2 former city cop chiefs
included in kidnap raps
Salabas widow says;
Gonzalez didn't sign order
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Two former Bacolod police chiefs and a police asset have been included in charges for the kidnapping of former Pahanocoy barangay captain Eleuterio Salabas, his widow Elizabeth Salabas said yesterday.

Salabas said the resolution from the Department of Justice signed by First Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag on July 12 directed the filing of amended information, including former Bacolod police chiefs Vicente Ponteras and George Bajelot Jr., and Cecil Brillantes in the kidnapping raps pending before the Regional Trial Court of Guihulngan in Oriental Negros. She said the DOJ had sent her a copy of the resolution by mail.

But Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez yesterday said he was not aware of the resolution amending the information filed in court to include the three as he had not signed it.

Negros officials air
hopes for SONA
BY CARLA GOMEZ

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is expected to highlight in her State of the Nation Address this afternoon progress in the implementation of priority infrastructure facilities throughout the country, among them the Bacolod and Kabankalan airports, amid protests that she has failed to uplift the lives of the poor.

Presidential brother-in-aw Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. (Neg. Occ., 5th district) said the president will put emphasis on her accomplishments and bare future projects that will further address the education, health and livelihood needs of the people.

He said infrastructure projects being built in the Visayas are designed to boost tourism so more jobs and income can be earned.

But speakership
dispute could mar delivery
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

A House speakership face-off is set today after President Gloria Arroyo yesterday failed to settle a rift between two of her allies aspiring for the post as the 14th Congress opens.

Failure to settle the speakership dispute could mar the President's delivery of her State of the Nation Address before the joint session of congress this afternoon. Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. of Pangasinan, the president of the Lakas-CMD, and Rep. Pablo Garcia of Cebu, a prominent member of KAMPI, yesterday said they would contest the speakership in the plenary assembly this morning, hours before the SONA.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella yesterday said still hopes the congressmen will settle the dispute over the House' top post before the President delivers her SONA.