ACROSS THE COUNTRY
3 kids die in grenade blast
BUTUAN CITY – Three children died when an ammunition for a grenade launcher exploded in Surigao del Sur on Tuesday.
A joint report of the police in Lianga town and 75th Infantry Battalion identified the fatalities as Rynna Tiu, 12; Renz Galdiano, 3, and his brother Reden, 1.
Initial investigation showed the children were playing when Galdiano found the explosive and hurled it from the terrace of their house.
Police have yet to determine the owner of the explosive. – Ben Serrano
Boat capsizes off Camotes island; 2 dead
Two person drowned when a motorized boat capsized in the waters off Camotes island on Tuesday. Twenty-nine other boat passengers were rescued. Petty Officer 1 Leonardo Cos of the Philippine Coast Guard-Camotes station said the bodies of the victims, including a two-year-old girl, were found floating in the water shortly after the incident.
Two girls, aged two and four, and a nine-year-old boy remained missing as of Tuesday night.
The MB Habagat was carrying 35 people when it cap- sized at around 1 p.m.
Chief Petty Officer Jose Arnel Conopio-PCG-Danao station commander, said the boat has no clearance to sail. – Rowena Capistrano, Camille Pateres/ The Freeman
Reward up for Bulacan BAC head slay info
MALOLOS – The city government of San Jose del Monte in Bulacan has offered a reward of P250,000 for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators of the gun attack that killed bids and awards committee chairperson Orpha Velasquez.
Velasquez, 50, had just alighted from her vehicle in front of her house in Barangay Fatima 2 on Tuesday when five men in a Mitsubishi Adventure and two motorcycles arrived and shot her several times.
In Meycauayan, probers still have no leads in the ambush of Councilors David Michael Ramirez and Tomas Rosales and in Barangay Malhacan last week. The councilors and their driver Rico Arceo were wounded in the attack. – Ramon Efren Lazaro
P80-M cocaine washed ashore in Isabela
TUGUEGARAO, Cagayan – A plastic container with packs of cocaine worth around P80 million was washed ashore in Divilacan, Isabela on Monday.
Fishermen Wardly Centeno, 38, and Randy Guillermo, 35, who discovered the container along the shore in Barangay Dipudo, reported the incident to the police.
The 18 packs of cocaine with RR markings weigh 18.8 kilos.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Derrick Carreon said there are similarities in the packaging of the recovered drugs and another 25 kilos of cocaine worth P125 million found near Sorsogon shores on Jan. 3.
The drugs were believed to have come from a cargo vessel that sank off Northern Samar at the height of Tropical Depression Agaton last month. – Raymund Catindig, Emmanuel Tupas, Jun Elias