BOAT RUNS AGROUND IN TAWI-TAWI, 24 RESCUED
PAGADIAN CITY: The Philippine Coast Guard rescued about 2 dozen passengers and crewmen of a motorized boat which ran aground off Tawi-Tawi province, officials said.

Officials said the ML Sulna Express was heading to the capital of Bongao when strong sea currents forced the 16-ton passenger boat to run aground off Panglima Sugala town and damaged its propeller. The Coast Guard coordinated with another boat ML Sea Dayang to rescue the passengers and crew of the Sulna Express. The rescued passengers were brought to Bongao town, officials said. AL JACINTO

BASILAN LAWMAN LINKED to MURDER TRY
PAGADIAN CITY: A policeman was implicated in attempted murder after he allegedly shot and wounded a Muslim man in the southern Philippine province of Basilan, reports said on Wednesday. It said that the victim, a native of Tabuan Lasa town, was able to identify his attacker and told police investigators that one of two gunmen who shot him is a policeman. It was not immediately known whether the suspects had been arrested or not, but the attack occurred in Isabela City.   AL JACINTO

RESTAURANT OWNER HUNTED FOR TORTURING BOY
PAGADIAN CITY: Police are searching for a restaurant owner who allegedly tortured a boy that he accused of stealing his television set in Zamboanga City, authorities said Wednesday. It said that the boy was caught by the restaurateur’s workers and handed over to him where they interrogated the minor into admitting his crime. They also took turns in beating up the boy and burned him with cigarettes and inserted a piece of metal into his anus. One of the workers, who took pity at the boy, secretly phoned his family to call the police and rescue the victim. Police arrested all those who took part in torture, except for the restaurant owner who managed to escape. AL JACINTO

ISABELA MAYOR SEEKS EXTENSION OF SUBSIDY FOR POOR
DIVILACAN, Isabela: The town mayor here urged the national government to extend the Pantawid Pamilya program in his town, pointing the program’s great advantage in assisting the poor beneficiaries. Divilacan Mayor Venturit Bulan said that during the evaluation of the regional advisory council that majority of the beneficiaries are still under subsistence level while some are still under survival, still unable to reach the self-sufficiency level. This is the reason why the official asked for an extension of the program as it is still needed to bring all family beneficiaries to self-sufficiency. “Bringing families from survival to self-sufficiency cannot be achieved in a span of five years only, it will take them time to slowly uplift their life status that is why they need more our intervention to help them achieve the goal of alleviating their poverty,” Bulan said. Divilacan town was one of the three pilot areas of the Pantawid Pamilya program in region 2 under set 1, which started in 2008 together with the towns of San Mariano and Palanan, all in Isabela province. Divilacan has 386 beneficiaries.              CHRIS SANSANO

PDEA HAULS IN MORE DRUG PEDDLERS
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) under the leadership of the newly appointed PDEA Director General, Undersecretary Arturo G. Cacdac, Jr. proved its seriousness in pursuing its mandate with a series of consecutive entrapment operations in the regions, all in one day. On October 22, at about 2 p.m., agents of PDEA Regional Office 11 (PDEA RO11) conducted a buy-bust operation along Purok 24, Mangahan, Times Beach, Ecoland, Davao City, which resulted in the arrest of Billz Delfino, 39, alias Billy; and Joem Suello, alias Pipoy, 36. JING VILLAMENTE