Disinformation hits
Malacañang, DAR
Pangandaman says Malaga installation soon
BY CARLA GOMEZ

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo instructed two Cabinet secretaries to look into reports that a hunger strike was taking place in Hacienda Velez Malaga in Barangay Robles, La Castellana, but it turned out that Malacañang was a victim of disinformation.

Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman yesterday said he arrived in Negros Occidental Thursday afternoon and he was surprised to learn that there were no hunger strikers.

The trip of Social Services Secretary Esperanza Cabral to the area to bring food assistance was cancelled after it was learned that there was no hunger strike, he said.

New raps filed vs.
gov't center funding
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

Another one, as anticipated.

A civil case seeking the declaration of nullity of Appropriation Ordinance No. 01 Series of 2007, for the release of the mobilization fund for the construction of the government center, was filed on March 1, by 10 persons against several Bacolod City officials.

On March 9, Regional Trial Court Judge Rodney Bolunia had dismissed a case seeking the nullification of the contract between the city and the government center contractor, Hilmarcs Construction Corp., filed by another group.

Follow election rules
for peace, Puno says
BY NANETTE GUADALQUIVER

Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno yesterday said that all candidates must follow the election rules for the country to have honest, peaceful and orderly elections in May.

"(Candidates should) observe all the rules provided in the Omnibus Election Code as well as in the implementing rules and regulations," he said. "If all would follow these laws and regulations then certainly we'll have an honest, peaceful and orderly elections as contemplated by the Constitution," Puno, who was in Bacolod City yesterday for the induction of new officers of the Negros Occidental Regional Trial Court Judges Association, said.

He also said that if the country will not have credible elections, there will be a lot of protests.