‘GMA move for reforms
must not be just all talk'
SHE MUST TACKLE
INCRIMINATING ISSUES – NAVARRA
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Negros business leaders welcomed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's order yesterday for two Cabinet task forces to link up with the Church, business, and academe to draft reforms to stamp out corruption in government, but Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra stressed that she must first face incriminating issues against her administration.

The President, at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, issued the order to the Anti-Red Tape Task Force headed by Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila and the Procurement Transparency Group of Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, amid revelations of government corruption by Senate witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada.

Lozada told a Senate investigation that the scrapped $329-million NBN contract with China 's ZTE Corp. was overpriced. He alleged that former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo were involved, which both have denied.

The Commission on Higher Education has granted West Negros College university status, giving Bacolod City three universities now.

The school was evaluated by CHED on its student admission policy, degree program, accreditation status, quality of instruction including faculty and personnel staff, research program and extension services, library and laboratory facilities, a statement from the information office of WNC said.

CHED commissioners Nona Ricafort Luningning Umar and Saturnino visited WNC on Feb. 5 to inspect and evaluate the school's level of compliance for a university status.

Police filed murder with theft charges yesterday against three alleged New People's Army hitmen tagged as the suspects in the assassination of PO3 Danilo Malones in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, on Feb.8.

Senior Inspector Louie Figueroa, Cauayan police chief, yesterday said the respondents in the charges for the murder of Malones, filed before the Negros Occidental Provincial Prosecutor's Office, are Russel Langcoyan, 18; Felipe Domdom, 26; and his brother, Robert, 39.

The arrest of the three suspects in Brgy. Linaon, Cauayan on Sunday, two days after the death of Malones, also yielded a 9mm pistol, police records show.