Ma, son brutally slain;
'jealous' in-law wanted
BY DONALYN GUERRERO

A construction worker allegedly hacked dead his mother-and brother-in-law at their residence in Purok Sambag, Brgy. Alijis, Bacolod City at about 6 a.m. Saturday, and jealousy is suspected as the motive.

Found bathed in their own blood were Nida Luage Vargas, 52, and her son, Anthony, 26. Both sustained several hack and stab wounds on their head, neck and back, Insp. Adonis Rosales, Police Station 6 commander, told the DAILY STAR yesterday.

Eli Cong, Bacolod City medico legal officer, yesterday said the Vargases died of loss of blood and could have been killed at dawn of that day.

Melo hearings in
Negros start today
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Melo Commission, a fact-finding body created by President Gloria Arroyo to investigate extra-judicial killings and other related violence in the country, will hold two-day hearings on incidents reported to have occurred in Negros Occidental, at the Social Hall of the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City starting this morning.

Retired Justice Jose Melo, who chairs the commission, said hearings will be held in Bacolod City Monday and Tuesday, and in Davao City on December 4.

The commission, which has held five hearings since it was created, is expected to wrap up its report after the Bacolod and Davao hearings.

GMA needs to shed
off weight: doc

MANILA - President Gloria Arroyo remains healthy but needs to trim down, her doctors said yesterday as the government moved to quash rumors the leader was suffering from a liver ailment.

Arroyo was taken to the St. Luke's Medical Center in Quezon City Saturday for a "routine executive medical check up" and results showed she was fit, her physician Juliet Gopez-Cervantes said in a medical bulletin.

Gopez-Cervantes said Arroyo had completed all her "diagnostic procedures, and her workups were all unremarkable."