Private armed 'goons' arrested
BY JUANCHO GALLARDE & MARICAR ARANAS

Police arrested two members of an alleged private armed group operating in the first district of Oriental Negros in a PNP-Comelec checkpoint Saturday night in Vallehermoso town.

The suspects were identified as Mario Gordon Legarto Cruzpero and Ferdinand Caceres Labay. Police and military have intensified security in the province, especially in the first congressional district, now tagged as a hotly-contested area.

Recovered from the suspects were one M-16 baby armalite rifle with one fully-loaded magazine clip and several rounds of ammunition, one .45 caliber pistol with 16 rounds of live ammunition, one black bonnet, one brown holster, a flashlight, two cellular phones, and two black bags.

COMELEC
disqualifies Edgar Teves

The Commission on Elections has disqualified Edgar Teves from running for congressman of the third district of Negros Oriental, covering the southern part of the province.

In a nine-page Resolution dated May 11, 2007 signed by Presiding Commissioner Resurreccion Borra and Commissioner Romeo Brawner, the Comelec ruled en banc that Teves is not qualified to run and hold any elective public office within a period of five years from May 24, 2005.

The Comelec decision was learned one day after Teves filed graft, bribery and violation of the code of conduct of government officials against Provincial Election Supervisor Manuel Advincula in an entrapment operation led by the National Bureau of Investigation. Teves alleged that Advincula asked P300,000 from him to fix this case. City Prosecutor Adrian Borromeo, after inquest proceedings, dismissed the charges of graft and unethical behavior but filed the Direct bribery case against Advincula in court.

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