13 MARCH 2019

8
METRO
John Henry Dodson, Editor
Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Daily Tribune
Junkie ‘celebs’ spooked
PDEA has slain dealer’s contacts
Alone Irene Mercado may be left with no choice but to spill the beans on her slain partner’s supplier of drugs and high-rolling clients.
By Elmer N. Manuel
Water concessionaires servicing Metro Manila have
resorted to sending tankers in waterless communities
where residents formed long queues like in hard-hit
Mandaluyong City.
Tankers to the rescue as long queues
form.
Manila Water deployed 27 tankers for round-the-clock
water delivery in areas hit by the service interruption,
Makati
kids get
‘Go Bags’
By Gladys Mae Ablon
The Makati City government
has provided 38,929 students
from 13 public high schools
with individually packed “Go
Bags” as part of its efforts to
build disaster resilient and
sustainable communities.
A Go Bag is a portable
survival kit recommended by
emergency response experts to
help an individual or a family
survive, at least, in the next 72
hours after a disaster.
A bag contains essential needs
such as food and drinking water,
hygiene and first aid kits, flashlight
and other handy materials.
Survival in 72 hours
after disaster critical.
“We want our youth to learn
the importance of self-help and
preparedness. Through this
project, we are able to inculcate
a culture of preparedness
among young Makatizens,”
Mayor Abby Binay said.
“We hope that providing
students with individuallypacked
Go Bags will
motivate parents to
prepare their own Go
Bags for the entire
household,” Binay
added.
The Makati Disaster
Risk Reduction and
Management Office
started distributing
the life-saving kits
during the first quarter
of 2018, benefiting various
public elementary and high
schools, city hall employees and
residents living along the five
barangays along the West
Valley Fault.
Maynilad agrees to share water
Life sustaining
Each Go Bag can sustain
a person for at least three
days.
By Alvin Murcia
By Raymart T. Lolo
said corporate communications head Jeric Sevilla.
Maynilad, which services the western half of Metro
Manila, has agreed to share its supply with Manila Water.
Maynilad boasts a 291-million liter holding capacity
built in response to the drought spurred by the El Niño
phenomenon in 2010.
While most of Metro Manila’s water is sourced from
the Angat Dam, which still has normal water level,
the La Mesa Dam water was at 68.85 meters around
6 a.m. yesterday, below its critical level of 69 meters
above sea level.
7 Chinese nabbed
for kidnapping
The National Bureau of Investigation
(NBI) presented yesterday seven Chinese
nationals arrested in Pasay and Parañaque
for kidnapping and serious illegal detention
this week.
NBI Director Dante Gierran identified the
suspects as Luo Gen Jin, Cheng Yiguo, Liu
Shenghui, Deng Shujin, Xiong Jinxiang, Xiong
Jongpeng and Xiong Jilong.
5 suspects blundered by staying at
inn where victim was held.
Operatives of the NBI Special Action Unit
and Task Force Against Illegal Drugs joined
forces with the NBI National Capital Region
The workers’ union of the University
of Santo Tomas (UST) Hospital yesterday
denied having a hand in the bomb threat
received by the medical facility.
The Ugnayang Nagkakaisang
Manggagawa-UST Hospital (UNM-USTH)
office in acting on the complaint of the brother
of kidnap victim Jian Shi Xin.
Kidnapped at Okada Manila and kept under
guard at Balagtas Royale Mansions in Pasay
City, Jian was allowed to call his brother to relay
the P200,000 ransom demand of the captors.
The brother paid the ransom through wire
transfer leading to the victim’s release near the
City of Dreams in Parañaque City on 10 March.
The NBI agents rushed to the inn where they
arrested five of the suspects before rounding
up the two others at the Solaire Resort and
Casino in Parañaque City.
All seven were positively identified by
the victim as his kidnappers. They were
subjected to inquest proceedings at the Pasay
City Prosecutor’s Office and charged with
kidnapping and serious illegal detention.
issued the statement as its members assailed
the hospital’s management over the collection
of training fees, long working hours and failure
to regularize workers.
Hospital workers seeking a return
to negotiating table.
The group’s president Don Siazon
3 fall in sting
Three drug suspects were arrested in a
buy-bust operation in Marikina City before
dawn Tuesday. The
suspects were
identified as
Kingsley, alias
Waray, 19; Clariz
Cayetano, alias
Clariz, 28; and
Rolando Cayetano,
56.
They were nabbed
in a police operation
at 12:10 a.m.
a l o n g
Iwahig
St.,
ANALY LABOR
Weather experts, meanwhile, said it is not advisable to
conduct cloudseeding operations with the hope of spawning
rains and raise the dams’ water level during summer.
Cloudseeding depends on seedable clouds. Our
clouds during the summer time are a bit wispy, so it’s
not advisable to conduct cloudseeding, a hydrologist
said on radio.
Many residents have lamented the additional
expenses of buying water from tankers, even as small
eateries had resorted to using disposable plates and
utensils.
Barangay Tumana. Prior to the arrest of the
suspects, anti-drug operatives received a report
from an informant regarding the involvement
of alias Waray in selling illegal drugs.
Recovered from the suspects were 13 sachets of
suspected shabu with street value of more
or less P120,000, P500 buy-bust money
and a 38. caliber revolver with five bullets.
Neil Alcober
Ortiz: Clients were high-profile like
professionals, students
By Pat C. Santos
said “some unscrupulous elements”
are trying to blame its members for the
bomb and other unlawful threats made
against USTH.
Siazon said they will never resort to
violence despite the worsening working
conditions in the facility.
A deadlock in the collective bargaining
METRO BITS
The “ghost” of slain alleged party drugs super-dealer
Steven Pasion will haunt his well-off clientele, possibly
including two showbiz personalities.
But it’s more like agents of the Philippine Drug
Enforcement Agency (PDEA) may do the spooking
of the suspected high-class drug users as their
contact numbers and messages were recovered from
Pasion’s mobile phone.
Purportedly the top supplier of party drugs in Metro
Manila, Pasion was gunned down near his condominium
unit in Sta. Cruz, Manila Monday evening after trying to
escape aboard his sports utility vehicle.
Pasion’s live-in partner Irene Mercado was arrested
during the buy-bust. A search of their residence led to the
discovery of about a kilo of shabu with a street value of
about P6 million.
The “celebrities” — a man and a woman who regularly
appear on television — were regulars of Pasion, with one
recently placing an order for 200 pieces of the party drug
ecstasy.
PDEA special enforcement services (SES) acting director
Levi Ortiz said they will check out the numbers found on
Pasion’s phone and do case build-ups.
“Their clients were high-profile, like professionals,
students and celebrities,” Ortiz said.
The PDEA official refused to name the celebrities due
to the possibility that their names had only been used as
aliases by Pasion’s clients.
Pasion was killed when he allegedly fought off operatives
of the PDEA and the Manila Police’s drug enforcement unit.
Meanwhile, a newly freed convict was nabbed for
possession of P6.8 million worth of shabu at Tutuban
Center in Manila.
The suspect was identified as Jerome T. Reyes who was
arrested with a friend while they were transacting drugs
with a poseur-buyer.
Victimizing their own The seven Chinese charged with kidnapping by the NBI.
UST union disowns bomb threat
negotiations and allegations of Labor
Code violations had led to the filing by
the union of two notices of strike.
“We have exercised restraint, treated
our management counterparts with
respect and have followed the process
set out by the Labor Code and our laws.
We ask for the same,” Siazon said.
Carnappers killed
Antipolo City policemen shot dead three
carnapping and robbery suspects, according
to Rizal police provincial director Senior Supt.
Lou Frias Evangelista.
Killed were Rammil Escio, alias Ronron. Two
of the suspects were unidentified at press time.
Retrieved from them were a shotgun, a 9mm
pistol and a cal. 38 revolver.
The suspects were on board a white taxi at
about 10:30 p.m. Monday along Marcos Highway,
Sitio Painuman, Barangay Inarawan when
intercepted by policemen. N. Alcober
Road closure
YUMMIE DINGDING
The Metropolitan Manila
Development Authority
(MMDA) will partially close
the Estrella Service Road in
Makati City to give way to
the ongoing rehabilitation
of the Estrella-Pantaleon
Bridge.
MMDA general manager
Jojo Garcia said the closure
from Gumamela Street to JP
Rizal Street, will take effect
on 23 March, Saturday, at
11 p.m.
The rehabilitation of
the Estrella-Pantaleon
Bridge aims to widen it
to four lanes from its present
two lanes. Based on the DPWH
timeline, the project will be
completed in 2021.
Alvin Murcia