. NEWS ROUNDUP .

Raped daughter exacts revenge on father

BACOLOD CITY - Rolando Cunanan, 56, was found dead, hogtied and hacked several times, on Easter Sunday in his nipa hut in Silos, Murcia, Negros Occidental.

SPO1 Frisco Lobaton, Murcia PNP desk officer, said they found a letter at the crime scene, allegedly written by Cunanan's daughter claiming that she and her lover, who had come home from living in Manila, were responsible for the killing. Cunanan had reportedly raped his daughter two years ago.

Lobaton said the couple fled on board a motorcycle. - Gilbert Bayoran

Public school students given fee-free graduation

LAS Piñas Mayor Vergel Aguilar said 12,612 public elementary and high school students in his city will graduate without expense and those with honors will even receive cash gifts.

Aguilar, concurrent chair of the City School Board, said his administration will spend for togas and souvenir photos. Valedictorians, salutatorians and honorable mentions from elementary and high schools will receive cash gifts of P3,000 P2,000 and P1,000, respectively.

A free, quality and accessible public school education has been Aguilar's priority since he first became mayor in 1995. The city government put up the first ever City College in 1998 to provide quality college education to 2,000 poor but deserving students of the city. For the coming schoolyear, a new three-storey 25-classroom Information Technology Training Center will be opened for 2,000 scholars for networking, web design and development, graphic design and animation and programming courses.

 Businessman survives ambush in Makati

GUNMEN on motorcycles shot buy-and-sell businessman Stewart Co, 27, in Palanan, Makati City on Monday, wounding carwash customer Allan Ponsia and a still unidentified man in the process. Co and Ponsia took several bullets and are now confined at the Makati Medical Center.

Makati police chief Supt. Gilbert Cruz said Co had just withdrawn P490,000 in cash from the BPI branch in Dian Street when three gunmen on two motorcycles began shooting at him at the corner of Finlandia and Batangas streets.

Cruz said the motive could have been to kill Co since the attackers took nothing from his bullet-riddled car. "This might just be a plain hit, baka ipapapatay lang siya," Cruz said.

Witnesses said Co was about to turn to Finlandia Street when the assassins blocked his path. A gunman broke his window after he refused to roll it down. Co was able to save himself by running and hiding inside a nearby carwash shop owned by a friend despite being shot. - Ashzel Hachero

Near-shootout averted between Pasay cops, PACER agents

A NEAR-shootout took place between the Police Anti-Emergency Response (PACER) and the Pasay police before noon Monday following the former's arrest of a kidnapping suspect.

PACER operatives arrested John Lambino in front of the Tajh Travel Agency at Eden Bldg. F.B. Harrison Street. His cousin, Teresita Santos, who owns the travel agency, immediately called the police which sent a team to block the PACER operatives from leaving on board three vehicles. Santos said the heavily armed PACER agents did not even bother to introduce themselves.

Tension escalated after the PACER team also refused to answer questions from the Pasay police or to get out of their vehicles.