NEWSFLASH

ARROYO DECLARES DEC 24 NON-WORKING DAY; OTHER HEADLINE NEWS BITS

Malacanang, November 20, 2002 - President Arroyo has declared Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, a special non-working day. Dec. 24 falls on a Tuesday.

But regular work in both government and private offices will resume on the 26th. The next official holiday, Rizal Day, is on Dec. 30, a Monday. – Marichu Villanueva

***Anti-terror screening to delay Christmas mail

Filipinos may end up getting their Christmas mail three months late due to stringent inspections made necessary by the threat of global terrorism, postal officials said yesterday.

"We are carefully scrutinizing each package to make sure that there would be no letter bombs or other terrorist packages," said a senior official of the Philippine Postal Corp.

A Protestant pastor’s 12 year-old daughter was killed in the northern town of Santa Cruz late Monday when she opened a letter bomb, provincial vice governor Gerry Singson told dzMM radio earlier Tuesday.

The pastor and two of his children were also wounded in the blast.

The postal official, who asked not to be named, said each package was being subjected to a "nose" test by bomb-sniffing dogs, and sought the public’s patience and understanding if Christmas presents arrive in March instead.

"Even those that were sent in September, the packages could still be delayed both for local and foreign parcels and packages," he added. – AFP

***RP fourth largest rice importer

The Philippines remains among the world’s 10 biggest rice-importing nations despite spending P20 billion yearly to modernize its agriculture, party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna) revealed yesterday.

Quoting a report of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Ocampo said the country is the world’s fourth largest rice importer this year, next only to Indonesia, Nigeria and Iran.

"The trend has indeed reached an alarming rate for the Philippines, which is an agricultural country and where rice is the main staple food. Domestic rice production is collapsing under the weight of import liberalization and decades of government neglect," he said.

He warned the Arroyo administration that shrinking rice production could soon become a national security concern since it means that hundreds of thousands of Filipino rice farmers are being displaced.

"It seems everyone is alarmed, except the Arroyo government, which has made it a policy to leave the country’s food security at the mercy of foreign traders, rice smugglers and the local rice cartel," Ocampo said.

According to the USDA’s four-year importation report, the Philippines is importing a total of 1.2 million metric tons (24 million 50-kilo bags) of rice this year.

Last year, the country was the third biggest importer with 1.18 million tons, next to Indonesia and Nigeria. It was in the same slot in 1999 with one million tons, and slipped to fourth in 2000 when it imported 900,000 tons. – Jess Diaz

***Package bomb kills 8-year-old girl in Ilocos Sur

STA. CRUZ, Ilocos Sur — An eight-year-old daughter of a Protestant preacher here was killed Monday night when a bomb contained in a package exploded in her face after her father opened what he thought was a Christmas gift.

Marjorie Lovely Caligtan died before she could be taken to the hospital.

Her father, Leopoldo, 51, brother Ryan, 19, and sister, Sheila, 14, suffered third degree burns in the head, chest and arms and are now in critical condition at the Ilocos Training and Regional Medical Center in San Fernando City, La Union.

Marjorie’s mother, Elvira, escaped injury because she was in the kitchen washing the dishes when the bomb exploded in the dining room.

Ilocos Sur police commander Senior Superintendent Fidel Cimatu said the elder Caligtan had a rift with New People’s Army (NPA) cadres in their barangay in Daligan where he was the pastor of the Pentecostal Church.

"The sender must be harboring a great grudge," he said. "Imagine, he meant to wipe out the whole Caligtan family."

Leopoldo also incurred several unpaid loans from unidentified creditors, he added.

Police said the home-made bomb was made of materials used to manufacture firecrackers, a drinking glass, and a small battery to ignite the explosives.

Investigations showed the package containing the bomb was delivered to the Caligtans’ home in Barangay Daligan at around 6 p.m. Monday.

However, Leopoldo told Marjorie and Sheila that they should have dinner first before opening the package, which was in Christmas wrapping.

Police said the one-foot-by-one foot box was brought by a tricycle driver identified as Elias Handoc, who was paid P70 to make the delivery.

Handoc, 48, of Barangay San Pedro in Sta. Cruz town, told police the package was handed to him in his pedicab near the town market by an unidentified man whom he described as "tall and huge."

Investigations showed the sender’s address on the package was Barangay Calimugton, Galimuyod town in La Union, where Leopoldo grew up.

But police said the address might not be the place where the package had originated and that it could have been placed on the box to entice Leopoldo into immediately opening it.

Barangay Daligan is a hotbed of NPA rebels in Sta. Cruz, police said. – Teddy Molina, Myds Supnad, Artemio Dumlao, Jaime Laude

Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi