morales, the high tribunal’s en banc decision found Rivera to have been remiss in the performance of his duties when he allowed the cross examination of the parties in the preliminary investigation and also failed to resolve the criminal complaints within the period mandated by law.

It affirmed the recommendation of the Office of the Court Administrator, imposing a P21,000 fine on Rivera for allowing the cross examination of the parties, including a witness who was a minor, who was reportedly subjected to humiliation.

The case involved a complaint for rape and forcible abduction.

The high court observed that when a child testifies, the court may, on its own, order the exclusion from the courtroom of all persons who have no direct interest in the case and that "the court should consider the developmental level of the child."

It also added that the judge failed to observe the rule that cases of the type should be resolved within a 10-day period prescribed by the law.

It also stressed that "when the law is so elementary, not to know it or to act as if one does not know it constitutes gross ignorance of the law, the mainspring of injustice."

Negrense officials on the fertilizer scam

The Senate may not anymore invite Negros Occidental officials to testify on the controversial fertilizer fund scam.

This was learned after Negros Occidental Vice Gov. Isidro Zayco said he will ask for the allotment of fertilizers to his constituents which he had not received during the last elections.

Negros Occidental officials, starting from Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon, reportedly brushed aside offers of fertilizers from the agriculture department at the tailend of the elections campaign for the Presidency because they had shifted their support to opposition’s the presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr.

Others who reportedly refused the offer included not only Vice Gov. Zayco, but also Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson and former Rep. Alfredo Marañon.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella reportedly received the fertilizer allocation but he claimed to have them distributed to several farmers in the Bacolod City rural areas.

Puentevella also said he had not received any kickbacks and threatened to have the witness summoned by the House agriculture committee.

Well, that posits the possibility of some unnerving revelations later on what really happened to the fertilizer allocations. Most of these were reportedly liquid fertilizers that were overpriced.

Well, we can only say, Happy Valentine’s Day. Hope that the controversy may be solved soon with Rotarian Jojo Bolante finally surfacing after repeatedly failing to heed the Senate summons.