Former brg'y captain
gets 40 years for rape
BY PATRICK PANGILINAN

A former barangay captain in Talisay City , Negros Occidental, was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment yesterday for raping a special child almost five years ago.

Rudy Insular, former chairman of Brgy. Zone 10, Talisay City , was convicted for raping a then 16-year-old girl and was meted reclusion perpetua by Regional Trial Court Branch 52 Judge Anastacio Rufon yesterday.

The judge also ordered Insular to pay P75,000 to the girl as civil indemnity.

Insular had denied the accusation, saying the girl's family just wanted to extort money from him.

The United Negrenses Yearning for the Truth led by Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra yesterday called on national and local officials to defend the people's interest and stop mouthing the line of Malacañang.

The call was made at a press conference at the Bishop's House in Bacolod City in reaction to a joint statement of Negros Occidental congressmen, provincial officials and mayors expressing their full support for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the midst of the present crisis hounding the country.

Navarra said the reaction of the Negros officials was sort of a cover-up and a defense mechanism amid the revelations of dishonesty and lies at the Senate hearings on the anomalous National Broadband Network deal.

“I am not a fugitive. I am not hiding”.

Businessman Kenneth Tirthdas yesterday made the clarification as he expressed his dismay over reports picturing him as a criminal.

Tirthdas, a suspect in the fatal shooting of RPA-ABB member Edgar Nicor who allegedly gunned down his brother-in-law, Phibun Pura, said he is staying in a safehouse to protect himself and members of his family.

“It is a normal reaction of somebody who has the instinct to survive,” Tirthdas said in an interview with Bombo Radyo.