Local News

COTABATO CITY – In
preparation for the May 9 local and national elections, the Commission on Elections
(Comelec) has designated new regional directors for Region 12 and Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as part of a nationwide reshuffling of key officials
and field personnel.

Lawyer Francisco Pobe,
who previously headed the Comelec in Region 13, formally assumed as director
for the SOCCSKSARGEN Region on Monday, February 1.

Pobe replaced Atty.
Michael Abas, who was reassigned as regional director for ARMM.

COTABATO CITY – In a
decision on Tuesday, February 2, the Regional Trial Court Branch 39 in
Polomolok, South Cotabato declared Ordinance No. 688 of the municipality of
Tupi as invalid void ab initio (from the start)

The decision of the
court prohibits the local government of Tupi in enforcing and implementing the ordinance.

The court order also
provides that all collected fines from apprehended vehicle owners and drivers
must be immediately returned.

TACURONG CITY --- Three were hurt, one of them a three-year-old child, in an explosion that rocked the city at about 2and00 p.m.

TACURONG CITY – Two children were hurt
when an improvised bomb planted under a parked car here went off Tuesday
afternoon, DXOM-AM Radyo Bida reported today.

DXOM-AM quoted Supt. Ranie Hachuela,
Tacurong City police chief, as saying the blast occurred at 2 p.m. in a parked
car in front of La Forteza Pharmacy along Jose Abad Santos Avenue.

Agents of the PNP Scene of the Crime
Operatives are still in the area gathering pieces of the explosives.

COTABATO
CITY -– More than P1million worth of sugarcane plantations were turned to ashes in a forest
fire that hit two North Cotabato towns Sunday in what authorities believed by
cigarettes thrown carelessly by smokers, fire officials said.

COTABATO CITY -- Four persons were separately killed by shooting Cotabato City, Kabuntalan, Maguindanao and Aleosan,North Cotabato over the weekend, DXMS Radyo Bida reported today.Two of the victims were from Cotabato City, another in the town ofNorthern Kabuntalan and the fourth in the municpality ofAleosan.In Cotabato City, Reneboy Bacsan, 32, of Barangay Poblacion 5, Cotabto City was shot dead Sunday along Sesame Street, Rosary Heights 3, Cotabato City.Police said Bacsan was walking along Sesame Street when two men, riding on a motorbike, shot him in head.

KORONADAL CITY – Former South Cotabato Gov. Hilario L. de Pedro III, who is running for provincial board member, has passed away
Friday due to cardiac arrest, his party mate said. He was 66. South Cotabato
Board Member Vicente de Jesus said de Pedro, a resident of Crossing Palkan, Polomolok,
South Cotabato, is running for the provincial council in the coming 2016 elections
under the Liberal Party-Nationalist Peoples Coalition party.

STO NINO, South Cotabato – Thirty-one personshave been arrested by police during aseries ofpolice anti-illegal
drug raid in four towns in South Cotabato on Friday.In Sto Nino, South Cotabato,Senior Insp. Bernie Faldas, town police chief, said police and military forces, armed with arrest
and search warrants issued by Judge Marlo Brasales ng 1st MCTC-Norala-Tboli-Sto
Nino, raided the village of Ambalgan where shabu was open and publicly
peddled.”The raid was conducted at 11

COTABATO
CITY -– Authorities eye extortion as the motive in the foiled bombing
attempt of a bus unit plying the Cotabato City-Gen. Santos City Thursday
afternoon in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao.

Prior
to the bombing attempt, the bus firm, Gen. Santos City-based Husky Bus Company,
has received extortion demand from a certain Abu Saddab who heads the group
called ISM,” according to Carlo Manalo, the bus firm’s Cotabato station
head.

KIDAPAWAN CITY --After seven years in hiding, a farmer accused of murder was arrested in Magpet, a hinterland town in North Cotabato, Thursday. Operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Team (CIDG) in North Cotabato and elements of the Regional Public Safety Battalion (RPSP) in Region 12 led the apprehension of Hernando Recona, farmer from Barangay Kisandal, Magpet, included as among the most wanted person in North Cotabato. Recona, reports from the CIDG said, has been wanted for murder that happened in 2009.