Top cop linked to illegal mining

By Julius Breva

Confiscated truck (Photo by Jong Cadion)

Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur – Dumingag Mayor Nacianceno M. Pacalioga, Jr assailed a powerful group, including a top provincial cop, for being behind illegal mining. 

Pacalioga said he was so saddened that as Mayor he could not stop armed men from mining illegally in Dumingag and could not hold their confiscated mineral ore.

Last November 10, the local police apprehended a truck containing 216 sacks of mineral ore from a mining site in Dumingag and impounded it at the police station.

However, Nieves Erojo, along with his husband Police Major Prudencio Erojo, the Provincial Officer of Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, came last November 16 to Dumingag Mayor’s Office to own the confiscated ore and  to negotiate with Pacalioga for its release.

Mayor Paccalioga (right) interview with NUJP Pres. Jong Cadion

Pacalioga said the rule of law does not anymore exist in Dumingag because around 30 people continue to mine gold and copper at barangay Licabang, Dumingag without permit from the municipal and provincial governments, guarded by two squads of heavily armed men brandishing Armalite rifles.

He said the armed men reportedly belong to the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng group of Ozamiz City and to the notorious MILF faction led by Juaning Abdussalam.

Seven persons killed by insane person

By Jong Cadion

Pagadian City – At least eight persons including the suspect were reportedly killed in a massacre in the early morning on October 26 in the small village of Tikwas, Dumalinao, Zamboanga del Sur fifteen kilometers from Pagadian City going to Guipos.