MONEY WIZARD OFFERS FREE WORKSHOP
ILOILO CITY: A financial guru based in Makati City, is ready to inspire Ilonggos on “how to manage and grow your money” in a free workshop on December 12, 2012 at the Colegio de San Jose auditorium in Jaro district.

The workshop is facilitated by Iloilo City councilor, Jason Gonzales to give a chance to some 300 Ilonggo stakeholders and entrepreneurs to listen to Chinkee Tan, a celebrated live coach and motivational speaker on the “financial freedom within your reach.” Gonzales admitted that he had a chance of listening to Tan in a Manila forum and invited the financial guru to come to Iloilo and encouraged people from all walks of life, including grassroot leaders, to get inspired and involved in uplifting personal tools. “The Iloilo workshop is for free and anyone can benefit from Tan’s message in his first appearance in Iloilo,” Gonzales said. Tan, also a Christian pastor, was a onetime actor and celebrated motivational speaker in many events in Metro Manila to encourage people to act and be free from financial burden. LYDIA C. PENDON

TROOPS RESCUE BOY TAKEN BY SCAM VICTIMS
ZAMBOANGA CITY: Government troops and policemen captured three people after rescuing a four-year-old son of a trader in Zamboanga del Sur province, officials said on Monday. Officials said that the boy was rescued after troops apprehended the trio at a military checkpoint in Aurora town over the weekend. “The boy is safe and reunited with his parents,” Captain Alberto Caber, a spokesman for the First Infantry Division, told The Manila Times. He said that authorities were investigating the motive of the abduction, but other reports suggested that the men seized the boy to force his father to pay them the investments they put into a money trading business that turned out to be a scam. “We still don’t know the motive here, but there is a report that it could be connected to the investment scam,” Caber said, referring to the Aman Futures that duped hundreds of people in southern Philippines. The head of the Aman Futures, Malaysian tourist Emmanuel Amalilio, has fled to Sabah several months ago after his company went bankrupt. Authorities said that the company took as much as P12 billion from its investors. AL JACINTO

THREE GASOLINE BOYS KILLED IN ROBBERY
RIZAL, Nueva Ecija: Three employees of a gasoline station in Barangay del Pilar, were shot dead on Sunday, during a robbery. The fatalities are gasoline boys Joseph Ulep, 24, single; Junjun Ulep, 25, both residents of Poblacion West, and Raymart Afalla, 20, of Barangay San Agustin, San Jose, Nueva Ecija province. The three are under work at a gasoline station owned by Gerrick Eugenio, 28, of Bonifacio Street, San Jose, Nueva Ecija. Eugenio related that the gasoline boys were about to sleep when he heard a commotion and gunshots outside his room. He returned fire at the robbers through the window in his room using his .40 pistol. The robbers fled. Four robbers held up the station on October 29 and a week after the robbery, one of the victims received a text message from an unknown person stating that, “may gamit naman kau jan bkit di kau nakaporma,papatayin ko kau lahat [you have arms there, why didn’t you fight, I’ll kill all of you].” Authorities recovered from the crime scene 12 pieces of 9mm shells, 19pcs. of .45 shells and six of .40 shells. CHRIS SANSANO

‘MISSING’ ATENEO COED SURFACES
ZAMBOANGA CITY: The 3rd year student of the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, who was reported missing has been reunited with her family. Reports said that the 19-year-old Reniel Belmonte returned home after spending days in the house of a friend. It was not immediately known why Belmonte did not tell her family about her “escapade” that left her parents and relatives, including her classmates and friends, worried. Her disappearance prompted many of her friends and concerned people to launch a campaign in Facebook and appealed to citizens help locate the student after she failed to return home. Her classmates and friends have also put up various appeals on Facebook hoping to get some clues on where the teenager had gone. AL JACINTO

TANDEM RIDERS KILL ONE, WOUND ANOTHER
MOTORCYCLE riding gunmen struck anew, killing one person and wounding another on Sunday in Agusan del Sur province, police reports said on Monday. Reports at the Philippine National Police operations center in Camp Crame identified the shooting casualties as Salvador Aduna Jr., and his live-in partner, a certain Bebang Alejandro. The reports, sent by Caraga police, said that the shooting took place at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday along a road in Barangay Poblacion, Trento town. Trento police said that the couple were on a motorcycle they were suddenly shot several times by the gunmen from behind—they were wearing bonnets and rode tandem on a motorcycle. The reports said that the victims sustained gunshot wounds on the different parts of their body and were rushed to Bunawan District Hospital for medical treatment. Aduna was declared dead on arrival while his live-in partner was transferred to a hospital in Tagum City for further medical treatment, reports said. ANTHONY VARGAS

120 FAMILIES GET LAND TENURE FOR CHRISTMAS
ILOILO CITY: An early Christmas gift was given to a batch of 120 families living in three city relocation sites as the city government awarded them their Contract to Sell as their own security of land tenure in the lots they have occupied for almost 10 years as informal settlers. Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog of Iloilo City lead in the awarding of certificates to the relocatee-beneficiaries on Monday, December 10, 2012 assisted by Joshua Alim, SP committee chairman on urban poor city council and executive director Wilfredo Jurilla of Iloilo Urban Poor Affairs Office. With a contract, the relocatees promise to pay back the city government a minimal P150 to P200 monthly payment in 10 years for their homelots. A land title will issued to them after paying the monthly payments. So far, more than 300 families were already awarded their Contract to Sell by the city government in occupying their homelots from 40 to 60 square meters in the relocation sites. LYDIA C. PENDON

PDEA BAGS BULACAN DRUG PEDDLER
Anti-narcotics agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) arrested a suspected pusher during a buy-bust operation in Meycauayan, Bulacan. Undersecretary Arturo Cacdac Jr., PDEA director general, identified that the suspect as Charles Antipasado, 28, single, of No. 243 Pearl Street, Santa Lucia Village, Phase 5, Punturin, Valenzuela City. On December 8, 2012, elements of PDEA Regional Office-National Capital Region apprehended Antipasado after he sold roughly two grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, worth P12,000 found inside a cigarette box, to a PDEA poseur-buyer along Little Baguio Street, Malhacan, Meycauayan, Bulacan. JING VILLAMENTE

PALACE POISES RAPS VS. ILLEGAL LOGGERS, MINERS
Malacañang on Monday said that the government will file charges against those in illegal logging and mining that caused landslide during Typhoon Pablo (international codename: Bopha) in Mindanao. In a regular press briefing in Malacañang, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that to step up government’s drive against illegal logging and mining, Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd has formed committees, which will investigate incidents these illegal activities and file cases in court against those involved. “Well, we’ve seen anecdotal videos of logs and so Secretary Mar Roxas is starting an investigation. As to culpability, one thing is for certain: [that] if there’s any culpability [found against anyone], we will pursue that. We will prosecute. That’s the purpose [of] the investigation,” he said. Lacierda also said that the government wants to bring to justice everyone who profits from these illegal activities, including and especially those who resort to violence against the law enforcers and anti-illegal logging and anti-illegal mining activists. CATHERINE S. VALENTE

ALBAY DRUG PUSHER FALLS
A notorious pusher included in the priority target list of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) in Albay province, was caught during the implementation of a search warrant on Friday last week. Undersecretary Arturo Cacdac Jr., PDEA director general, identified the suspect as Achilles Nares, 47, a security guard gone absent without leave, of Purok 3, Barangay Divino Rostro, Tabaco City, Albay. Anti-drug agents of the PDEA Regional Office 5, under Director Archie Grande, raided Nares’s house in Barangay Divino Rostro on the strength of a search warrant issued by the Regional Trial Court in Ligao City, Albay, at about 6:45 a.m. Recovered during the search were two big–sized plastic sachets of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu, weighing approximately 10 grams. JING VILLAMENTE