TANAY/ANTIPOLO CITY, Rizal — Provincial health officials are currently monitoring the condition of all the people who came in contact with two girls who died of suspected meningococcemia in Marikina City recently.

Dr. Rene Luce, Municipal Health Officer of Tanay, said all members of the household of one of the girls who just died on Wednesday have been provided with prophylactic medicines.

Luce said those who joined the funeral of the girl from the hospital to the cemetery have also been instructed to take prophylactic medicines as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

Dr. Antonio Reillo Jr., Antipolo’s City Health Officer, is doing the same in the neighborhood of the nine-year-old girl who died in the city of the same disease last August 28.

Governor Casimiro Ynares III directed the Provincial Health Office to provide necessary aid to the victims' relatives. (Nel B. Andrade)

CAR wins 3 top TESDA awards

BAGUIO CITY — The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-Cordillera Administrative Region (TESDA-CAR) bagged three top honors in TESDA’s 2010 Institutional Awards held recently in Manila.

TESDA-CAR Regional Director Cenon Querubin, the three top awards Cordillera won can be considered as a grand slam since it is the first time that a region won top honors in the three institutional awards categories.

For the National TESDA IDOL, Renante Cobcobo won over 11 participants from other regions. TESDA-CAR also won in the National Trainers Encounter with Regional Training Center Machining Trainer Serafin M. Lauro taking top honors.

Xijen College of Mountain Province was also awarded as the national winner in the Institutional category of the Kabalikat Awards, TESDA’s annual institutional award for outstanding partners. (Dexter A. See)

Gov't to clear waterways

DINALUPIHAN, Bataan — A ranking official announced Thursday that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is set to demolish all illegal structures and houses built along the riverside and other waterways in this province.

District Engineer Wilfredo Mallari, of the DPWH 1st Engineering District, said the demolition can be done at any time to clear obstructions to the smooth flow of waters along rivers and their other major tributaries.

Among the areas targeted to be demolished are the houses along the long and widing Pentor river, going down all the way to Almacen river in Hermosa, parts of Orani and other rivers in the province’s first district.

“We will warn them first, then we are going to demolish all these houses and other structures illegally built along the rivers,” Mallari said. (Mar T. Supnad)

Drug duo falls

LUCENA CITY — Police anti-drugs operatives arrested earlier this week two men in a buy-bust staged at a hotel in Lucena City, the Quezon Police Provincial Office (PPO) reported Thursday.

Senior Superintendent Ericson Velasquez, PPO director, identified the suspects as Lemuel Valens Garcia, 55, of Mauban, Quezon, and Nelson Chua, 50, of this city, who were collared inside the Lady Luck Hotel at 7:30 p.m. last Monday.

Garcia yielded a sachet of shabu while Chua yielded eight sachets of shabu, drug paraphernalia and the marked money used by covert agents in the operation, said Velasquez. The suspects are related to municipal mayor and prominent car parts dealer in this city, he added. (Danny Estacio)