TIMRA Reports

COTABATO CITY - Some 400 tall trees were felled - damaging electric posts and a number of houses made of light materials - as extraordinarily strong winds pummeled parts of Basilan at about dusk Thursday.

Local officials in Lamitan City reported on Friday that two members of a Muslim family in the seaside Barangay Calugusan were hurt when a tall coconut tree broken in the middle by the powerful winds landed on their house.

Personnel of the Lamitan City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said cottages along the beachfront resorts in Calugusan were also damaged.

COTABATO CITY - The mayor of the earthquake-stricken General Santos City extended indefinitely the suspension of classes in all schools covered by their city government that were supposed to resume Wednesday.

Mayor Lorelie Pacquiao ordered on Tuesday the extension of the shutdown of all schools in the city, a directive superseding her earlier order for the resumption of classes on Wednesday.

Pacquiao ordered the closure of all schools in General Santos City immediately after Friday’s strong tremor that jolted the area and nearby provinces.

COTABATO CITY - There is a new non-profit radio station in Basilan propagating religious solidarity among Muslims and Christians to sustain the fragile peace now in all four corners of the province.

Established by the local government unit of Lamitan City and went on air only three weeks ago, the 5,000 watts 94.3 FM Station also espouses good governance and educates listeners on the importance of public cooperation in ensuring the functionality of their barangay governments.

COTABATO CITY - Five soldiers and three militiamen were injured when the light truck carrying them rolled over due to mechanical trouble at a downhill stretch of a highway in Leon B. Postigo town in Zamboanga del Norte on Monday afternoon.

Five of the victims belong to the Army’s 44^th Infantry Battalion while the three others are members of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit, according to senior officials of the 1^st Infantry Division that has jurisdiction over provinces and cities in the Zamboanga peninsula.

COTABATO CITY - Four policemen, one of them a lieutenant, were arrested one after another in police operations in Zamboanga City on Saturday, exactly four days after they allegedly divested in a daring heist a local Tausug trader of P1.8 million worth of cash.

COTABATO CITY --- Suspected extortionists killed two lowly traders of recyclable scrap metal, plastic wares and home fixtures in a daring attack on Thursday afternoon in the seaside Palimbang town in Sultan Kudarat.

In separate statements Friday, the Palimbang Municipal Police Station and the Army’s 603^rd Infantry Brigade separately confirmed the incident that left Eduardo Cabucos Jr. and Ricky Gaso dead.

PATAY ang bagong halal na barangay chairperson ng Barangay Datu Abdul Dadia, Panabo City matapos na siya ay ambusin ngayong hapon.

Nakilala ang biktima na si Paul Albert Saquian o mas kilalang si alias na "EPONG" na binaril sa loob ng kaniyang sasakyan.

Sa report ni Alvin Orsua sa DXMS Radyo Bida mula Panabo City, nabatid na minamaneho ni Saquian ang kanyang kulay silver gray na kotse nang paputukan ng dalawang mga suspect na nakamotorsiklo.

Sa ulo tinamaan ang biktima at siya ay nasawi on the spot.

COTABATO CITY - The police now have a computer-generated image of the suspect who shot dead a radio commentator right inside an announcer’s booth in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental on Sunday morning.

Brig. Gen. Ricardo Layug, Jr., director of the Police Regional Office-10, said personnel of the Calamba Municipal Police Station and intelligence agents from the Misamis Occidental Provincial Police Office are together looking into four possible angles on the murder of Juan Jumalon, who died on the spot from two bullet wounds in the face.

COTABATO CITY - Two men killed using machetes a 20-year-old motorist and wounded another in an attack before dawn Friday in Isabela City in Basilan.

In a statement Sunday, the Isabela City Police Station said Juhadi Jahal Ismali died instantly from wounds sustained in the attack that left his 19-year-old brother, Jimhar, badly wounded.

The victims were riding a motorcycle together, on their way home to Barangay Aguada in Isabela City from somewhere, when their attackers flagged them down and hacked them in different parts of their bodies with their long and sharp machetes.

DAVAO CITY— An independent community radio broadcaster was killed inside his booth at about 5:35 in the morning today Purok 2, Brgy. Don Bernardo A. Neri, Calamba, Misamis Occidental.

Calamba police identified the broadcaster as Juan Jumalon known as “Johnny Walker”. The broadcaster was holding his broadcast inside a room in his residence when the incident happened.