The Standard - 2016 February 7- Sunday

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VOL. XXIX  NO. 360  3 Sections 24 Pages P18  SUNDAY : FEBRUARY 7, 2016  www.thestandard.com.ph  editorial@thestandard.com.ph

SUNDAY TRAFFIC CHAOS FEARED

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14 PINOYS DIE IN IRAQ BLAZE By Vito Barcelo and Sara Susanne D. Fabunan

ARBIL, Iraq—A fire at a hotel in the capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region killed 19 people and injured dozens more on Friday, officials said. Fourteen of the dead were from the Philippines, while three Iraqis,

a Palestinian and another person of unknown nationality also died, said Saman Barzanji, director-general of the Arbil health department. Dozens more were injured and taken to hospital in Arbil, said Fakher Harki, the department’s spokesman. The Department of Foreign Affairs said they are still trying to identify the Filipinos who died in the fire. “Initial report we received from our embassy in Baghdad says that

14 Filipinos are among the at least 19 people who died in a fire that struck Capitol Hotel in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq,” DFA spokesman Charles Jose said in a statement on Saturday. “[The] embassy is in touch with Kurdistan Regional Government to ascertain the identities of Filipino victims. [The] acting ambassador [is] flying to Erbil to personally lead the effort,” he added. Malacañang said it is saddened by the deaths of the 14 Filipinos

and it is working with Iraqi authorities to bring home the remains of those killed in the tragedy. In a radio interview on Saturday, Undersecretary Manuel Quezon of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office said they received a DFA update saying it had already dispatched personnel to go to Arbil. “We are very sad about this. It’s a terrible way to die. There were many of them and it was, I believe, in a massage center,” Quezon said

over dzRB Radyo ng Bayan. “We would like to get more details and do everything that is possible to bring our countrymen home and, of course, to look at every possibility to assist their families at this time of sadness and need,” he said. Asked for more details of the repatriation, he said the families should wait for a while because the DFA has just dispatched the people who will facilitate the repatriation. Next page

KILLER BLAZE. An Iraqi fireman works at a burnt room of the four-star Capitol Hotel in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, where 14 Filipinos and five others of different nationalities died. AFP PHOTO

YOUNG KARTER ON THE RISE

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MORO REBELS ATTACK GOVT PROJECT By Francisco Tuyay

THE Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters resumed attacks on military installations in Central Mindanao and attacked a government project in Maguindanao, wounding an Army officer, the military reported Saturday. Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Army’s Sixth Infantry Divi-

sion, identified the wounded officer as Capt. Jimmy Amoloy, who was grazed by bullet in the forehead. Amoloy, one of the officers of the 22nd Mechanized Company of the Second Mechanized Battalion, was deployed to secure a government project at Sitio Dagading, Barangay Tee in Datu Salibo, Maguindanao when his unit was fired upon by BIFF rebels at

about 4:30 p.m. Friday. In the initial exchange of fire, Amoloy was hit prompting his men to extract him and send him to the headquarters of the First Mechanized Brigade for medical treatment. “The BIFF rebels fired at the army troopers because they are preventing the entry of development in the area,” Petinglay said in a text message. Next page


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