Zambo City to reimpose RT-PCR requirement

By Teofilo Garcia, Jr.

TIGHTER BORDER WATCH. Border watch in Zamboanga City will be stricter as shown in this undated photo. The local Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease will reimpose the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test requirement effective January 12 for inbound travelers coming from areas with higher alert levels. (Photo courtesy of City Hall Public Information Office)


ZAMBOANGA CITY – This city will reimpose on January 12 the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test requirement for inbound travelers regardless of vaccination status due to the threat posed by the Omicron variant.

However, Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar, who chairs the local Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), said in a statement on Saturday such requirement will only be applied to inbound travelers coming from Continue reading Zambo City to reimpose RT-PCR requirement

Army enlists ‘Tausug’ plane crash first responder

By Teofilo Garcia, Jr.

DREAM COME TRUE. Former construction worker Erham Awaluddin (left) poses in this undated photo in Sulu with PFC Ganney Ligayan, whom he saved from a burning plane that crashed in the island province’s Sitio Amman, Barangay Bangkal, Patikul on July 4, 2021. As one of the first responders during the incident, Awaluddin’s dream of becoming a soldier came true when he got accepted as a Private at the Army’s 11th Infantry Division. (Photo courtesy of the 11th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office)

ZAMBOANGA CITY – It was a dream come true for Erham Awaluddin, then a construction worker in Patikul, Sulu, to become a soldier.

Unknown to Awaluddin, his effort by risking his life as a first responder in the July 2021 C-130 “Hercules” plane crash would help him fulfill his Continue reading Army enlists ‘Tausug’ plane crash first responder

Another P600-K smuggled cigarettes seized in Zambo Peninsula

By Teofilo Garcia, Jr.

ZAMBOANGA CITY – Security forces have intercepted another shipment of smuggled cigarettes worth PHP590,000, bringing to more than PHP2.4 million the contrabands seized during the past two days in Region 9, authorities said Friday.

Brig. Gen. Franco Simborio, Police Regional Office-Zamboanga Peninsula (PRO-9) director, said the latest batch of assorted smuggled cigarettes shipment was seized on midnight Thursday in Barangay Buenavista, this city.

“Before the confiscation, troopers from the Army’s 74th Infantry Battalion’s Bravo Company were conducting a Continue reading Another P600-K smuggled cigarettes seized in Zambo Peninsula