SAGAY CITY -- Senatorial candidates campaigning in Negros Occidental yesterday pledged to champion the cause of the sugar industry in the Senate, and review the effectiveness of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law that is set to expire in 2008.

Senatorial candidate Loren Legarda of the Grand Opposition said "The issue of CARP that will expire in 2008 must be debated upon, studied and discussed comprehensively." "While the intention was good to alleviate the plight of our farmer-beneficiaries there have been many problems as well," she said, such as farmers selling their Certificates of Land Ownership Award to landowners, or having the lands, but not the means and the capital to use them effectively for their own benefit.

Team Unity: Machinery
to prove surveys wrong
THAT'S THEIR WISH, LOREN SAYS
BY CARLA GOMEZ

SAGAY CITY - Team Unity senatorial candidates yesterday predicted a big win saying that, despite the survey results, their machinery will kick in and deliver the votes on election day.

Senatorial candidate Prospero Pichay went as far as predicting a 12-0 win for Team Unity saying the opposition does not have local candidates in 95 percent of the towns and cities to help them win.

But Grand Opposition bet Loren Legarda said "That's their wish". "I respect their opinion and their wish but I'm sorry I don't think that can come true, because local leaders and the people will choose candidates," she said.

Stop political
persecution, Legarda calls
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

SAGAY CITY - Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate Loren Legarda yesterday said the government should stop engaging in what she calls "political persecution" of perceived "leftists personalities and organizations".

Instead, former underground organizations and parties which joined the political arena, should be welcomed and encouraged, Legarda said. Legarda, who in previous years, had been instrumental in the release of military and police personnel captured by the New People's Army, including Medal of Valor awardee, Lt. Col. Noel Buan, came to the rescue of Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo who is now detained for multiple murder charges filed against him and several others before the Leyte Regional Trial Court.