Local News

COTABATO CITY -- As the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced
the restoration and energization of Agust 2 hydropower plant to Baloi 138KV
line, it also reported that another transmission tower in Lanao del Sur was
bombed and toppled Tuesday night.

Cynthia
Perez-Alabanza, NGCP spokesperson and head
of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, said Tower 25 in the village of
Linamon in Ramain town was bombed at past 11 p.m. Tuesday and cut off
electricity in large part of Mindanao.

SULTAN
KUDARAT, Maguindanao – Unidentified gunmen bombed another school in
Maguindanao Wednesday night, the eight school to be used as polling precincts
on Monday subjected to grenade attacks since last week, police said.

The bombing
has sent fears among teachers who will be serving as Board of Election Inspectors
(BEIS) for the national and local elections.

KORONADAL CITY - A police official and a lady radiology technicianwere killed in yet another highway mishap along the national highway in South Cotabato before dawnMonday, police said.Police Inspector Rommel Hitalia, deputy police chief of Tantangan, South Cotabato, identified the victims as Inspector Donald Mangune, 29 of Cubao, Quezon City and assigned at the Sultan Kudarat Public Safety Battalion (SKPPSB), and a woman named Haivah Musali of Datu Paglas, Maguindanao.Both died on the spot.

KORONADAL CITY - A pastor and a woman were killed in a an early afternoon highway accident along Barangay Carpenter Hills, this city Saturday, DXOM-AM Radyo Bida reported.Pastor Welbert Plicer, 45 and Angelyn M. Eding, 25, both of Barangay Tubiala, Surallah, South Cotabato, both riding on a motorcycle, were killed on the spot after the 2 p.m.

COTABATO CITY - Two blasts rock in successionLamitan City in Basilan Friday night, the Office of Civil Defense said.In a statement, the OCD in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (OCD-ARMM) said the first explosion of a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) occured at 7:53 p.m. Another blast followed four minutes later.The first IED went off in front of Alliance Church along Flores Street while the second was at the Barangay Hall of Barangay Mabini.No casualty was reported while police and Army bomb experts are in the blast site conducting post blast investigation.

SOUTH UPI, Maguindanao - - Movie action star Robin Padilla took time out Thursday to delight the townsfolk here after heading a drought relief mission that benefited over 1,000 families.Padilla brought with him 300 bags of rice apart from an assortment of other relief goods.This agricultural town with 11 villages is one of the most severely affected areas by the ill-effects of El Nino phenomenon, a periodic dry spell that began since November last year.The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), through its Humanitarian Emergency Action and Response Team (HEART), has earlier served all

LEBAK, Sultan Kudarat - After a week-long surveillance on suspected illegal drug pusher in Barangay Tibpuan here, police agents arrested a 30 year old militiaman caught in the act of dealing prohibited drugs.Chief Inspector Benhur Catcatan, Lebak municipal police station chief, identified the suspect as Rollen Gesulta, alias Tawhite, and resident of Barangay Tibpuan.Police operatives, armed with search warrant issued by Judge Renato Gleyo of Regional Trial Court Branch 19 in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat, arrested Gesulta in Purok Tayang, Barangay Tibpuan Thursday morning.Catcatan said the suspe

MARAWI CITY – The new president of the Mindanao State University (MSU) on Thursday branded as intrigue” the insinuations his March 8 designation by President Benigno Aquino III was a midnight appointment,” bereft of legal propriety.Habib Macaayong, the newly-appointed MSU president, took over the school presidency last April 14 from predecessor Macapadu Muslim in a symbolic transition rite witnessed by his subordinate-faculty members and non-teaching personnel and students.An MSU professor, Said Makil, had asked the Supreme Court to look into the validity of Macaayong’s appointment, alleg

KORONADAL CITY - Koronadalenios today felt blessed with a 20-minute heavy and continuous downpour after more than five months of excruciating heat as a result of the long dry spell.The rain came at past 2 p.m. and lasted for about 30 minutes. Pagasa projected Koronadal will expericnethunderstorms with rains.

TULUNAN, North Cotabato (PNA) -- Emotions ran high after the family of an Army man met him following his release Tuesday by New People's Army (NPA) rebels in a remote village here.The freed captive, Pfc Eduardo Hilaga Jr.