Lawyer survives ambush
CABANATUAN CITY — A practising lawyer survived an ambush staged by two motorcycle-riding gunmen on busy Ramos St., barangay Sto. Cristo, Guimba, Nueva Ecija. Hit twice in the body, lawyer Romeo T. Sadornas was brought by some bystanders to the district hospital outside of Guimba town. He was later evacuated to the Nueva Ecija Doctors Hospital here. Sadornas, 64, a prominent law practitioner here, was on his way home in Guimba from work in this city when he was shot at by the two men. Interviewed in the hospital, Sadornas said he could not identify his assailants because they wore protective helmets. He was alert while lying in bed. He said at first, he did not feel that he was shot. He said he ducked under the steering wheel of his pick-up truck when one of the gunmen fired a caliber .38 revolver at him. He was hit in the left arm and twice above his left waistline. Doctors were set to operate on him at 10 a.m. last Friday to extract the two slugs lodged in the left side of his body. His condition was pronounced as stable. Sadornas had once served as special prosecutor at the defunct Circuit Criminal Court which tried heinous crime cases and those involving government officials and employees. - (Magtanggol Vilar)
VISAYAS
2 men rob cellphone store
CEBU CITY — Robbers, who pretended as customers, hit a convenience store in the area where a pawnshop was robbed last week, and fled with cellular phones, cell cards and cash all amounting to R50,000. Police said two men who pretended as customers robbed Circle 24 Convenience Store at 4 p.m. Thursday. The store, which is owned by Zaidar Paras, has no security guard and is located on Maria Luisa Road, Banilad, Cebu City. Isamero Genora, the store’s cashier, suffered a head injury when one of the robbers struck his head with a gun. Police said Genora at first refused to give the R7,000 cash in the cash register. The robbers also took away 11 Smart cards worth R3,200, 12 Globe cards worth R1,620, 15 Globe cellular phone cards and two Nokia cellular phones worth R30,000. Responding policemen failed to catch the robbers who fled aboard a taxicab. (Mars Mosqueda)
MINDANAO
CPP-NPA officer dies in clash
MAWAB, Compostela Valley (ComVal) – A suspected political officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Mindanao was killed in a continuing gun battle as the military stepped up its all-out drive against communist rebels in Southern Mindanao. At a command briefing at the headquarters of 404th Infantry Brigade here yesterday, Maj. Gen. Samuel B. Bagasin, commanding general of the Army’s Northern and Southern Mindanao Fourth Infantry (Diamond) Division, ordered Col. Rodolfo S. Obaniana, ground commander, to use all available combat troops and war materials to push without letup the drive aimed at destroying the backbone of the communist movement in Southern Mindanao, particularly in Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental and ComVal. “The NPAs in ComVal Province and other areas in Southern Mindanao are already disorganized due to the series of gun battles, aggressive combat operations and leadership vacuum caused by the death of their cadres. We are implementing a policy of attrition, that is, applying the full force of the law against Maoist NPA,” Bagasin said. (Mike Crismundo)
