MAGUINDANAO: Combined representatives of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf) are now scouring forested areas at the border of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur to validate reports about the presence of foreign terrorists, an Army official said. Col Noli Orense, commanding officer of the Army’s 603rd Brigade based in Camp Iranun at the tri-boundary of Maguindanao’s Barira, Matanog and Buldon towns, said they have, in fact, been experiencing problems contacting the joint verification team for updates on their location due to weak mobile phone and two-way radio signals. “The mission is obviously difficult to accomplish, but the people tasked to do it are full of zeal and enthusiasm and, most importantly, are enjoying the support of local government units in the areas where they are now.”
Coal carrier capsizes
MANILA: A coal-carrying barge upturned in waters off Oriental Mindoro on Tuesday night, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported. The vessel named Best Loader capsized around 8pm near Bulalacao, Mindoro, the report said. The PCG added that the vessel contained 3,000 tonnes of fossil fuel. Three of its crewmen survived the incident. The Calapan-Mindoro branch of PCG was still determining the cause of the accident and damages it has incurred.
Life sentence for drug leader
BAGUIO CITY: Baguio’s infamous drug leader Bernardo ‘Benjie’ Oliveros, got a life term and was fined P10m ($227,000) for selling drugs. Oliveros, said to be in the drug trade for decades and was only collared by anti-narcotics operatives on September 2011, was found guilty by Judge Antonio Reyes of the Baguio City drug court. The conviction of the ‘godfather’ of organised local drug groups prompted the neutralization of the wide-ranging and deep-seated Oliveros drug group in the Cordillera Region, said Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Cordillera Assistant Director Gil Castro. From his humble beginning as a ‘stowaway,’ he became the city’s most powerful drug personality for a very long time, he said. Agencies
