Monday, January 12, 2015

Ecija lady trader visits dead pa, gets shot dead in cemetery

TALAVERA, Nueva Ecija – A 49-year-old businesswoman visited the cemetery here Monday night to pay respects to her dead father, only to end up dead herself after a lone gunman fired at her and her companion Monday night.

          Police Superintendent Wilson Santos II, Talavera police chief, identified 
The slain businesswoman as Julieta Santos of Barangay San Ricardo here. She died from gunshot wounds. Her companion,  Maricel Hipolito, 39, was wounded but survived the attack.

The motive for the attack is not yet known.

SPO2 Rodrigo Valdez, investigator of the Talavera police, said the shooting incident broke out at around 6:15 pm Monday inside the cemetery in Purok 7, Barangay San Ricardo here.

Valdez said Santos and Hipolito entered the cemetery to visit the tomb of the former’s father. The two were chatting inside the mausoleum when the still unidentified gunman surfaced  and fired at them then fled. 

          A bloodied Hipolito managed to cry out for help. She was brought to the nearby extension hospital of the Paulino J. Garcia Memorial Research and Medical Center (PJGMRMC) while Santos was brought to the Eduardo L Joson Memorial Hospital (ELJMH) in Cabanatuan City. They were transferred to another hospital  but Santos was declared dead-on-arrival.

          A team from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) led by Chief Inspector Jebie Timario later recovered seven empty shells from a caliber 45 revolver.

Young Ecija mother flees from sex trafficking gang in Surigao

GABALDON, Nueva Ecija – A 23-year-old mother of three has escaped from the clutches of a suspected sex-trafficking syndicate in Surigao Islands which has reportedly been recruiting young women for supposed high-paying jobs only to end up as entertainers and prostitutes.

          Socorro (not her real name) managed to sneak out of a brothel in Surigao Wednesday back into the waiting arms of her grieving mother Veronica Lacandoza of Barangay Calabasa in this town. She and a dozen others have been forced into white slavery in a restaurant used as fronts for prostitution in Surigao.

          The woman, a high school drop-out, showed contusions and bruises in both arms reportedly after she was repeatedly beaten up by three burly bouncers of the restaurant which, she said, was owned by a Japanese national. It was her punishment for refusing to entertain customers, mostly foreigners in the faraway island.

          Lacandoza told reporters that her daughter’s misfortunes started when the latter applied for a job as a waitress in San Pedro, Laguna last October 22. The victim said she was lured by the promise of a high salary amounting to P150 per hour. She identified her employer as a certain Santos.

          “I got interested in the job because it was my way of survival and it would ensure food for my family,” the dusky victim, who has three children aged six, five and three, said.

          The victim has long been estranged from her husband who works as a jeepney conductor in the town. They have not seen each other for nine months.

          The victim added that after a week in her job, she and her two other companions were herded into a van by the employer who said they are going to haul some stuff to be brought to their place of work. While on their way, they fell asleep.

          She said that when they woke up, they found themselves in the company of 11 other women. They were later told by their companions that they were in a mountain island in Surigao. “All you could see outside were mountains,” she said.

          The woman said that in Surigao, they were treated like prisoners as they were not allowed to go outside.

They were also deprived of enough food to eat, making them weak. “Sometimes, we get to eat twice a day and there were times when we ate only once a day,” she said.

          She said they were forced to entertain customers, most of whom were Indian nationals.

          The woman said they may have been drugged by their “Mama Sang” who injected fluids into their body, causing them to lose consciousness. Their employer was described as an elderly, ugly long-haired and burly lady.  

          “For about four times a week, I got dizzy,” she said, recalling that the drugs were injected during the night. She said at times, they were made to sniff something which emits a fragrant then a putrid smell.

          She said that on a number of occasions, she would refuse to entertain customers and in the process, she would be mauled by the bouncers who would only let up when she has lost consciousness.

          The woman said that her employer’s sister, identified only as Jo, took pity on her and her two other companions and plotted her escape.

On January 7 at around 3:30 pm, Jo managed to persuade the employer to allow the woman and her two other companions to go out on the pretext that customers are supposedly waiting for them. “Mama Sang allowed Jo to accompany us because she thought we won’t be allowed to escape. Jo was very much trusted,” the victim said.

Outside, they boarded the trip bound for Matlog, Sorsogon . There, they transferred to another ferry which took them to Manila, using the fare sent to her by her mother.

Ben dela Cruz, one of Lacandoza’s advisers who helped fetched the victim in Manila and back to their home in Calabasa,  called on authorities to investigate and track down the syndicate which has been victimizing unsuspecting women and feeding them to sex-starved customers.

He advised women job-seekers to be wary of advertisements posted in public places promising of high-paying jobs which actually were a modus operandi to lure them and later turn them into sex workers in far-flung places.

           “At first, padadamahin lang sila (they would be entrapped) and afterwards, they would be turned into GROs for the flesh trade,” he said. – Manny Galvez

Once-sizzling Cabanatuan now chilly at 20°C

CABANATUAN CITY - This city - which historically has been notoriously hot and sizzles particularly during the summer months - is now recording cold temperatures over the past nine days, including a 19.3° Celsius last Saturday, the state bureau reported.

          Dominador Campo, chief meteorological officer of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa)-Cabanatuan, said that the January 10 temperature is the coldest so far this year in this city, eclipsing the 19.4° Celsius posted on January 4. 

This city has been experiencing relatively cold spell since January 1 and 2 where it recorded identical temperature of 22.5° C.

It also recorded temperatures of 19.6° Celsius on January 3, 21.9 degrees Celsius on January 5, 21.2° Celsius on January 6 and 23° Celsius on January 8.

Campo said the lowest recorded temperature in the city last year was 15.8° Celsius on January 25, 2014.

Temperatures have been dropping in various places of the country since the onset of the northeast monsoon or amihan last October, with Baguio City, the country’s summer capital posting a temperature of 10.6° Celsius Sunday.

           Its lowest recorded temperature was at 6.3° Celsius on January 18,1961. 

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