COA probes P2M
coop fund mess

Some officials of the Bohol Poverty Reduction Management Office (BPRMO) are in hot water after the Commission on Audit (COA) found discrepancies in the utilization of a P2-million financial assistance given to a local federation of cooperatives.

Pedro Paumig, Jr., audit team leader declared that per findings uncovered, P396,398.65 was unaccounted, aside from the alleged misuse of funds and cash advances derived from the P2 million fund assistance released by the office of the governor and a capital build-up of P325,200 contributed by the 20 members of the federation.
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EDITORIAL
DEPOLITICIZE THE "BOTIKA SA KATAWHAN"

We know whereof we speak when we claim that next to food, the need for medicine is priority in man's laundry list. Our heart-rending experience with the 20-year operation

Lower crime rate, but murder,
robbery double
By: KIT BAGAIPO

City Mayor Dan Lim yesterday said crime volume is lower this year compared to the last two years covering the months of January and February of each year.

However, the incidence of murder and robbery had doubled this year.

Since the start of 2008, three persons were murdered while 36 cases of robbery were recorded.
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No-to-GMO mural
contest launched

A mural painting contest was launched on March 3, at the Bohol Cultural Center grounds. The said activity was attended by several students and advocates of sustainable agriculture and organic food systems. Engr. Vicente T. Loquellano, president of the Bohol Initiators for Sustainable Agriculture and Development which co-organizes the event, presented the purpose of the mural painting activity.
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LIGHT FOR TRUTH. Lighted candles dramatized the Boholanos' call for truth and clean governance during an interfaith prayer rally at Plaza Rizal last Friday where state witness Jun Lozada beamed his message through the airlanes from Manila. Foto DANNY REYES

SPORTS
Pacman ready for
Marquez, says Roach

HOLLYWOOD.- When in deep training, Manny Pacquiao is like an onrushing train. Fluid in motion yet difficult to halt.

After a back-breaking, two-hour workout and eight rounds of sparring and shadow-boxing, there was only one thing Pacquiao wanted to do at trainer Freddie Roach's Wild Card gym: Work out even more.
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A former president of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) is the "surprise" witness who will testify on the purported million-dollar kickbacks in the $329-million National Broadband Network deal with Chinese firm ZTE Corp., according to highly placed sources.

Eduardo Mañalac, who is said to have deep connections in China, is to testify at the Senate on Tuesday on how at least $41 million in alleged under-the-table commissions were funneled from the Chinese firm to the so-called "Greedy Group plus plus" that was packaging the NBN-ZTE deal, said the sources who asked not to be named for security reasons.
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