Friday, February 08, 2008

800 ex-rebels embrace development program

LUPAO, Nueva Ecija - About 800 members and symphatizers of the communist-led New People's Army took their oath of allegiance to the Philippine flag in this "once most organzied guerilla stronghold," on Tuesday.

This as the mass organization formed as a result of several months of military's special operations in northern Nueva Ecija towns, was turned over to the municipal government by the Army's 71st Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Melquiadez Feliciano to the municipal government headed by Mayor Richard Ramos.

The mass organization is the umbrella group of the rebel returnees from various villages formed into economic clusters as facilitated by the Army in coordination with different government institutions such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Agrarian reform, Land Bank of the Philippines and the local government units.

Of the returnees, Feliciano said, 25 were regular armed members of the NPA while the rest served as the mass based of the movement who provided services, food, monies and intelligence information that made it strong in the past.

Nueva Ecija: Umali to veto budget

PALAYAN CITY- Gov. Aurelio M. Umali will veto the P1.07 billion 2008 budget approved by the provincial board which is over P325 million short of the proposed P1,400,117,806, a ranking official said on Thursday.

The official said the budget cut was detrimental to the interest of Novo Ecijanos since the slashed amount was intended for basic social services as well as education and health programs.

Based on the transmittal made by Sangguniang Panlalawigan secretary, lawyer Bembol Castillo, the Appropriaton Ordinance 02-2008 allocated P1,074,613,945 out of the general fund of the province for this year.The SP used the phrase “set aside and transferred to un-appropriated balance” for the proposed amount that are not approved. It also stated in some cases: “subject to later appropriation upon justification of its utilization..”

Of the P325 million slashed from the proposed budget, P84 million was for the capital outlay of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office while P50-million was for Special Purpose Fund and P21 million intended for intelligence fund and confidential expenses. The SP also withheld budget for the maintenance and operating expenses of the Civil Security Services, Provincial Action and Monitoring Office, the Provincial Engineering Office and radio dwNE.

The official noted that the budget slashed from the PSWDO are for financial assistance from the provincial government such as mortuary and social services.The scholars who actually first availed of the support under the previous administration will also be adversely affected, he said. The province has about 5,000 scholars, it was learned.

Nueva Ecija's most wanted falls

The long arms of the law has caught up with the Nueva Ecija's most wanted man who got to ellude arrest for over 10 years, a suspect in the striong of murder and frustrated murder charges in connection with a land disipute in Gapan City, police said on Thursday.

Senior Supt. Napoleon Taas, officer-in-charge of the Nueva Ecija police office, the suspect Patricio Quiambao,60, was arrested in the mountainous village of Pita, Dinalupihan, Bataan by a composite team from the police's regional intelligence division under Supt. Pierre Bucsit, the
Nueva Ecija provincial intelligence branch led by Chief Insp. Alex Mariano and Bataan 303rd provincial mobile group.

The arrest, he said, was made on the strength of a warrant issued by Gapan City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 36 Judge Arturo Bernardo. Taas said the suspect's arrest was in line with the directive of PNP Chief Director General Avelino Razon Jr. and Region 3 police director, Chief Supt. Errol Pan to focus more on manhunt operations as outlined in the “Mamang Pulis” program.