Grenade kills two,
injures three others
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Two minors were killed while their mother and two sisters were injured when a fragmentation grenade they discovered in a cornfield exploded in Brgy. Libertad, Escalante City, Negros Occidental yesterday.

Killed on the spot were Allan Catipay, 15, and his brother, Alano, 14.

Escalante City police chief Mateo Maguate yesterday said the explosion also caused injuries to the teenagers' mother, Merle Catipay, 35, and their sisters, Marianne, 10, and Maryann, 12.

Sugarmen seen
to lose P50 million
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Sugar producers will lose millions of pesos with an expected drop in millgate sugar prices in today's bidding in Negros Occidental brought about by the removal of the "C" or reserve sugar allocation, Franklin Fuentebella, chairman of the Planters Association of Southern Negros cooperative, warned yesterday.

Fuentebella said an average drop of P35 in the millgate price of sugar per Lkg was noted at the Department of Labor and Employment bidding in the Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company area yesterday.

"A" sugar for the US market sold at P1,035 per Lkg but the bid of P983 for domestic sugar was rejected because it was too low, he said.

Merced promoted
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Supt. Pedro Merced, director of the Bacolod City Police Office, and 100 other senior police officers were promoted to senior superintendent, which is equivalent to a full-pledged colonel in the military.

Merced whose appointment as BCPO director became permanent in December last year, yesterday said he and other newly-promoted police officers will take their oath before President Arroyo in Malacañang tomorrow.

The promotion of Merced and more than 100 senior police officers took effect Nov. 22 last year.