Erap visits Ecija

Deposed President Joseph Estrada made a three city tour of Nueva Ecija last November 28 -- his longest trip outside Metro Manila since being released.

Estrada's primarily wanted to visit his pet project, the Philippine Carabao Center,  promote his anti hunger advocacy program dubbed "Rebolusyon Kontra Gutom" and extend his gratitude to Novo Ecijanos who continued to support him in the six years that he was detained.

He flew in from Metro Manila at about 9:00 AM aboard a helicopter lent by his son-in-law Beaver Lopez, landed at the Constancio Padilla National High School in San Jose City where he was mobbed by schoolchildren, then joined a motorcade.  At the city gymnasium, he told some 300 supporters that he had no more plans to enter politics.

At the Philippine Carabao Center in the Science City of Muñoz, he urged greater public and private support for an expanded carabao program which could slash  by one half the country's yearly expenditures of $500 million in imported milk and dairy products.

"I am proud of having been involved in the establishment of the Philippine Carabao Center because it is one of the agencies of our government that is now serving our people honestly and faithfully," Estrada told the crowd that greeted him at the facility.

Among those who welcomed him were former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani and PCC Executive Director Libertado Cruz.

The former president acknowledged Shahahi for supporting his carabao program all the way, then and now.

He noted that fifteen years after the PCC was established, there are now 13 similar centers in the country as far north as Batac, Ilocos Norte and as far south as Kalawit, Zamboanga del Norte.

Estrada also praised the PCC executive director whom he said he did not hesitate to re-appoint after he won the presidency in 1988, for being a pioneer of the carabao development program.

He later toured the center's facilities including the state-of-the-art laboratories and milking center.

Estrada's motorcade also went around Cabanatuan City, the last leg in his itinerary. ###
 
 

Umali launches employment assistance program

Gov. Aurelio M. Umali has entered into partnership with local business and labor leaders, the academe and local chief executives for a massive program to help Novo Ecijanos find jobs here and abroad.

The program is called "Trabahong Umali" or "Trabahong Una and Mamamayan sa Abroad at Lokal na Industriya", designed to fast track the employment of skilled and semi-skilled workers in various local and foreign businesses and the academe.

Umali said he intends to promote the economic welfare of Novo Ecijanos by providing them with decent jobs and the best wages available in the local and foreign markets, and protect them against illegal recruiters.

The governor and his wife, 3rd District Rep. Czarina Umali, led the program launching at the provincial amphitheater in Palayan City, attended by SP Member Joseph Ortiz, Peñaranda Mayor Santiago Legaspi, Cabiao Mayor Abundia Garcia, Chamber of Commerce and Industry regional director Vicky Gaetos, Nueva Ecija Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Kenny Bansale, Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology president Hilario Ortiz, Cora Tan Mangondaza of Macor Travel and other representatives of the labor recruitment sector. ###
 
 

Yap leads observance of 'Rice Awareness Month'

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap led various activities in Nueva Ecija to mark the "Rice Awareness Month" declared by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Yap joined the harvesting of hybrid rice in the Science City of Muñoz, and attended the inauguration of post harvest facilities turned over to the Bagong Buhay Mabini Multipurpose Cooperative, a model hybrid rice cluster in Barangay Mabini, Santo Domingo.

He distributed certificates of acceptance for various post harvest facilities such as flatbed dryer, rice mill, moisture meter, rice thresher, manual harvester and platform balance to various irrigator associations in barangay Mabini, Maragol and Franza in the Science City of Muñoz; Tabacao in Talavera; and Santo Tomas in San Jose City.

He also inspected an irrigation facility of the National Irrigation Administration undergoing rehabilitation. ###
 
 

Quake shakes Luzon; intensity 2 in Ecija

A magnitude 4.2 earthquake shook Luzon at 12:26 PM last November 28.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the epicenter of the quake was 77 kilometers off Lingayen in the adjacent province of Pangasinan.

The quake was felt at Intensity 4 in La Union, 3 in Ilocos Norte and Manila and 2 in Quezon City and Nueva Ecija.

There were no reports of damage or casualty. ###
 
 

Farmers rush to save palay harvest from typhoon

Nueva Ecija farmers rushed to harvest their rice crops before heavy rains and strong winds brought by typhoon Mina affected the province.

About 70% of the rice crop in the province had been harvested and farmers were hurrying to bag the rice for storage in warehouses before the typhoon arrived.

The Nueva Ecija Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council held an emergency meeting last November 24 to plan disaster management operations.

Mina was one of three weather disturbances that simultaneously threatened the country. An earlier typhoon that passed through the Visayas and exited in Palawan was on its way to Vietnam when it interacted with Mina and recurved back to Palawan, while a low pressure area was spotted east of the the Visayas.

Mina made a landfall in Isabela and ravaged Cagayan Valley. Nueva Ecija was placed only under Typhoon Signal Number 1 but the province still experienced some gusts and several days of rains.

The other typhoon and the low pressure area eventually dissipated to the relief of Novo Ecijanos. ###
 
 

Sedfrey Ordoñez, 86

Former Justice Secretary and Ambassador  to the United Nations Sedfrey Ordoñez died last November 18 at the Makati Medical Center where he was confined for several weeks after suffering a stroke. He was 86.

He was one of only three Novo Ecijanos given Cabinet portfolios -- the others being the late Justice Secretary Juan R. Liwag and the late Health Secretary Paulino J. Garcia.

He represented the Second District of Nueva Ecija in the 1970 Constitutional Convention.

Under the Aquino administration, he was appointed solicitor general in 1986, then justice secretary from 1987 to 1989.

In 1987, he briefly served as head of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

He served as the Philippine ambassador to the United Nations from 1990 to 1992,  chair of the Commission on Human Rights from 1992 to 1995, and commissioner of the Construction Industry Administration in 1999.

Ordoñez was born on September 1, 1921.

He attended the colleges of  Liberal Arts and Law of the University of the Philippines from 1940 to 1941.  He finished his law degree in 1948 at the Manuel L. Quezon University and his master's in law from the Philippine Law School in 1954.  He also attended the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Business from 1973 to 1974.

He was a bilingual poet. Among his published works were "Wounded Pearls", a three act play set to music as opera and performed at the New York City Town Hall in April 1992; "Sikhay sa Kabila ng Paalam," a three act play set to music by Dr. Francisco Feliciano; "Arayat Cabiao", a book of poems and plays in English and Filipino; and "Life Cycle: 50 Years in Law and Letters" published in 1999.

His body was interred at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City last November 22. ###
 
 

2 boys among arrested NPA recruits

Eleven youths allegedly recruited by the New People's Army (NPA) were presented to media by Col. Melquiades Feliciano, commander of the Army's 71st Infantry  Battalion.

Among those presented were Junjun and Boyet, both 12 years old and Grade 4 pupils of a public school in Lupao.

Feliciano said the boys served as pasa-bilis for the rebels, warning them of the presence of government soldiers, running errands and collecting intelligence.

He said the youth recruits were being trained as future NPA fighters.

Junjun said he first served as pasa-bilis when he was about six years old and had already handled a caliber 45 pistol but was unable to fire it.

"Pangarap ko pong making kumander ng NPA," he said, and only his friend Boyet knew about it since only the two of them shared information about their activities with the rebels.

Among the other rebel recruits arrested was a female minor engaged in community organizing and recruitment.

The two boys have been turned over to the local social welfare office. ###
 
 

Former Lupao rebels turn into entrepreneurs

Former active communist guerillas and plain sympathizers in Lupao have returned to the mainstream and have been provided the opportunity to improve their lives as entrepreneurs.

Members of the Barangay Defense System Multipurpose Cooperative in the former rebel infested barangay of Parista impressed officials from the Department of Trade and Industry, Nueva Ecija Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Council (SMED) after recording a substantial growth in their mushroom production business started eight months ago.

Vicky Gaetos, president of of the Nueva  Ecija SMED Council, said that what was admirable was how the former rebels managed the initial P50,000 investment that they received.

She said that from only 2,000 mushroom fruiting bags in February, the cooperative consisting of 38 families now grows more than 4,000 fruiting bags, aside from having put up facilities like huts and a laboratory and having P40,000 in the bank.

She said that each member earns a daily income enough to support two or three children, aside from periodic dividends from the cooperative.

On the part of the military,  Brig. Gen. Manuel Mariano, assistant commanding general of the Army's 7th Infantry Division, acknowledged the need of the residents for means of livelihood for the fight against insurgency to succeed.

He said peace can be attainable through community development. ###
 
 

NEUST student returns wallet with P20k

A 15 year old student of the Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology was commended for returning a wallet containing P20,000 to its owner.

Vincent Yang of Mabini Extension, Cabanatuan City was visiting his sick mother at Good Samaritan Hospital last November 24 when he found the wallet in the hospital lobby.

The teener lost  no time in tracing the owner who turned out to be Juan  Fernandez, a top official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Pampanga.

Fernandez thanked Yang profusely and praised him for his honesty.

The wallet contained P19,000 and $100 in cash, credit cards and other important papers. ###
 
 

Tales of two freak babies
Baby with 'two heads' in Carranglan...

A 15 year old mother in Carranglan was shocked to discover that she had given birth  to a baby girl with two heads.

Mayor Luvimindo Otic immediately sent the baby of Annabelle Soriano Domingo of  Barangay  G.S. Rosario to a hospital in Cabanatuan City for examination.

It was about 1:00 AM when Domingo gave birth before the arrival of her midwife, Amelia Mariano. The latter got scared when she saw what seemed like a second head attached to the right cheek of the infant.

The father, Richard Domingo, 22, attributed the unusual phenomenon to two things that his wife loved to eat during her pregnancy -- pomelos and frogs.

Dr. Alfin Marigmen, chief of the Carrangalan Community Hospital, said the soft mass attached to the baby's cheek should be examined by an expert pediatrician.

He denied that the mass was a second head as it had no skull.

He said it was a tumor with pedicle attached to the right temporal area, a congenital problem that could have been caused by an attempt to abort the baby when it was still a fetus. ###
 
 

... and baby born with a complete set of teeth (!) in Cabanatuan

A baby who had a complete set of teeth was born at the Eduardo L. Joson Memorial Hospital in Daang Sarile, Cabanatuan City last November 17.

The baby boy delivered by Emily Rafael of San Antonio town -- her seventh child -- weighed 2.9 kilograms.

Dr. Gerald Tambalo, the assisting physician, was surprised to see that the baby already had a complete set of teeth. ###
 
 

2 arrested for illegal logging

Two men have been charged with violation of forestry laws after being caught by a mobile patrol cutting down trees without any permit last November 24 in Sitio Saranay, Barangay Santo Niño 3rd, San Jose City.

A report by Supt. Sidney Villaflor identified the suspects as Alexander de Guzman  Gonzaga, 18 of Barangay Parista, Lupao and Casimiro Manuel Bulaclac, 43, of Barangay Concepcion, General Tinio.

Confiscated from them were eight pieces of lumber. ###
 
 

Teener pimped by uncle

A 16 year old woman charged her uncle -- her mother's brother -- for allegedly selling her for sex for P1,500.

The teenager, from Barangay Poblacion West, Rizal, filed a complaint against her uncle, Oscar Dupale Yanes, 42, his live in partner, Sherilyn Mateo Pasugnod; and a barangay mate, Arlan Sta. Ines, a government employee.

She said that at about 11:00 PM, she was fetched by her uncle, accompanied by his live in partner and Sta. Ines.

She was allegedly taken to the Villaramos Hotel in  Barangay Abar 1st where she  was forced to have sex with Sta. Ines. ###
 
 

Man found dead with 10 gunshot wounds

The body of an unidentified man with ten gunshot wounds was found in a waiting shed in Barangay Tabuating, San Leonardo last November 17.

Sr. Insp. Joselito Villarosa said that the body was discovered at about 9:20 PM by Ponciano Mateo Muro, a barangay tanod.

PO3 Fidel Eugenio said that no identification papers were found in the victim who was between 30 and 35 years old and with a height of about 5'3".

Investigators recovered ten M-16 Armalite shells from the scene. ###
 
 

Motorcycle accident kills San Isidro couple

A couple died after the motorcycle they were riding was hit by a six wheeler truck in Barangay Alua, San Isidro last November 24.

Sr. Insp. Roger Sebastian identified the victims as Florencio dela Cruz, 60, and his wife Melinda, 50, of Barangay Poblacion, San Isidro.

It was learned that the two were on their way home at about 7:00 PM when their motorcycle was hit by the fender of the truck driven by Juanito Himpson Boloran of Barangay Sinipit, Cabiao.

Florencio died on the spot while his wife was declared dead on arrival at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Gapan City.

A case of reckless imprudence resulting to double homicide was filed against Boloran. ###
 
 

Hospital guard shot dead

A security guard on night duty at the Dr. Paulino J. Memorial Research and Medical Center in Cabanatuan City was shot dead by an unidentified assailant last November 25.

The victim, Joel Gonzales Cando, 30, of Barangay Samon, Cabanatuan City was hit by a bullet in the nape that exited through his chin.

Investigation showed that at about 10:20 PM, Cando was talking with two fellow guards from JF Allied Services, Rommel Bien and Jaime Diaz, when two suspects on board a motorcycle approached and fired at the victim.

The two other guards fired back at the suspects who sped away. ###