No lead yet in rape-slay of architect engineer

By ANTONIO L. COLINA IV

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 May) – There is no lead yet on the suspects behind the rape-slay of Vlanche Marie L. Bragas, a 28-year-old architect and engineer, whose body was found around 8 a.m. on Wednesday in a banana plantation in Calinan just hours after she went missing, a police official said.

Police major Catherine dela Rey, DCPO spokesperson, told MindaNews on Tuesday that the result of the autopsy examination on the cadaver of the victim showed that the cause of death was asphyxia by manual strangulation.

She said there was also finding of “recent genital trauma,” confirming that the victim was raped.

Dela Rey added that the victim’s body was covered by dried banana leaves when found in the plantation owned by Subasta Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries

by FROILAN GALLARDO

raising the specter of deadly contamination along Iponan River. Mercury is considered fatal to humans especially if they

Gacad said the wasteland of 10.3 hectares borders barangays Cauyonan and Nangcaon in Opol town, Misamis Oriental.

“We based our estimates

Alsons Power adds more trees to 2 Million planted by the Group in Sarangani Province

of the disturbed area on Google earth satellite imagery,” Gacad said.

Engr. Armen Cuenca, chief of Cagayan de Oro Local Environment and

Natural Resources Office (CLENRO) said their office monitored at least ten excavators mining for gold along the Iponan River in Opol town.

Cuenca said their office furnished the DENR-MGB regional office of their April 2023 report of the illegal gold mining operations along Iponan River.

“We think there are at least ten illegal mining operations in the river but we cannot arrest them because it is in Opol area,” Cuenca said.

The CLENRO is one of the ten government agencies ordered by the Court of Appeals in 2013 to protect Iponan River, which was environmentally threatened by illegal mining operations.

The Court of Appeals issued the Writ of Kalikasan and a Writ of Continuing Mandamus in 2013 following an appeal by SULOG, an environmental coalition,

South Cotabato wants to take control of electric co-op

By BONG S. SARMIENTO

KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 17 May) – The provincial government of South Cotabato has expressed interest to take control of an electric cooperative here “to improve its services as well as lower the cost of electricity that’s burdensome to consumers.”

P16 per kWh charged by the electric cooperative to consumers.

He said that if the system loss “can be corrected,” the cooperative, if supervision will be under the provincial government, can earn an “income of between P40 to 60 million a month.

Two Sarangani Province-based subsidiaries of the Alsons Power Group recently planted 500 more trees to add to the over 2 million trees that the group has planted in the province over the years.

The Alsons Power subsidiaries that spearheaded the planting of the additional 500 seedlings are: Sarangani Energy Corporation (SEC) which owns and operates the 210 mega-watt (MW )baseload thermal power plant in the municipality of Maasim, and Siguil Hydro Power Corporation (SHPC) which is develop- ing a 14.5 MW run- of- river hydroelectric power plant currently under construction at the Siguil River basin and set to begin operating before the end of 2023.

“Protecting our watersheds by providing forest cover is a concrete manifestation of our brand promise to Power with Care,” said Alsons Power Vice President for Corporate Affairs Ruben G. Tungpalan.

The planting activity was held at the SEC power plant’s Community Watershed Protection site the 7th anniversary of SEC. The SEC plant began operating in 2016 and played a pivotal role in ending the power shortage in Mindanao. SEC and SHPC were joined by partners from the community, the Provincial Government and the LGU.

Alsons Power is Mindanao’s first private sector power generator. The group currently operates four power facilities with a total generating capacity of 468 MW serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces in the country’s second largest island.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr. asked the management of the South Cotabato Electric Cooperative – I (Socoteco-I) to let the provincial government supervise management control of the distribution utility.

“There’s still a lot of wastage (system loss) that makes the price of electricity prohibitive to consumers,” Tamayo said in the vernacular on Monday’s “Governor Meets the Press.” “If they can’t lower the cost, they should give up the management to the provincial government.”

With the provincial government taking control of Socoteco-I, Tamayo vowed to lower in the next few months to P10 per kilowatt hour (kWh) the present

The system loss charge was pegged at 1.4069 in March for residential consumers.

Tamayo also criticized the management of Socoteco – I, which is headed by general manager Raffee Edsel Epistola, for the intermittent brownouts suffered by the electric consumers in the past several months.

Epistola could not be contacted for comments.

The governor noted that the high cost of electricity is hampering the entry of investors in the second district of South Cotabato, which forms the bulk of the cooperative’s service area.

South Cotabato’s second district comprises this city and the towns of Tantangan, Banga, Norala, Surallah, Sto. Nino, Lake Sebu and T’boli.