LANDBANK CAUSED DELAY IN CCT PAYOUTS – DSWD
Landbank’s refusal to transfer funds from the DSWD account to the Philpost account, which was commissioned to distribute the cash grants, delayed payouts of Pantawid Pamilya cash grants in Regions IV-A, IV-B, and VI on October 25, 29 and 30, the De-partment of Social Welfare and Develop-ment clarified.

DSWD explained that des-pite its issuance of a Debit Authority au-thorizing Landbank to transfer CCT funds to Philpost and its submission of initial payout reports, Landbank failed to undertake the transaction. The incident inconvenienced the beneficiaries who were already at the designated sites early in the morning. The DSWD has called the attention of Landbank on this incident and assured Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries that this will not happen in succeeding payouts.

RPN 9 WORKERS SEEK CONGRESS HELP
The RPN 9 workers yesterday trooped to Congress seeking the help of the House of Representatives Committee on Labor and Employment to halt the impending retrenchment move of the network affecting about 200 employees. The television station’s workers are staging protests actions against the RPN 9’s retrenchment program, which will take effect on November 15, 2012. They claimed that the retrenchment will leave more than 200 RPN 9 workers nationwide jobless this Christmas season that will have a huge impact on their families. Raymon Tomale Jr., RPN DSU president told The Manila Times that the workers with the two RPN 9 Labor Unions opposed the retrenchment program of RPN 9, which is contrary to their Collective Bargaining Agreement, illegal and inhuman. Tomale said that 85 percent of the affected workers had work for 25 years on the TV network, which is now being eyed by a group of San Miguel Corp., headed by Ramon Ng. JING VILLAMENTE

BAIL MOTION OF BATASAN BOMBERS GRANTED
Two suspects, accused in the 2007 Batasang Pambansa bombing incident, which killed six people including then-representative Wahab Akbar of Basilan province were granted yesterday to post bail. Judge Ralph Lee of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 83, in his 11-page decision, allowed accused Caidar Aunal and Adham Kusain to each posts P200,000 bail. JING VILLAMENTE