MISS YOUNG INTERNATIONAL 2008 - Gov. Aurelio Umali (center) posed with the candidates during the swimsuit competition at Sierra Madre Suites swimming pool in Palayan City

Neri Naig saves beauties in distress

Neri Naig of ABS-CBN Star Circle came to the aid of the downhearted contestants of the Miss Young International 2008 which turned out to be a scam. The NBI arrested event organizer Mark Ancheta, president and CEO of MYA Elite Philippines, for ripping off 21 young ladies from different countries.

“They said it was their first decent meal since arriving in the Philippines. Some of them were crying,” says Neri about meeting the contestants, whose ages ranged from 18 to 24. “I really felt for them. Footing the girls’ meals was so small a price to arrest a damaged reputation.”

Neri was part of the Top 5 of the first batch of Star Circle which included Hero Angeles, Roxanne Guinoo and Sandara Park. E should not allow shady characters like these to drag down the reputation of our country,” says Neri who along with friend Avianne Torres were introduced by an acquaintance to the contestants during a dinner on Dec. 8, the pageant’s supposed coronation night.
The pageant had all the traits of a scam. No officials from the organizers welcomed contestants at the airport.
They were billeted in a rundown hotel they described as horrendous food was limited to combo meals. There was also no official vehicle assigned to shuttle the ladies back and forth to “functions.” The ladies even paid for their fares. Worse, they were brought to pub to meet “VIPs” only to pose as guest relation officers.

Neri vows to help the ladies up until all of them have left the country.

Gunmen strafe barangay leaders in Ecija; 3 dead

Five heavily-armed men mowed down a group of barangay officials killing three, including the president of the Association of Barangay Chairmen (ABC) of this town, and injuring three others early Monday afternoon in Barangay San Francisco, here

Police have not established the motive in the killing as Senior Inspector Felix Castro Jr., police chief, identified the fatalities as Guillermo Bernardo, 48, married former barangay chairman; and Evangeline de Guzman, 51, all of Barangay San Francisco, here.

Bernardo was a known ally of former vice governor Mariano Crisasnto Joson, Mayor Marvin Pariñas and former three-term mayor Jimmy Domingo in the Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecija (Balane) party.

Santos and de Guzman were killed on the spot while Bernardo died in a nearby hospital.

Police said five men pulled off the attack at around 1:30 p.m. Monday along the Talavera-Sto Domingo provincial road here.

ABC president Guiller sustained 11 gunshot wounds all over his body. Santos and De Guzman also succumbed to several gunshot wounds in the head and body.

Injured and taken to hospital were: Celso B. Aquino, 42, married, barangay treasurer; Louie Flores, 20, single, and Adrian Reña, 17, all San Francisco village residents. They were serving as laborers at the church construction when hit by stray bullets.

PO3 Dennis Penson, case investigator, said the attack happened while Bernardo, Santos and De Guzman were inspecting construction work in a barangay chapel donated by the Santoses.

Mayor Librador Santos has couraged farmers in this town “to go hybrid.”

This came after he was impressed by the benefits that the farmers get from planting the high-yielding rice seeds variety.

In a brief talk before members of the Pinagkaisa N.E. Primary Multi-Purpose Cooperative (PNEPMPC) during a recent meeting sponsored by SL Agritech Corp., Mayor Santos said he was happy to learn that farmers in his town have substantially increased their production and income through the planting of the hybrid rice variety.

“Talaga naman, ngayon ko lang nalaman na malaki na pala ang inyong mga kinikita sa pagtatanim ng hybrid rice. Dahil dito, natutuwa ako at ‘yan naman ang gusto ko, umunlad lahat ang inyong pamumuhay,” he said, adding “I will now look for a farm where I will also plant hybrid rice.”

Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali is another official who has endorsed the planting of hybrid rice which “will move our province further towards economic prosperity.”

“Magkaisa nating i-angat ang antas ng agrikutura sa ating lalawigan sa pagtatanim ng mataas na uri ng palay kagaya ng kasalukuyang ninyong tinatanim,” he told farmer-members of the Nagkakaisang Magsasaka Multi-Purpose Cooperative (NMMPC) in Barangay Tabacao, Talavera, Nueva Ecija during the last harvest festival sponsored by SL Agritech.

Ricardo Buenaventura, cooperative president, said the average harvest in their 1,000-hectare rice farm was 180 cavans per hectare.

“Ang iba naming kasama ay umani ng 225 cavans kada ektarya. Ito ay kumpara sa dati naming inaaning inbred rice variety na imaabot lamang lagi sa 70-80 cabanes kada ektarya,” he said.

NBI, cops doubt missing Ecija coed was kidnapped

The National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police are both at a loss on the case of a teenaged college student who went missing a month ago after being taken by her alleged abductors, saying the girl may not have been kidnapped.

Pedro Roque Jr., NBI-Cabanatuan chief, said that Rosemarie Ducut may not have been abducted but could have eloped, matching an earlier finding of the Central Luzon police. “There is no evidence that would show she (Rosemarie) was kidnapped,” Roque said.

Police investigators also maintained that they remain unconvinced that Ducut was abducted as she had claimed in a series of text messages. They said they found it odd that Ducut was able to text her mother “with considerable ease” while her supposed abductors were killing her other companions.

Senior Superintendent Jojo Gumban, regional investigator of the PNP based in Camp Olivas Pampanga, said that while they are conducting further investigation, they could not believed that Ducut was abducted, as she had alleged in text messages she had sent to her mother Milagros.

Ducut, an education student of the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology, disappeared on Nov. 4, allegedly after unidentified suspects whisked her to a waiting van in Talavera, Nueva Ecija. she was reportedly on her way to attend practice teaching in Guimba town when the passenger jeep she was riding on developed engine trouble in Talavera, forcing her and her other companions to alight for another ride when dragged to the van.

Chief Superintendent Leon Dela Cruz, PNP regional director for Central Luzon, earlier expressed doubts Ducut had been abducted. He said they received information she had eloped after flunking her studies.

The day she disappeared, she texted her mother and narrated in a series of text messages, how she, along with some companions, were whisked to a van in Talavera by the suspects, led by a Chinese-looking man wearing a nurse suit.

She said the van had several cadavers with no internal organs. While inside, she claimed the Chinese grabbed her bag containing her cellphone and money intended for payment of her tuition fees. She said her captors failed to notice another cellphone hanging around her neck.

She recalled that she was forced to inhale something, causing her to lose conciousness and when she regained her senses, she found herself in a tall building in a still unknown place.

In one of her text messages, Ducut said the bodies of her companions were being dumped into a river after a nurse took their innards, “Baka ako na ang susunod (I might be next),” she texted.

Senior Supt. Arrazad Subong, regional intelligence officer, said a verification made by the Smart Network Office in this city showed that when Ducut was sending text messages, she was located somewhere in southern Manila.

Subong said that an investigation made by the Talugtog police station showed no sufficient evidence that Ducut had all the chances to use her cellular phone while under detention, even including periods and commas in her text. “This is not the kind of text messages you expect from someone who had been abducted,” he said.

Hog ebola found in four RP farms

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Health (DoH) announced yesterday the detection of the Ebola Reston strain virus in pigs in two commercial farms and two backyard farms in Bulacan, Pangasinan, and Nueva Ecija.

In a late night press conference yesterday, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and Health Secretary Francisco Duque, however, assured the public that the detection of the Ebola Reston strain virus is not a human health problem, but a animal health issue.

The DA and its agencies, led by the Bureau of Animal Industries, accidentally discovered the virus while investigating the previous outbreak of the Porcine Reproductive Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), which affected the local hog industry last year.

The test was conducted in May, June and September this year.

Upon detection of the Ebola Reston strain virus, the infected pigs were killed, officials said.

Infected hogs displayed flu-like symptoms.

The DA has put under quarantine four farms where the virus was detected.

Duque gave assurances that the virus is of “low pathogenecity” and is different from the feared African Ebola hemorrhagic virus.

Yap said all of the human pig handlers and even the operators in abattoirs in the affected areas were tested and posted negative for any infection from the Ebola Reston strain virus.

However, taking a precautionary and proactive stance, the DA and the DoH have informed the World Health Organization and the Organization Internationale de Epizooties of the detection of the Ebola Reston strain virus in the local hog population.

Yap also ordered a stop to all pork exports until it has completely eradicated the virus from the local hog population.

Experts from the WHO, led by Dr. Soe Nyunt who attended the press conference, assured the public that there is so far no data or evidence that the Ebola Reston strain virus detected in the four farms can infect humans.

Duque advised the public that while local pork is safe to eat, the public should ensure that the pork they buy is properly handled and thoroughly cooked.

Pork, he said should be boiled with a core temperature of 70 degrees centigrade and that all the justices run clear and are not bloody.

December 11, 2008
The Philippine STAR
Marianne Go with Sheila Crisostomo

Ecija town bans conversion of lands into cemeteries

The Sangguniang Bayan of Talavera has banned the rampant illegal conversion of public and private lands into cemeteries and memorial parks. Ordinance No.22-08 which prohibits the land conversion was signed by Mayor L. Santos.

SB chairman Vice Mayor Francis Vincent V. de Leon said violators face penalties ranging from six months to one year imprisonment and a fine of P5,000.

The move was made amid mounting complaints reaching the SB that agricultural and private lots converted into cemeteries and memorial parks have sprouted like mushrooms near the local government-owned cemetery here.

Local residents complained that these lots have allegedly been illegally converted or utilized as such without securing any conversion order from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the HLURB or having these lots re-classified for the purpose.

The ordinance was unanimously approved by the SB on motions of councilors Anselmo B. Rodiel III and Andrei C. Bigcas.
December 2, 2008
PEOPLE’S JOURNAL
Steve A. Gosuico

DOJ junks murder raps vs Ecija mayor

The Department of Justice has dismissed a murder complaint against a Nueva Ecija town mayor charged for allegedly masterminding the gunslaying of a municipal employee six months ago.

In a seven-page resolution, the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office dismissed for insufficiency of evidence the information for murder against Mayor Amado Corpuz Jr. of Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija.

The resolution, penned by Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Edison Rafanan and approved by OIC-Provincial Prosecutor Floro Florendo found no prima facie evidence to indict Corpuz in connection with the June 4, 2008 murder of Angelito Espinosa.

The information for murder was filed by Espinosa’s widow, Priscila, whose witness Alexander Lozano executed a supplemental affidavit stating that he heard Corpuz telling his bodyguard Carlito Samonte to kill Espinosa and handling him the murder weapon, a stainless gun.

A separate case for murder is pending before the Regional Trial Court Branch 33 in Guimba town against Samonte.

DOJ records showed that prior to the killing, Espinosa and Samonte figured in a heated altercation at the municipal compound after the latter confronted the victim for staring at him. The victim was about to draw his gun but Samonte beat him to the draw and shot him dead.

Lozano, who said he did not mention Corpuz in his first affidavit for fear of his life, claimed that the mayor shouted “(expletive)Lito iyan, sige birahin mo (Tahat f___ Lito, go ahead shoot him).”

Corpus in his counter-affidavit denied any participation in the killing of Espinosa. He said that the incident which led to Espinosa’s killing was a matter between the victim and Samonte. He claimed Lozano’s allegations were biased and an afterthought full of improbabilities and that he did not witness the actual shooting incident.

He added that Lozano’s allusion to the victim as the person referred to as Lito is entirely an opinion because there are several persons bearing the same nickname.

Espinosa’s widow in her complaint disputed Corpuz’s claims he had no quarrel with the victim. She said her husband was behind the filling of several cases against Corpuz, which, she said, are enough grounds to give the mayor motive to order the killing.

The PNP Regional Crime Laboratory reported that the two guns recovered at the murder scene were black pistols and there was no stainless gun as claimed by Lozano.

In its ruling, the DOJ noted Lozano’s failure to tell Espinosa that Samonte would kill him. It said that if only Lozano did so, the victim would not have gone to the place where Corpuz and Samonte were, which it said, would be “ludicrous and suicidal.”

December 2, 2008
The Philippine STAR
Manny Galvez