NAGA CITY -- Commemorating the Feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, the patroness of human trafficking victims, the “Third International Day of Prayer and Awareness on Human Trafficking” was held at the Good Shepherd Chapel of the Holy Rosary Major Seminary last February 9, this year, with the theme, “They are God’s Children, Not Slaves!” The said prayer activity was spearheaded by the Caceres Office for Women and Children in Crisis (COWCC) in response to the call of Pope Francis to pray for the victims of trafficking and for those who work to combat it. According to Fr. Xavier Amoroso, the director of the said office, quoting the document issued by Vatican during the First International Day of Prayer and Awareness on Human Trafficking, “the primary objective of this activity is ‘to create greater awareness on this phenomenon and to reflect on the overall situation of violence and injustice that affect so many people, who have no voice, do not count, and are no one because they are simply slaves’”. About 245 participants from the different parishes, religious congregations, schools and youth groups came to join the said activity which began with an “Awareness Seminar on Violence against Women and Children and Human Trafficking” given by Prosecutor Zhella A. Monserate, Senior Assistant Provincial Prosecutor of Camarines Sur, who is also a member of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) and Zonta Club of Naga and Camarines Sur. The said talk was followed by a Eucharistic Celebration in honor of St. Jospehine Bakhita which was presided over by Most Rev. Rolando J. Tria Tirona, Archbishop of Caceres. The launching of the “Kasurog kan mga Kababaihan asin mga Kaakian sa Parokya” or 3KP was also held during the Mass. 3KP is the parish community watchdog of the COWCC which will also serve as the office’s advocacy arm in the parochial level.

Dear Father, Bilang Simbahan o bilang mga miyembro kan Simbahan sala daw po na magtaram manonongod sa gobierno o sa pulitika? Ano po an boot nindang sabihon na ‘Separation of Church and State’? Minagalang, Gener Dear Gener, Napapanahon an saimong hapot. Kun an simbahan minataram manonongod sa pulitika o minatao nin pagtuyaw sa gobierno igua nin tulos na minakurahaw: “Separation of Church and State”. Dakul kan mga ini sala an pakasabot o dai nasasabotan an saindang sinasabi. An “Separation of Church and State” na sinasabi sa ‘Constitution’, sa totoo lang, naka-address sa gobierno. Boot sabihon dai puede mag-pabor an gobierno sa sarong relihiyon. Dai man ini puede magpirit kan mga tawo sa sarong relihiyon. Kaya igua nin separation. Alagad dai ini nagbabawal sa Simbahan o sa mga miyembro kaini na magpahayag kan saindang opinyon o posisyon sa mga isyu. Asin an Constitution mismo nagsasasbi kaini: “No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.” (Article 3 , Section 5). Malinaw na marhay na dai binabawalan kan batas na magpahayag an Simbahan o an saiyang mga miyembro na magpahayag orog na ta an mga miyembro kaini mga namamanwaan (citizens) man. Kun kaya lehitimo, tama asin susog sa derecho an pagpahayag kan Simbahan o kan mga miyembro kaini kan saindang opinyon o posisyon sa mga isyu sa banwaan o sa nasyon. Kun siring, sala na magsabi: ‘Dai puede magtaram an simbahan o an mga miyembro kaini dapit sa gobierno o sa mga isyu huli ta may separation of Church and State.’ Bakong tama an interpretasyon na ini. Ika, bilang Filipino; an mga Catolico, bilang mga Filipino; an mga miyembro kan ibang relihiyon, bilang mga Filipino, igua nin derecho o ‘may karapatan’ na magpahayag kan saindang boot, opinyon o posisyon sa mga isyu sa barangay, munisipalidad, syudad, o nasyon. Kun an gobierno magpugol sa simbahan o sa mga miyembro kaini na magtaram o magpahayag, ini pagtumang, laban sa mga derecho na yaon sa Constitution. Minagalang, Father

Ika 92 na Parokya kan Achidiocesis binuksan sa sarong selebrasyon kan Eucaristia na pinangenotan ni Reverendissimo Rolando Octavus J. Tria Tirona, OCD, DD kan Pebrero 20, 2017 sa Brgy. Dugcal, Camaligan Camarines Sur. An bagong prokya mangangataman kan limang barangays asin duwang sitios. An mga brgy kan Dugcal, Sua, Sitio Gogon asin Tampac sa banwaan kan Camaligan asin mga brgy kan Sua, Mangayawan, Iquin sa banwaan kan Canaman an aatamanon kan bagong parokya sa pangataman ni Sta. Teresa kan Kolkata. Pinagnomrahan man kan Arzobispo si Reb. Padre . Bernard M. Lagatic bilang enot na Cura Parocco kan nasambit na bagong Parokya. Hinagad kan Arzobispo sa saiyan homiliya an pagkasararo asin pagtarabangan kan lambang saro sa paghingowa na maitindog an bagong simbahan.

HALL OF JUSTICE. After 18 years of dreaming, February 10, 2017 finally saw the actual groundbreaking of the construction of the Camarines Sur Hall of Justice at the Capitol Complex, Cadlan, Pili with the Hon. Raymund L. Mecate, Department of Justice Undersecretary as guest of honor. The lot is donated by the provincial government of Camarines Sur under the leadership of Gov. Migz Villafuerte with funding facilitated through President Duterte’s initiative. jmts/danrey/mmec021517TJ/fb_GovMigzVillafuerte

THE QUEEN’S AMBASSADOR. A painting (cubism) on Naga’s interesting landmarks by local artist Ray Ubaldo is presented as token by Mayor John Bongat and Vice Mayor Nelson Legacion to visiting British Ambassador to the Philippines Asif Ahmad (center). CEPPIO

THE ROBREDOS. Siblings Butch Robredo (seated left), and (l-r, standing) Penny, Josephine, and Jeanne reunites with their late brother (represented here as a sitting statue), former DILG Secretary and Naga City Mayor Jesse M. Robredo which will be a central figure in a museum being completed by the National Historical Commission in a corner lot at the Naga City Civic Center. FACEBOOK PHOTO

AFFECTED subsistence miners in Camarines Norte rally in front of Camarines Norte Capitol Building to ask the lifting of cease and desist order from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau or hasten the approval of the Minahang Bayan permit to allow them to undertake small-scale mining activities. Juan Escandor Jr. By Juan Escandor Jr. DAET, Camarines Norte --- On Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14), about 3,000 subsistence miners held a rally in front of the Capitol building here as they cried for source of livelihood after the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued “cease and desist order (CDO)” against illegal mining activities in the 12 towns of Camarines Norte province. Officials of the towns of Jose Panganiban and Paracale told the Bicol Mail that a total of about 11,000 families directly depending on small-scale mining activities have lost their livelihood with the enforcement of the CDO. “The action of the director of the MGB has displaced economically subsistence miners in seven villages in Jose Panganiban that are easily translated to 6,000 families or about 30,000 individuals who are affected,” according to Sarah Marie P. Aviado, municipal environment and natural resources officer of Jose Panganiban. In the town of Paracale, the number of subsistence miners and their families affected by the CDO reached 5,000, revealed Gil B. Salen, municipal planning and development coordinator. Wilfredo Sapalaran, 54, affected subsistence miner, said he started mining in 1980 in Barangay Luklukan in Panganiban town, and made do to raise his seven children even though his eldest is 32 years old and the youngest is eight years old. Sapalaran said his spouse is a plain housewife while two of his children are already married so that four of his children are still dependent while one child is already working and helps the family. “I call on the government to allow us continue our mining activities because we do not destroy the environment unlike the large-scale mining that strips mountains of vegetation,” he said pointing to the verdant terrain where they mine by making tunnel in the mountain. But Guillermo Molina, MGB Bicol director, explained the CDO he issued against illegal mining activities on January 10, this year, was based on the Executive Order 79 and the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 7076 or the Small-Scale Mining Act. Molina said he the CDO he issued was not the first one because two previous MGB directors had issued the same years back. “The issuance of the CDO shows that we are doing activities not in line with the laws. I decided to enforce the CDO all over the province, especially in the towns where there are illegal mining activities like Paracale, Panganiban and Labo,” he said. Molina said he had forwarded the directive he issued against illegal mining activities to the local governments of the province, municipal and barangay in Camarines Norte and that he had deputized last week the municipal police of Labo and Panganiban while Paracale municipal police was deputized earlier. Maria Linda Yasis, 46, said the primary livelihood of her family is through subsistence mining so that if the government continues to prevent them from mining it is tantamount to “burying their family in the grave.” “We don’t even have steady income with the only livelihood (subsistence mining). When there is no gold we suffer, if we strike one our family is provided and we can send our kids to school,” Yasis said. She said through mining her eldest child was able to finish Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and her two high school students and four children are still in the elementary. Yasis said there are still six children who have to finish school. Gov. Edgardo A. Tallado said he sympathized with the subsistence miners who lost their livelihood since the CDO was enforced by the MGB without giving them alternative livelihood. “There were pending application at the MGB that won’t give them permits,” Tallado said. Molina said the permit for subsistence miners to get mining permit is through the Minahang Bayan which applications had been pending approval since 2010 and still under process. He said the biggest problem confronting the approval of the Minahang Bayan is the consent from mineral claimants under it which are usually the large-scale mining corporations with approved mineral claims in Camarines Norte. Molina said only one large-scale mining corporation, the Golden River, has consented to give their claim under the Minahang Bayan applied for in Paracale town. Serafin Dasco, president of the Samahan ng Magkakabod ng Paracale (Association of Subsistence Miners in Paracale), retorted that if the problem is the consent from mineral claimants, there must be period of prescription of the mineral claims once it is not used for a long period. Molina said there is prescription which is five years and after which the MGB can recommend for cancellation of the mineral claims but he said there are instances when the mineral claims cannot be cancelled because of pending review if it is under process renewal. He said all over the Philippines only seven Minahang Bayan had been approved 10 years after the Small-Scale Mining Act had been implemented. Molina said it will only be the secretary of the DENR who can reverse the CDO against small-scale mining in Camarines Norte or interested group can ask the court to grant them temporary restraining order while the processing of the Minahang Bayan is underway.

By Manuel T. Ugalde LEGAZPI CITY --- Many local newsmen here, dubbed as “instant journalists” for whatever the tag means, are now desperately looking for other jobs after the former Albay governor left the provincial capitol when he ran and won as congressman after his last executive position expired last year. During the past 9 years that then Gov. Joey Salceda held the reins at the Capitol, these instant journalists were recipients of the so-called media assistance fund that was established under the watch of the ‘media-friendly’ former governor. That mediamen’s privilege vanished into thin air with the assumption of Al Francis Bichara as the province’s new governor who put the break on such ‘mediamen’s bounty’ or “grease money” (as some more discriminating legit newsmen would deride it) when a resolution was passed disallowing release of such fund effective June 30, 2017. The Bicol Reporters Association (Brass) disclosed that Albay which is the regional administrative center for Bicol with most of the regional offices as sources of news based in Legazpi City used to have only 30 active members in both the broadcast and print industry in the early 80s but these rose to 100 in 2007, as more radio stations multiplied and eventually there was the centeris the home of the Bicol Regional Center based in Legazpi City have barely around 30 active and part time media practitioners in broadcast and print during the early 80’s that rose close to 100 in 2007, especially among broadcasters when radio stations multiplied to then 35 now and they have the media assistance find from the provincial capitol to look forward to. But while radio stations flourished, the local weeklies barely survived the onslaught of high printing cost. Bicolwide, only a dozen weeklies continue to survive, albeit on irregular basis, from the original 30 weeklies, according to veteran journalist-writer Prof. Salvador Flor, 74, president of the Bicol Reporters Association. How the fund came to be During the incumbency of then Gov. Joey Sarte Salceda since his assumption of the top post in the provincial capitol in 2007, he thought of extending monthly assistance by way of a provincial board resolution that appropriated funds for local journalists who will help in promoting the province’s frontline programs. The media fund assistance handled airtime of every block-time broadcaster whose remuneration was paid through the radio station that aired the program while reporters collected their honorarium through the governor’s private ‘finance officer.’ According to Flor, economic constraint forced many local AM-FM radio stations in Legazpi to lay off their regular announcers and reporters that many of them opted to go a block-timers in order to have access to fund assistance being dangled by the provincial capitol. A question is asked: If a broadcaster receives ‘manna’ from the provincial capitol, would he speak ill of those who are its occupants – from the provincial board members that appropriated the fund up to the provincial governor that approved and releases the fund? It is said that there is no way that the fund will be revived as the new governor, Al Francis Bichara, is very much against the ‘bribe money’ scheme. A published report said that radio stations in Albay have grown to more than 35, most of these are community FM radio stations that are heavily identified with politicians. Bichara himself has his FM Fox Radio Station that has been in operation for more than 8 years now with his Capitol spokesman Danny Garcia as station manager. Garcia said FOX FM is plain public service, news and music and was never intended as a political tool of the governor. Former capitol public affairs chief Ex Rieza said media support fund from Salceda actually began during his 3-term as 3rd district congressman that ended in 2007 where Salceda would use his personal funds. Rieza said the former governor was so concerned about media workers who live on tiny income. About 90 percent of the broadcast and print media workers in Albay had availed of the capitol support fund without condition, he said. Salceda’s critics said the fund – out of taxpayers’ money – was Salceda’s scheme to win the media’s strong support lest they would not be receiving any of the ‘hot money.’ Concerned sectors lamented that the proliferation of block-time broadcasters and community radio stations in the time of Salceda also multiplied the number of extremely incompetent and broadcasters, who are more likened to ‘hitmen’ or avid propagandists that dish out outright lies and untruthful reports. ‘No news at Capitol’ Flor lamented that during the visit of Miss World Catriona Ragas Gray on Oct. 14 whose mother is from Oas, Albay, not one from the media had covered her Capitol visit on Gov. Bichara except Garcia of Fox FM Radio. Miss World Gray, however, was mobbed by close to 30 media workers and a huge crowd when she of every student aim to have at least one college graduate for every family, his grand tourism program that links four provinces. He said the media support fund was cleared by the Commission on Audit. proceeded to nearby Ninongs Hotel to meet with Rep. Salceda. Flor admitted that Albay was put in the international map not only because of Mayon Volcano but because of Salceda’s mega projects citing his strong advocacy on climate change, effective disaster and risk management aimed for a zero casualty in times of disaster, and tourism programs that increased tourists’ arrivals in the province. Flor said Salceda also surprised Albayanos when the province became a host durin the 2013 Asean Pacific Economic Cooperation ministerial meeting. Added to this is the P4B Bicol International Airport which President Duterte pledged to become operational before 2019. All these developments in Albay were in the news, Flor said. Asked why Salceda continue to draw crowds and media attention even outside Albay compared to other local officials, Flor said he has yet to interview Salceda but I think it’s not the funds that attracts the media which Salceda’s critics had been saying but Salceda’s treatment of the media, critical or otherwise, and his propensity to deliver news. Seven months after Salceda’s departure from the capitol, law graduate broadcaster Wally Magdato said, laughing: “It’s always no news day at the capitol, not even a cup of coffee.”

By Mylce Mella, ABS-CBN NAGA CITY --- Using the social media through his Facebook account, mountaineer-environmentalist Jojo Villareal pushed the red button to express alarm over the ancient trees that were marked “x” inside the protected Mt. Isarog Natural Park. The markings, according to Villareal, are indicators that the trees are destined to be cut off to give way to a proposed roadway towards a renewable energy project being constructed in the area. More fellow netizens have expressed disgust, fear, and strong opposition to the project following Villareal’s posting on his Facebook about the impending plunder of the protected area. Reporteddly a project of Clean and Green Energy Solutions, the 1.5 megawatt mini-hydro project has been in the works for about a year now. It has been estimated that three years will be needed to complete the project in Bgy. San Pedro (formerly Bgy. Aroro) in the town of Goa, Camarines Sur. The contractor has been identified as Pacific Summit Construction Group. So far, an access road has been constructed in the area, with diggings for large pipes to be installed. A pile of water pipes can be seen in the working site. Also to be constructed are surge tanks, where water will be impounded, reports said. According to the plan, a part of Rangas River will divert the running water to the proposed plant to produce energy. The power produced will then be sold to the Camarines Sur Electronic Cooperative IV. The Rangas River and the project site, which Villareal and local environmentalists said lie within the Mt. Isarog Protected Area, are within the congressional district of Rep. Noli Fuentebella. San Pedro Barangay Chairman Jinky Llagas said it was in March last year that she was told about the project. Documents about the project were shown to her by personnel of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) when she requested for them. “Dakula po an proyektong iyan, siyempre may mga proseso. Bale naghapot po ako ki Bong Moleda (kan DENR) kung ano ang mga papeles na dapat kong mahiling,” Llagas said. An Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), signed by then DENR Regional Director Gilbert Gonzales last November 2009 was among the documents shown. There was also a Certificate of Non-Coverage of the project, which showed that it (the project) needed not to secure an ECC for the project operation to start. Llagas said there were complete documentary requirements shown to her and that many of her constituents were given jobs at the project site. “Their lives have somehow improved due to the weekly income (they earned from the project),” Llagas said referring to the residents hired for various jobs at the site. Meanwhile, project manager Engr. Homobono Serrano declined an interview but assured this reporter that their papers and documents are in order. He added that they have applied for permit from the DENR to cut a total of 73 trees along the project site but such application is still under processing by the DENR. The project did not escape attention by the Ateneo de Naga University Institute for Environmental Conservation and Research and according to their investigation, a dam to be constructed as part of the mini-hydro project will be situated right within the restricted premises of the Mt. Isarog Natural Park. “When water supply decreases because of the hydro project, organisms and other natural inhabitants downstream of the river will be severely affected,”according to Joanaviva Plopenio, officer-in-charge of ADNU-INECAR. “We have a law, the NIPAS law of 1992, with its implementing rules that clearly restrict activities within the natural park. So that project should not have been allowed,” she stressed. As far as the INECAR, the ECC that Clean and Green Energy Solutions has been talking about had already expired. INECAR plans to submit their own report to the DENR. “As much as possible, we will submit such report in the national level, to DENR Secretary Gina Lopez. Mas marhay duman para madali an aksyon,” Plopenio said. If the Department of Energy were to be asked, its spokesperson and Undersecretary Wimpy Fuentabella, former congressman and son of the incumbent congressman of the 4th district ng Camarines Sur that comprises the controversial project, averred that natural resources may be utilized to produce alternative renewal sources of energy. “We have to develop our natural resources for wealth creation, for us to compete with other countries. We have to be very logical and scientific in approaching all these problems…if we keep on delaying certain projects then we will have a problem,” he stressed. The preservation and protection of Mt. Isarog Natural Park is very important as it is the source of potable water that are supplied to various municipalities surrounding the mountain, including the burgeoning city of Naga. The mountain is enveloped by fresh, clean air and is home to rare species of fauna and faura, including the endemic Isarog shrew rat, cloud frog, at forest skink, which are of great interest to scholars and scientists. The natural park at the higher portion of Mt. Isarog was declared as a protected area in 2002. Mylce Mella, ABS-CBN

By Juan Escandor Jr. NAGA CITY --- In the nick of time, the Court of Appeals stopped the dismissal of Camarines Norte Edgardo A. Tallado who was earlier ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman. The appeals court granted Tallado the writ of temporary injunction before the 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) it granted last year expired Friday (Feb. 10), effectively lifting continuously the dismissal order issued by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales on April 18, 2016. Issued on Thursday (Feb. 9), the appeals court reiterated the condonation doctrine it cited in the issuance of TRO on Dec. 12, 2016 as applied in the case of Morales vs. Court of Appeals and Binay Jr. The writ of temporary injunction supplanted the TRO it granted to Tallado that initially lifted Morales’ dismissal order imposed on the governor in relation to the administrative case filed by four provincial government personnel he dismissed in 2010. “Until it is settled how the prospective application of the condonation doctrine should be applied, the Ombudsman’s Decision dated April 18, 2016 imposing the dismissal from service upon herein petitioner (Tallado) should be enjoined,” according to the Court of Appeals Third Division. The writ of temporary injunction was penned by Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang and concurred by Associate Justices Mario V. Lopez and Myra V. Garcia-Fernandez. In its April 18, 2016 decision, Morales found Tallado “guilty of grave misconduct and oppression/abuse of authority with the aggravating circumstance of recidivism and meted the penalty of dismissal from service with the accessory penalties of cancellation of eligibility, bar from taking any Civil Service Examination, forfeiture of retirement benefits and perpetual disqualification for reemployment in the government service.” The administrative case in which Morales decided against Tallado was filed by Millene Marie D. Belarma-Dela Cruz, Mark Anthony Mago, Maria Joannelle I. Crisostomo and Shanta Valenciano-Baraquiel, who were previously appointed by former governor Jesus Typoco Jr. Citing the application of the condonation doctrine, the appeals court decision further explained that “the acts complained of in the administrative case were committed in 2010.” Tallado has been reelected in 2013 and 2016 as governor since he decisively won the 2010 elections. Two weeks before the elections in 2010, Tallado had been installed by the Department of Interior and Local Government as governor after the Supreme Court decided in his favor the petition to nullify and reverse the election results in 2007 that made Typoco the governor of Camarines Norte for almost three years. The appeals court has also noted the failure of the Ombudsman “to show cause why the TRO issued should be lifted and why petitioner’s (Tallado’s) application for the writ preliminary injunction should not be granted,” It granted Tallado the writ of preliminary injunction after the extension of the submission of the Ombudsman of “the show cause” argument against Tallado’s application lapsed on Jan. 23, 2017. The appeals court further ordered that the bond of P50,000 posted last year as condition of Tallado’s reinstatement as Camarines Norte’s governor “shall continue to serve as injunction bond.”

By Bobby Q. Labalan SORSOGON CITY --- A ranking official of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) in Sorsogon was arrested by government troops as attempts to end the decades-old insurgency through peace talks bogged down. Senior Supt. Ronaldo Cabral, director of the Sorsogon Provincial Police Office (PPO) in an interview Monday, said Emmanuel Alindogan More alias “Ka Cris,” 53, was nabbed by joint operatives of Sorsogon PPO and 31st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Barangay Tughan, Juban at around 1:50 p.m. on Sunday. “More is currently the secretary and finance officer of Larangan 1 of CPP-NPA-NDF operating in the province, particularly in Sorsogon City, Barcelona, Casiguran, Gubat, and Prieto-Diaz,” he said. Cabral, however, did not state the circumstances surrounding the arrest, whether the rebel leader resisted or gave up peacefully. More’s arrest, by virtue of a warrant issued by Judge Victor C. Gella, Regional Trial Court Branch 52, Sorsogon City for attempted murder under Criminal Case No. 2007-6945, occurred just a day after the rebel group officially terminated its unilateral ceasefire following the withdrawal of the government peace panel from the peace talks. The government had earlier formally served notice to the CPP-NPA-NDF peace panel on the official termination of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee or JASIG. Cabral added that earlier during the week, two armed clashes between the government and rebel forces had occurred in Sorsogon within a span of only four days. NPA rebels and Army troopers clashed at Sitio Burabod, Barangay Trece Martirez, Casiguran town on February 6 while another encounter occurred at Barangay Tula-Tula Norte, Magallanes in the morning of February 10. Two army personnel were reported injured in the Casiguran clash but none was reported in the encounter in Magallanes.

By Jason B. Neola NAGA CITY --- The Sangguniang Bayan of Canaman, Camarines Sur has passed and adopted a resolution authorizing their Municipal Mayor, Henry P. Ragodon, to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Municipal Government of Camaligan town relative to the operation of trimobiles that pass through the two neighboring municipalities. The resolution, dated February 7, 2017, states clearly that the authority is being given in compliance with the recent Order of Branch 61 Regional Court Trial Judge Soliman M. Santos Jr. that provides for a Court-preferred compromise settlement of the civil case for injunction with application for TRO and writ of preliminary injunction which is dependent upon a MOA relative to the operation of a trimobile association whose units pass through common connecting roads of both municipalities. Judge Santos stressed that the court-preferred compromise settlement of the case envisions and depends on the two defendant municipalities executing and putting into effect a memorandum of agreement (MOA) governing the plying of tricycles by members of the SIMSDTODA of Dugcal Road, Camaligan connecting Barangays Sua and Del Rosario in Canaman. He furthered that the emerging key terms of the settlement which nevertheless be subject to the local government processes of the two defendant municipalities is for the SIMSDTODA drivers to be allowed to pass through and unload passengers on Dugcal Road but not to pick up passengers unless for an emergency situation. According to records of the case, members of the Camaligan Deputized Traffic Enforcers (Cadete) conducted series of apprehensions of tricycle drivers with franchises approved by the Municipality of Canaman while they pass by Dugcal Road from Barangay Sua to Barangay Del Rosario, the latter belonging to Canaman town. There is no other road that connects Sua to Del Rosario but Dugcal Road which is located within Camaligan town. It was argued that no local government can prohibit the passage of any vehicle, public or private, along a national road, referring to Dugcal Road. Last January 17, as reported in this paper, Judge Santos, with the issuance of a temporary restraining order on the case has ordered the authorities of Camaligan to stop apprehending tricycle drivers of nearby Canaman town who pass by the road in the former town while going to their true destination.