CEBU CITY, Cebu (PNA) — Some 8,434 day care students in Cebu City are assured of daily meals for the next six months through the city’s Department of Social Welfare Services which has received a P10-million fund from the Department of Social Welfare and Development for a massive feeding program to be implemented in 80 barangays here. DSWS chief, Dr. Ester Concha said the program will start next month and will last until January, 2013. The feeding will be done simultaneously daily in 157 day care centers and beneficiaries will be three to four-year-old students. In 2010, the National Nutrition Council 7 ranked Cebu City fifth in the list of cities in Central Visayas posting the highest malnutrition rates.

BLOOD DONATION

ROXAS CITY, Capiz (PIA) — Capiz firemen has donated blood to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) in Capiz. The Office of the Fire Marshal of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Roxas City facilitated the “heroic deed,” as PRC would say, last August 4 at Hercor College. The activity was in line with the BFP’s 21st founding anniversary. “Some 100 junior and senior criminology students donated blood,” said BFP-Roxas City Public Information Officer FO2 Marlon B. Garbo who also informed that the mass blood donation conducted during the BFP’s founding anniversary at Hercor College has been in place for the past couple of years.

OFFENDERS’ HOME 

BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental (PIA) — A home for young offenders will be established soon in Bacolod City to house children in conflict with the law (CICL). The Bacolod Community Development Consortium for People’s Public Private Participation (PPPP) chaired by Mayor Evelio Leonardia staged the groundbreaking for the Bacolod Youth Home last August 2 at the Vista Alegre-Arao Property. The Bacolod Youth Home is a P48-million project to be managed by the consortium with the cooperation of the local Department of Social Services and Development (DSSD), whose personnel will be entrusted with the care of the children in the home.

CHARCOAL SEIZED 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA) — Nearly 100 sacks or 20.0 cubic meters of wooden charcoal were spotted and seized by a team of foresters and policemen in Poblacion East, Alburquerque, Bohol recently. The confiscated materials worth some P12,000 was seized during transport without necessary transport permits. The action is in line with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources ‘ strengthened campaign against environmental law violators particularly on forestry laws, rules and regulations. The owner, a certain Lolita Nalla, and driver Eddie Mangana will be subjected to administrative adjudication proceedings to determine their criminal liability under existing forestry laws.

SANDIGANBAYAN ACTION

TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte (PIA) — The Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division has meted out a 90-day suspension against Borongan City vice Mayor Fidel Anacta, Jr. in connection with a graft case filed against him last August 23, 2003 by then Borongan Sanguniang Kabataan Chairman Hector Apita. The case is based on the 2003 purchase of a 1.5-hectare private lot for P 8.2 million in Brgy. Campisao, Borongan. Anacta was alleged to have entered the transaction without authority from the Borongan Sangguniang Bayan. Intended for use as a cemetery, the lot was fully paid for by the local government but has never been used as was originally intended.