Dr. Lydia Depra Ramos, Western Visayas regional director of the Department of Health, said Local Government Units should not entertain or allow voluntary surgical contraception to be conducted by providers who are not accredited by the DOH.

In a radio message to Gov. Joseph Marañon, Ramos said it is the responsibility of the LGUs to police their ranks.

The National Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the death of a woman in Bago City who was operated on during a medical mission by the Marie Stopes group in November.

Negrense gets
jail for a kiss
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

It was a mere kiss but it led him to jail.

A Cauayan town resident was sentenced yesterday to a maximum of six years of imprisonment by Kabankalan Regional Trial Court Judge Henry Arles for the crime of acts of lasciviousness.

Court records show that Beltran Sarmiento was charged in court for kissing the lips of a minor in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, in October last year.

Arles said Sarmiento pleaded guilty to the offense as charged.

Lawyer demands SC inquiry
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A Bacolod human rights lawyer suspended by the Supreme Court yesterday said he is ready to take to the streets to demand an inquiry into what he alleged were questionable resolutions it has issued and that the rule of law is upheld.

"I am ready to walk the streets to demand that the rule of law is upheld…and my clients who are poor will not let me walk alone," lawyer Francisco Cruz said at a press conference at the Bishop's House in Bacolod City yesterday.

Cruz said he is prepared to be cited for contempt, disbarred and go to jail for his demanding changes in the practice of the Supreme Court of disposing of minute resolutions, even controversial and disputable issues, quoted through the signatures of division clerks or assistant division clerks of the court.