QC COUNCILORS NAMED CARETAKERS CABBIE, AIRPORT WORKER RETURN CASH, VALUABLES

QUEZON CITY Mayor Herbert Bautista signed Office Order No. 6-2017 designating Councilors Precious HipolitoCastelo of District 2 and Jose Visayas of District 5 as acting mayor and vice mayor of the city, respectively, effective from January 17 to 27. They will supervise all operational and administrative matters under their jurisdictions, except those which are policy-determining in nature, including the power to appoint, suspend or dismiss city hall employees. Bautista is in Rome for the third round of peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front. Meanwhile, Vice Mayor Ma. Josefina Belmonte is in the United States to represent the QC government in the conference for “Federalism and Good Governance: Best Practice Learning from Change.” A WHEELCHAIR attendant assigned at the Cathay Pacific Airways area turned over to airport authorities a red sling bag containing US$11,075 and more than P11,000. Rizaldy Ocde found the bag at the foreign exchange counter near the check-in area at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) general manager Ed Monreal said aside from cash, the bag also contained the passport, a pack of cigarettes and a sim card of Mary Gane, a Filipina balikbayan who claimed the bag before her connecting flight to Iloilo City. Meanwhile, taxi driver Antonio Infanta, 71, was commended for returning P220,000 in cash his passenger left in his cab last January 19. Infanta was unaware that the bag contained cash and a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge owned by Benjamin Cantanero. MIAA authorities said Cantanero alighted from Infanta’s cab at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport departure area and only noticed that his bag was missing when he was about to enter Terminal 3. Cantanero sought the assistance of Airport Police personnel who called up his phone that was noticed by Infanta as it rang inside the bag. Infanta returned to the airport and turned over the bag to Cantanero in the presence of airport police.

SUSPECTS IN QUIAPO SKELETON STOCKPILE HUNTED

MANILA Police District director, Chief Supt. Joel Coronel, said his men are now hunting two suspects in the murder of at least seven people whose skeletons were found on January 10 in a cemented stockpile inside an abandoned house in the Islamic Center in Quiapo. He said the suspects, whose identities he declined to reveal in the meantime, must have left Quaipo after the death of Barangay 648 chairman Faiz Macabato during an anti-drug operation last October 7. Seven other suspected drug pushers were killed during the raid. Coronel they have requested the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory to conduct forensic examinations.