WV has five
earthquake trigger points
BE PREPARED, NDCC STRESSES
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Western Visayas has five major earthquake trigger points and the possibility of having tremors in the region is high, National Disaster Coordinating Council regional director Rosario Cabrera said yesterday.

The earthquake that hit Indonesia, leaving more than 5,100 people dead, should be a wake up call for all Filipinos to be prepared because the Philippines lies in the Pacific "Ring of Fire" prone to volcanic eruptions and quakes, Priscilla Duque, Assistant Civil Defense Executive Officer and chief of the NDCC Training Division, said.

Disasters are like thieves in the night, sometimes they come when we are on holiday mode and we least expect them. It is time we are prepared for them so more lives can be saved, Duque, who was in Bacolod yesterday, said.

'Top NPA leader
abducted in Ilog'
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The police yesterday confirmed the abduction of two persons, including a top ranking New People's Army leader, in Brgy. Andulawan, Ilog, on Sunday.

Insp. Gabriel Gutierrez, Ilog police chief, yesterday said four unidentified persons wearing bonnets, waylaid and abducted Rodolfo Marapo, 43, alias Boy Borres, commanding officer of the NPA Larangay Gerilya 3 operating in central and southern Negros, and Jonilo Borres, a former employee of the Sipalay City government, who were riding in tandem on a motorcycle.

Bayan Negros secretary-general Felipe Gelle said that the two were abducted by suspected military men on Sunday, and as of yesterday they still could not be located.

Robbers behead
statue in Church
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Fishermen or members of a cult group could be behind the recent stealing of the head and two hands of the Blessed Virgin Dolorosa, patron saint of the St. Paul Parish Church, in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, police said yesterday.

The incident took place almost nine months after robbers also beheaded and stole the two hands of a statue of a similar patron saint in Brgy. Inayauan, Cauayan, in July last year.

Insp. Rudy Bico, Cauayan police chief, yesterday said two unidentified suspects forced their way into the St. Paul Parish Church at midnight of May 25, and took the head and two hands of the Blessed Virgin Dolorosa. Other Roman Catholic churches burglarized by suspected cultists were those of Hinigaran, Murcia, E.B. Magalona, La Castellana and Sagay within a period of two years, police records show.