Gov't seizes P15M in
smuggled sugar
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Operatives of the Sugar Monitoring and Anti-Smuggling Campaign Thursday seized 14,494 bags of imported refined sugar in raids in two Metro Manila locations, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela announced yesterday.

At the market value of legitimate "D" sugar of P1,050 per lkg, the seized sugar would have a total cost of P15 million, he said.

Pictures and video footage of the raids showed strong evidence of the involvement of a sugar trader, not Negros based, and of buyers who repack Thai sugar into fake Victorias Milling Co. sacks, Coscolluela said.

The police yesterday said they will request the National Bureau of Investigation for artists' sketches of the suspects in the grenade blast at the Department of Agrarian Reform Office in Bacolod City Thursday.

Case investigator PO2 Celito Dullan of Police Station 1 said a female teenager had talked to two men who may have been the ones who threw the grenade at the DAR compound at about 1:50 a.m. Thursday.

Dullan said, the men who used the same red Honda XRM when they lobbed the explosive later, tried to buy toothpaste and cigarets from the minor's store beside the office at about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Drunkenness and recklessness of three drivers caused death to a Thai national and injuries to 59 others in three accidents in Negros Occidental, police yesterday said.

Thai national Samrong Pitakard, 47, died, after he was ran over yesterday by a cargo truck loaded with sugarcane at the Mabini Highway in Brgy. Zone 1, Talisay City .

Eighteen persons, including six teachers, were hurt yesterday when the passenger jeep they were riding swerved and fell into a canal in Hacienda Alegria, Brgy. E. Lopez, Silay City .