San Carlos City declares CPP-NPA ‘unwelcome’
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terroristorganization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom,Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (With a report from PNA/PN) Mayor Renato Gustilo and Vice MayorChristopher Carmona led the ceremonial signing of the mounted copy of theresolution on Monday stating such declaration, which was unanimously adopted bythe City Council on Sept. 12. Copies of the resolution have beenfurnished to the city mayor, city legal officer, city director of theDepartment of the Interior and Local Government, officials of the city’s 18barangays, and the 79IB troops for information. Lieutenant Colonel Emelito ThaddeusLogan, 79IB commander, also signed the resolution. It added that the Philippine Army’s 79thInfantry Battalion (79IB) endorsed to and coordinated with the City Council thepassage of the resolution to declare members of the CPP-NPA persona non gratain the northern Negros city. Last May 30, the City Council of SanCarlos initially passed Resolution No. 19-139, denouncing the atrocities ofcommunist terrorist groups in the different areas of the country, and notallowing their presence in their city. “San Carlos City, Negros Occidentaladheres to the principle of peace and order as an indispensable element to thedevelopment and progress of the city and thus, condemns any illegal andunlawful activities of the CPP-NPA as it threatens the economic, social andpolitical stability of the city and its people,” the resolution further stated.
During the signing ceremony held afterthe flag-raising rites at the City Hall grounds, the city officials were joinedby department heads, barangay officials, police, jail and military officials. BACOLOD City – The city of San Carlos in Negros Occidental has formallydeclared the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) aspersona non grata. The City Council then stated that theywant to maintain the situation in their city where there are no reports of suchacts of the communist-terrorist group. San Carlos City is the hometown of Gov.Eugenio Jose Lacson, who also served as its mayor before he was electedprovincial government official. Resolution No. 19-252 said that “TheSangguniang Panlungsod as the legislative department of the local governmenthereby signifies its sentiment not to welcome nor accept any advocacies of theCPP-NPA, the members of the latter being an enemy of the state.”
ILOILO City – A businessman was shot todeath in Barangay Lico-an, Barotac Nuevo, Iloilo. According to police investigators,Hechanova was collecting debts at a store when Bragancia peppered him withbullets around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Police believed that personal grudgecould be the motive in the killing. Recovered from the crime scene were sixempty shells of a .45-caliber pistol.Officers of the Barotac Nuevo police stationconducted a manhunt operation against Bragancia, who fled after the incident./PN The suspect was identified as 53-year-oldErnie Bragancia, also a resident of the village. The 60-year-old resident Efren Hechanovadied of gunshot wounds on the head, a police report showed. 
Memorandum Order No. 32 enforced a “defacto martial rule” and has “exceeded previous regimes in terms of human rightsviolations,” said Forro. Activists in Iloilo City protest what they describe as “de facto martial rule” in Negros Island, Samar and the Bicol Region due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s Memorandum Order No. 32 that bolsters the deployment of government troops in the three areas wrecked by violence. IAN PAUL CORDERO/PN Bayan Panay demanded the scrapping ofthe memo “together with other policies that continue to criminalize dissentslike Executive Order 70 which targets democratic organizations throughprofiling, denial of government service, harassment, and intimidations.” Memorandum Order No. 32 was issued inNovember last year. “These acts are within the metes andbounds of our democratic rights enshrined in the Constitution and fall far frombeing considered as criminal acts,” stressed Forro./PN According to Elmer Forro, secretarygeneral of Bayan Panay, the memo resulted to bloody operations of governmenttroops primarily targeting activists for a year now. The recent Oct. 31 mass arrests ofactivists in Bacolod City and Negros Occ. was a result of Memorandum Order No.32, he added.
ILOILO City – Cause-oriented groupBagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan Panay) staged a picket in front of CampDelgado, headquarters of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), to protestMemorandum Order No. 32 from President Rodrigo Duterte ordering the deploymentof more troops to Negros Island, Samar and the Bicol Region. “Search warrants were irregularlyissued and resulted in hundreds of arrests and killings, particularly inNegros,” said Forro during the Nov. 22 picket. Executive Order 70 issued by thePresident in December 2018 institutionalized the “whole-of-nation approach” incombatting insurgency. Its rationale is: Neither the Armed Forces nor any lawenforcement squad alone can conquer insurgence. All agencies aboard should doits share in ending communist insurgency across the country. The support of allstakeholders must be enlisted. According to Forro, however,anti-people policies such as rice liberalization, oil deregulation, jeepneyphaseout, labor contractualization, privatization of basic social services andutilities, and low wages, among others, are what is pushing the people todissent. Citing data from human rights allianceKarapatan, Forro said political prisoners in Negros reached 91 whileextrajudicial killings of farmers and human rights lawyers climbed to 89.
“He has a history of travel fromJanuary 25 to 29, 2020 in Hongkong and Macau,” it added. The statement also added that the malevictim showed symptoms of coughing and immediately sought medical consultationupon his arrival in Capiz. The Provincial Health Office (PHO) herehas issued an official statement on Sunday after the province recorded itsfirst Person Under Investigation (PUI) of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus AcuteRespiratory (2019-nCoV ARD) Disease on Feb.1. “The PUI is a fifty-one-year maleresident of one of the municipalities of the Province of Capiz,”thestatement says. The health authorities of the provincerecommended that all individuals with a travel history from countries withconfirmed nCoV ARD cases should coordinate with their respective Local HealthBoards and must undergo a 14-day home quarantine upon arrival in the country./PN “Capizeños are advised to remaincalm, but be vigilant against the threats nCOV ARD,” the statement said. PHOTO COURTESY OF ABS-CBN NEWS “Currently, he is under quarantine inone of the hospitals in the City of Roxas and is in good condition,” thestatement further stated. According to the IPH, necessary specimen(Nasopharyngeal and Oropharyngeal) were successfully collected and were sentimmediately for laboratory confirmation to the Research Institute for TropicalMedicine (RITM) in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.
BACOLOD City – The local government unit herewill regulate the use of provincial car passes (PCP) in and out of the citystarting April 22. Leonardia’s directive also exempts governmentemployees, medical/health or hospital workers, other frontliners, and employeesof essential businesses residing outside of Bacolod City who need to report forwork in the City, as well as workers who live in the city here and whohave to work out-of-town. The odd-even scheme requires that cars withplates ending in odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7, or 9) shall be permitted entry/exiton Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. only,while cars with plates ending in even numbers (0, 2, 4, 6, or 8) shall bepermitted on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays on the same aforesaid time.No PCPs shall be honored on Sundays, except for granting courtesy of unhamperedpassage to elected/appointive government officials of Negros Occidental and itscomponent local government units. Mayor Evelio Leonardia issued over the weekendExecutive Order (EO) No. 31 enforcing an odd-even coding scheme to bearers ofPCP to control the number of vehicles entering and exiting the city. “Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and I personally discussed and agreed on the essenceand features of this EO. I see this as a show of unity and respect thatwill be mutually beneficial for us,” Leonardia said.
Special exemption was also granted toresidents outside of the capital city who would need to purchase medicines, orto go for medical check-up, laboratory procedures and dialysis treatments./PN Other exemptions also cover the movement ofessential cargoes needed by the city and by those who live outside of Bacolod,which cargoes are free to come and go through check-up points seven days aweek. 
MANILA – The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has once again extended the deadline for the distribution of cash aid under the national government’s Social Amelioration Program.DILG secretary Eduardo Año said the nationwide distribution was extended anew due to challenges in areas with a large number of population, including the National Capital Region, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, and Cebu and Davao City.“We have received reports from our field offices na kahit na 24/7 ang pamimigay ng ayuda ay mahihirapan talagang ma-meet ng LGUs ang May 7 deadline lalo na ‘yung mga nasa Metro Manila,” he said in an interview with DZBB.Año added that 985 out of 1,634 local government units (LGUs) have already completed the cash aid distribution as of Wednesday evening. Those LGUs who would still fail to meet the Sunday deadline will receive show cause orders from the agency.“This is the last extension that we will grant to the LGUs. Our people cannot wait any longer,” he said.The DILG official added that once the Department of Social Welfare and Development accepts the liquidation of the LGUs on the first tranche, the second tranche will immediately be handed to the local officials.Año has also he ordered the Philippine National Police (PNP) to exempt those individuals distributing and getting the cash aid from the curfew being implemented as part of the enhanced community quarantine.Around 18 million low-income families were targeted to receive monthly cash subsidies ranging from P5,000 to P8,000 for two months as mandated by the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act (Republic Act 11469)./PN
The 39-year-old Jimboy Malan was caught on the strength of an arrest warrant at his residence in Barangay Banago on May 29, a police report showed.Police officers served the warrant in relation to illegal drug charges Malan faces. The suspect was detained in the custodial facility of the police station. The court recommended no bail bond for his temporary liberty./PN
BACOLOD City – He was listed as the No. 7 most wanted person in Police Station 3 in this city.
(Left to right): John Thornton, Business Person of the Year; Robert Meyer, Educator of the Year; Norman Knudson, Citizen of the Year; Robert McCreary, Citizen of the Year.The Ripley County Chamber of Commerce honored residents for their upstanding service at their annual awards dinner Thursday night.The event drew local organizations, an entertainer and a state representative to South Ripley Elementary School.The 2013 award recipients were as follows:2013 Educator of the Year: Robert Meyer.2013 Business Person of the Year: John Thornton2013 Citizens of the Year: Robert McCreary & Norman KnudsonCitizen of the Year recipients were recognized for their volunteerism and contributions to the repair efforts after the Holton Tornado in March 2012.“I’m up here being recognized with Norman, but really it is recognizing the hard work of so many other people,” said Robert McCreary, who is also the Holton Christian Church minister. “It is great to see our community come together and seeing people now back in their homes.”District 67 State Representative Randy Frye (R-Greensburg) was in attendance and applauded the work of the volunteers, emergency personnel and community involvement following the devastating Holton tornado.“The efforts that they put forth and the massive amount of time and money that was donated, and labor that was donated, was just unbelievable,” exclaimed Frye.Comedian Dave Dugan of Carmel, Indiana, provided the entertainment for the evening. His blend of customized humor drew laughs from the crowd and involved audience members. Dugan has gained national exposure by appearing on the BOB and Tom Show, HBO and Comedy Central.
I am sure you have seen long basketball games either in person or on TV this year. All of us who complained of rough play in basketball are now enduring these long games. Just like all rule changes, this one will take adjustment time for the players and officials. As I understand it, you may put your hand on a player to find out where he is, but then you must remove the hand because the second time you do it or if you continue to hold on you are “hand checking”–and that is now a foul. In the past, the referees would not call fouls in this situation unless the defensive player was totally impeding the movement of the player with the ball. To the bigger, stronger players this meant “if I don’t knock him down, I probably won’t be called for a foul.” Players, naturally, will take longer to adjust than the officials, and that is why the games now are lasting so long. Hopefully by Christmas, everyone will have adjusted and–just like all rules–the game will go on and the time taken to play will get back to normal. What this has already done is forced players to actually play defense instead of grabbing and shoving. That was the intent of the rule all along.
Update (1-28 @ 9:44 a.m.)Batesville Firefighters extinguished a semi fire that occurred at the eastbound Batesville Rest Area on I-74 Tuesday morning.The fire department responded after receiving a 911 call from the truck driver, 48-year-old Terry Hightower, of Lexington, KY.Hightower phoned emergency personnel after he parked his 2009 Freightliner semi at the rest area around 6:40 a.m.According to Indiana State Police Sgt. Noel Houze, “[Hightower] heard a couple of popping noises and thought something had struck the windshield.”“Upon further investigation he discovered a fire that appeared to start at one of the tractor tandems possibly from a hot brake,” Sgt. Houze added.No injuries resulted from the incident and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.Houze also noted that there is a solid sheet of ice on the entrance ramp to the rest area and the Indiana Department of Transportation has been called to treat the area.Original Post (1/28 @ 8:17 a.m.)Emergency personnel are on the scene of a semi truck fire on I-74 Tuesday morning, police confirm.According to reports, the blaze is in the westbound lane near the Batesville Rest Area, around mile marker 151.A Batesville Police spokesman indicated that it may be an isolated incident, involving just the semi.WRBI will release more information when available.