Ajuy vice mayor's killing solved

Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco yesterday asked National Power Corp. president Cyril del Callar to provided the province with 15 one-megawatt modular generators as temporary solution to the power shortage hitting Negros during peak hours.

Zayco made the appeal following a request by Central Negros Electric Cooperative officials headed by general manager Sulpicio Learde Jr. and board member Edward Gasambelo who explained the power situation of the province during a meeting with the governor yesterday.

From 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., the Napocor cannot sustain the 25 megawatts needed by the province during the peak hours. This has led to a series of brownouts, Legarda stressed.

CENECO experiences an 11-megawatt load shedding problem while the Victorias Milling Co.’s Rural Electric Service Cooperative and the NOCECO have a combined shortage of 14 megawatts during these peak hours, Legarda added.

The Napocor reportedly promised to send 15 one-megawatt, diesel-powered generators to Bacolod but has not done so yet.

Meanwhile, a procession was held around the provincial capitol and the Hall of Justice yesterday by the Mt. Kanlaon Coalition asking the Regional Trial Court to issue a temporary restraining order against the Energy Development Corp., Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, and the Protected Area Management Board. Judge Rodney Bolunia was scheduled to hear the petition yesterday.

Fr. Nhao Buenafe led the marchers, including Delia Locsin, in praying the rosary.

The coalition members, dressed in yellow, green and white with yellow ribbons, also joined the 8 a.m. Mass at the Hall of Justice.

Andrea Si, lawyer of the coalition, noted with sadness that “the very government agency that is supposed to be protecting our natural resources now defends the wanton destruction of our primary forest.”

The DENR had granted EDC permission to cut 4,213 trees in the buffer zone of Mt. Kanlaon.

The DENR manifested earlier that the geothermal development is a national government project. It argued that the court is proscribed by Repubic Act 8975 from issuing a TRO.

The Mt. Kanlaon buffer zone, according to law, may be availed of the PNOC-EDC for geothermal exploration. And the EDC had asked for only 12.5 hectares of the total of more than 65 hectares to be used for its geothermal dig to be able to generate an additional 49 megawatts for Negros Occidental.

Well, the oversight committee of the provincial board, headed by board member Mae Javellana, had earlier reported that the EDC had already cut 2,443 trees but bypassed four countries-old almaciga trees when it constructed a road.

It has also already planted 650,000 replacement trees within and around the MKNP.

But the mot important development was captured yesterday by GMA 7 of Iloilo. This was the confession by murder suspect Dennis Cartagena that he was involved in the assassination of Ajuy (Iloilo) Vice Mayor Rojas Jr.

Cartagena was with murder suspect Edgar Cordero when they were ambushed by two armed men in Barangay Mahay in Butuan City Friday night last week.

Cartagena initially disclaimed having been in on the plot. But he later changed his tune.

He told lawyer Jose Gavilan that he was the driver of Cordero. And he pointed to a certain Vicente Espinosa (Bulldog) as the one who had masterminded Rojas’s death. The plan to do away with Rojas was reportedly hatched just immediately after the last election.

The targets also included Iloilo provincial board member Jett Rojas and Juancho Alvarez.

Cartagena admitted that they had been given an initial P8,000 when they made the Ajuy vice mayor as the top target. The latter was jogging in the poblacion when he was gunned down allegedly by Cordero.

Later, Cartagena claimed that he received P20,000 and later P80,000. But he and Cordero fled to Agusan del Sur when it became too hot for them in Iloilo where the task force, headed by Senior Superintendent Ricardo dela Paz, police provincial chief, started to breathe down their necks.

That solves one of the most notorious hits in Iloilo’s crime history.

Meanwhile, the suspected triggerman of Iloilo City Fire Marshal Casiano del Castillo denied having anything to do with the crime.

Michael Medina of Maasin town, said he did not even know Del Castillo. Neither, he claimed, did he know any of the two other suspects – Jerry Curtom and Alex Someco, a former member of the Philippine Army.

Del Castillo was reportedly shot dead in Phase 2 of the Landheights Subdivision, Arevela District last Aug. 22.

He also denied having anything to do with the gunslaying of businessman Eddie Pedrajas by two motorcycle-riding gunmen.

Del Castillo had earlier told Bernard Broniola of Bombo Radyo that he had text messages threatening him following his expose of alleged anomalies in the Bureau of Fire Prevention which included the loss of several high-powered firearms.

Investigations are still ongoing. Iloilo has become very hot recently that even Gov. Niel Tupas had tasked police chiefs of the province and local executives to crack down hard on crime gangs.