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Special Action Force raids bandits’ Sulu lair By Dona Pazzibugan, Julie Alipala Philippine Daily Inquirer Posted date: September 06, 2010 MANILA, Philippines—Bouncing back from the humiliation it suffered in the hands of a lone hostage-taker in Manila, the Philippine National Police killed an Abu Sayyaf commander and two of his men in an assault on the bandits’ hideout in Sulu at the weekend. Concerned about possible retaliatory attacks by the bandit group, PNP Director General Jesus Verzosa Sunday immediately placed all police units in Mindanao on full alert. Police identified the bandit commander killed in a 15-minute gunbattle at midnight...

DUMAGUETE CITY—The Philippine National Police is looking into the possibility of stamping out the marijuana problem by replacing marijuana plantations with another addictive but equally lucrative substance—coffee. PNP Deputy Director General Ricardo de Leon, commander of the anti-illegal drug operations task force, said they are studying what coffee varieties would grow in areas formerly planted to marijuana. “Marijuana is so toxic that after the soil is planted to it, no other crop can grow there,” De Leon told reporters Friday while on a visit to this city and Negros Oriental, where he was provincial commander of the defunct Philippine Constabulary-Integrated...

(Abridged English-language translation) With a sorrowful heart and mixed feelings over his defeat in Sunday’s primaries, Carlos Romero-Barceló, the veteran of a thousand campaigns with the [pro-statehood] New Progressive Party (PNP), decided not to seek elective office anymore and not to get actively involved in the 2004 election campaign. The former Governor granted EL VOCERO an exclusive interview even before returning calls from Pedro Rosselló, his party’s candidate for Governor, and at a time when the island was eager to know his reaction to the undisputable victory of his (Romero’s) opponent Luis Fortuño. A peaceful but reflective Romero replied without...