1-stop shabu area
busted, police say
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The arrest of 13 persons allegedly engaged in pot sessions during recent simultaneous raids in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, led to the discovery of what the police described as a "one-stop-shop-area" for shabu users in the city.

The three houses simultaneously raided at Interior V Gustilo-Rizal Streets, Brgy. 3, San Carlos City, owned by Hermegildo Diaz, 60; Cesar Lumanog,38; and Alfonso Gonzales, 54, on the strength of search warrants issued by Judge Rogelio Beldia, have been tagged by the police as suspected "drug dens".

SPO2 Ramon Bartulin, San Carlos police intelligence chief, yesterday said the house of Diaz has two cubicles, and caters to drug users who may want to engage in "pot sessions", at a minimal fee of P10 per person.

8 at Capitol face raps
but five AWOL - guv
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Five employees of the Negros Occidental Provincial Treasurer's Office who have incurred cash shortages can no longer be located and, along with three others, will be charged criminally and administratively for misappropriation of public funds.

Gov. Joseph Marañon yesterday said the five who have been Absent without Leave have unpaid cash shortages totaling P505,906.53.

They are Silvestra Bocol with an unpaid cash collection shortage of P294,466.48, Jasmin Fegidero - P35,618, Mariam Puentespina - P40,465.65, Joseph Cabarles - P86,299.39 and Felicito Gonzales - P48,957.01.

Negrenses want GMA
to step down -- bishop
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra yesterday said that if he had the opportunity to speak with President Gloria Arroyo, he would tell her that the people of Negros are "insistent that she steps down".

Navarra said he would also raise the position of the people of Negros at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines permanent council meeting on March 9 and 10 and it would all depend on how its members react to this issue.

Navarra said he could not say if the CBCP position, that stops short of calling on the president to step down, will change in the light of the public outcry against her declaration of a state of emergency and threat to reimpose it again and again if the situation calls for it.