ANTIPOLO CITY — Police officials here vowed to reduce the crime rate following the discovery that unsolved crimes have doubled in the past year. Supt. Manuel Pion, who became the chief of police for exactly a month now, said Thursday that after holding the same position for two years in Taytay, he has ordered all the police personnel in the city to help one another reduce crime volume. This came as Pion found out that unsolved crimes rose to around 200 during the term of the former chief of police. Pion, a known protégé of retired police general Romeo Maganto, said he will utilize all 144 personnel of the Taytay Police to achieve a better crime solution efficiency. “Soon, Taytay will be 100 percent crime-free. That is our goal,” Pion said. (Nel B. Andrade)

SUSPECTED ‘FIXER’ NABBED IN ‘STING’

ANTIPOLO CITY — A 46-year-old woman who allegedly claims she can fix one’s Civil Service Professional Examination in October was arrested the Wednesday in an entrapment by police at the house of one of her alleged victims in Antipolo City. Senior Superintendent Manuel Cesar Prieto, Rizal Police Provincial Office (PPO) director, identified the suspect as Elizabeth Perez, married and a resident of J. Pascual, Barangay San Pedro, Morong, Rizal. She was collared upon collecting money from a certain “Yolanda” at the latter’s house in Barangay San Roque, here. Prieto said the payment was monitored by the arresting team through a hidden video camera that was recording the transaction. Probers said Perez allegedly asked the complainant to shell out P30,000 to ensure that she would pass the exam. (Madelynne Dominguez)

BAGUIO PURSUES NEW DUMPSITE

BAGUIO CITY — Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan said Thursday that the city government is not abandoning the establishment of its multi-million-peso engineered sanitary landfill in Barangay Sto. Tomas Apugan-Camp 7 area but other short-term solutions must also be adopted and to reduce the huge volume of garbage being hauled out to Capas, Tarlac, which nearly drained the city’s finances over the past two years. While the works are underway for the put up of the city-owned sanitary landfill in a city-owned property in the said barangay, the local chief executive pointed out short-term solutions are now already in place, particularly the composting of biodegradable waste in Barangays Irisan and Loakan Liwanag and the upcoming purchase of two multi-million composting machines capable of converting 24 tons of biodegradable waste each into compost fertilizer daily. (Dexter A. See)

GIRL, 7, RESCUED BY BATAAN COPS

MARIVELES, Bataan — A seven-year-old girl was rescued unharmed by police from a knife-wielding hostage-taker in Barangay Dos, here, the Wednesday night. Superintendent Romell Velasco, chief of police, reported that they were able to subdue Remegio Gayuntadu, 48, a fisherman, who terrorized the whole community after snatching the girl at knife-point for no apparent reason. “We immediately rushed to the area but we did not show ourselves to the suspect who was armed with a knife but we only used a civilian to negotiate with the suspect,” said Velasco, who added that Gayuntadu threatened to kill the victim if police got involved. Somebody known to Gayuntadu was used to negotiate with him and when police found the right timing, jumped on the suspect and subdued him. (Mar T. Supnad)