Pacquiao takes Bacolod by storm

As I reported last Tuesday, Manny Pacquiao stormed into Bacolod and received one of the biggest welcomes ever accorded a national figure. Even the champion boxer admitted that he had never been met by such a big, enthusiastic crowd.

Pacquiao was accompanied from Manila by Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia. The city executive attended last Monday’s State of the Nation Address of President Arroyo. But he flew back the next day with Pacquiao in tow.

Thousands of Bacolod folk lined the streets to cheer their boxing hero. Pacquiao is an adopted son of Bacolod, but they welcomed him like he was a native.

Traffic in the downtown area was snarled for almost two hours. Later, Mayor Leonardia presented Pacquiao with the Dunganon ng Bacolod Award. This is usually given to Bacolodnons who had contributed to Bacolod’s development and fame.

Even Oscar "Dodong" Bacon, a sportsman, said the phenomenal crowd was something he had never seen in his 50 years in Bacolod.

Masskara dancers and nine drum and bugle corps greeted Pacquiao at the Bacolod Airport. Classes in public schools were suspended at 1 p.m. Tuesday to allow the students to participate in welcoming Pacquiao.

Pacquiao’s marketing clout was evident in the number of sponsoring vehicles that escorted him around Bacolod.

These included San Miguel Corp., McDonald’s, Magnolia, Unilab, Datu Puti and Circulan, which joined the parade.

There was a major bonus for Leonardia. So with President Arroyo. This was when Pacquiao endorsed the re-election of Mayor Leonardia and defended the President’s State of the Nation Address.

So much for the hoopla.

Police continue monitor of Cuadra gang

Definitely, it was a major accomplishment by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency the conviction of Jose Jim Banay Cuadra, alias Boy, who was sentenced to life imprisonment last Tuesday by Aklan Regional Trial Court Judge Niovady Marin.

Cuadra was ordered remanded immediately to the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa.

But that did not mean that the police would relax in monitoring the activities of the Cuadra gang, according to regional PNP director Doroteo Reyes II.

Reyes said some members of the group are still involved in the illegal drug trade in some parts of Western Visayas. He even mentioned that the group is operating in Negros Occidental, Bacolod City, Kalibo, Aklan, and Boracay.

Reyes said the regional PNP is coordinating with the PDEA to curb the activities of the Cuadra group and to arrest those who are still plying their illegal trade.

Judge Marin also ordered Cuadra to pay a P500,000 fine in a jam-packed courtroom where newsmen mingled with Cuadra’s family members and relatives.

The drug lord, previously considered as impregnable, was immediately whisked off to the Caticlan Airport to be detained at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa.

Surprisingly, it was only the seizure of 11.33 grams of shabu that did Cuadra in when he was arrested at the Caticlan Airport on April 22, 2003.

Cuadra contended that he was just framed up. But the judge pointed out that "it is incredible and impossible that the aviation security officers who just came to know the accused a few minutes before his arrest could readily resort to such as a scheme."

For years, only minor members of the Cuadra gang had been arrested by the police until that chance arrest in Caticlan by the Aviation Security Group and the PDEA.

The talk in Negros Occidental was that Cuadra might beat the odds against him. This time, however, he lost. But his case is definitely going to the higher court.

But until that time, his cohorts, if they are still around, will have second thoughts about continuing their nefarious activities.

Vigilantes behind Dumaguete killings

It is little known but there has been a recent rash of killings in Dumaguete City which has been attributed to the so-called vigilantes.

The latest victim was drug suspect Charles Florida, 56, of Ozamiz City. A resident of Dumaguete City, Florida was gunned down in broad daylight in Banilad last Sunday.

He was killed in front of the RM auto repair shop where his motorcycle was being repaired.

Investigators are still clueless on the motive behind the killing or the ones responsible for it.

Suspicions point to the possibility that vigilantes were involved.

Dumaguete City Mayor Agustin Perdices directed the police to submit to him an update of the series of fatal shootings in the city.

These included not only the Florida killing, but also those of Eric Marino, Eslaw Ramirez, Edwin Malot, Junil Cimara, and Leonil Morales, according to Dumaguete PNP police chief Deonardo Carlos.

Both Negros Oriental Gov. George Arnaiz and Mayor Perdices objected to vigilantism, pointing out that even if well-intentioned, the killing¹s of drug personalities must be justified by the rules of engagement.

Often the killers were gunmen on motorcycles. In three separate incidents recently, motorcycle-riding gunmen killed four people in different parts of the city.

Carlos said even if the empty shells recovered at the scenes of the three crimes were 9-mm, this does not mean that the killers were the same persons.

Carlos aired suspicions that criminal elements might have resorted to the killings to distract the attention of the police from the ongoing crackdown on snatchers and holduppers.

But what is alarming is that only in a span of one month, so many people have been slain by the so-called vigilantes.

Thus, for the moment, speculations in Dumaguete City centered on a gang of vigilantes.

Another alarming thing was that a second-year management student of the Silliman University committed suicide at the powerhouse building last Sunday.

Roxanne Amada, 18, hanged herself with a skipping rope inside the powerhouse that was being maintained by her father.

She had sent a text message to a cousin, Michelle Enriquez, saying that she intended to hang herself.

It was Roxanne’s mother who discovered her body with a nylon rope tied around her neck.

Roxanne was the second student of the SU who had committed suicide. Last May 10, an 11-year-old Bacoleño hanged himself using a curtain at the new men’s dorm at the SU campus.

Police said he had sent a text message apologizing to his parents and bidding a schoolmate, believed to be his girlfriend, goodbye.

These are incidents that bear watching.