Army official shot dead
At Capiz fiesta
BY NESTOR BURGOS JR.

ILOILO CITY - Suspected communist rebels shot dead an Army official attending a town fiesta in Capiz province at around 6 p.m. Saturday night.

1Lt. Abelardo Mutya died of around 10 gunshot wounds after he was repeatedly shot in Dumarao town south of Roxas City, said Maj. Lyndon Sollesta, spokesperson of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.

Sollesta said two suspects armed with .45 caliber handguns approached Mutya as he was about to board a motorcycle and shot him, then took his .45 caliber pistol, wallet and cellphone.

More killings under
GMA -- Escudero
BY CARLA GOMEZ

More political killings a year have been committed under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo than during the time of Ferdinand Marcos, House Minority Floor Leader Francis Escudero said Saturday.

Under the Arroyo administration, 790 political killings have occurred, or a yearly average of 130 per year, Escudero said at press conference in Bacolood City.

Under the 20 years of Marcos rule, the average number of yearly killings was 125, he claimed.

Justice sought
for raped teener
BY DONALYN GUERRERO

About 1,500 classmates, teachers, neighbors, friends and relatives yesterday cried for justice at the funeral of Mary Rose Padilla, a teenager believed to have been raped and strangled to death in a sugarcane field in Hacienda Mirasol, Brgy. Granada, Bacolod City on July 27.

Padilla, who would have turned 15 tomorrow, was buried at the Granada Public Cemetery in Brgy. Granada yesterday, following a 2-hour necrological service at the Lady of Lourdes Church in the barangay, officiated by Father Alfonsito Arojo and Father Francisco Perez.

Moises and Rosalie Padilla, her parents, said they will not stop pursuing the case until her assailant or assailants are arrested and convicted.