Some 100 successful nursing board examinees in Zamboanga City trooped to the office of resigned priest Monsi Crisanto Dela Cruz at Lantaka Hotel yesterday asking him to intervene and convince President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to reconsider her decision in ordering the retake of the controversial nursing examination.

Without much ado and in the presence of his visitors, Dela Cruz called up Malacañang but was informed that the President was in the middle of an emergency meeting with some Cabinet members.

Mayor Celso L. Lobregat has urged the Tricycle Adjudication Board (TAB) and the City Council''s Committee on Franchise to strictly implement the cleansing process on franchises in the current renewal period.

Lobregat said that Councilor Roel Natividad who heads the Council''s Committee on Franchises should adopt a stricter system which will truly determine the legality of each and every tricycle franchise which comes into his office for signature.

A six-year-old boy drowned, while his buddy managed to save himself in a fishpond in Lumiyap, Divisoria last Wednesday afternoon.

The fatality was identified as Marvin Biran, a kindergarten pupil and a resident of Lumiyap. His friend Renden, 7, managed to swim back to shore.

Fire broke out at the high school building of Zamboanga Polytechnic School last Wednesday night.

A Bureau of Fire Protection report disclosed that the fire started around 9 p.m.

The City Council approved yesterday a resolution sponsored by Councilor Luis Climaco asking City Hall to give consideration to hotels located along Jaldon St. by affording them and their customers ample time in the loading and unloading of baggages upon arrival and departure at hotels'' front door along the road.

During the Council''s regular session yesterday, Councilor Climaco observed that when travelers arrived at the front door of the different hotels along Jaldon Street, law enforcers are so strict, often pressuring hotel vehicle drivers and other vehicles to hurry and leave the area.

For keeping up a good performance and maintaining first-rate credibility, City Health Officer Rodel Agbulos was among those who were chosen Ten Outstanding Public Servants (TOPS) in the entire region by the Civil Service Commission-9 (CSC-9).

During the culminating program of the CSC''s 106th year Anniversary yesterday afternoon at the Audio Visual Room of Zamboanga State College of Marines Sciences and Technology, Agbulos, who personally accepted the prestigious award from CSC Assistant Commissioner Elmer Bartolata, expressed gratitude and committed to do more for the welfare of the city.

Zamboanga City will host this year''s regional leg tournament for the 14th Shell National Youth Active Chess Championship in search for the future grand masters to be held at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University gymnasium on Saturday and Sunday (Sept. 30-Oct.1).

Some 500 youthful chess players from all over the Philippines, mostly coming from cities and provinces in Mindanao, are expected to join the regional chess competition organized by Shell and sanctioned by the Philippine National Chess Federation.

The Regional Office of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in cooperation with the Department of Education launched yesterday for Western Mindanao the BSP''s national coin recirculation program called "Tulong Barya Para sa Eskwela".

BSP-Manila Acting Manager Arnel Salva explained that this program will encourage people to value every denomination of the Philippine money.

SAN JOSE, CA. -- Perhaps, we should heed the call, sounded by Congressman Erbie Fabian, to pray and plead for lasting unity and brotherhood -- among men and politicians. We need to pray as we are about to celebrate yet another feast of Our Lady of the Pillar. We should also pray to our patroness, Immaculate Conception, to grant us the strength to overcome our obstacles.

We are about to roll up the red carpet for our visitors, both from near and far. They will have a taste of Zamboanga -- her beauty and spice. We offer what other cities do not -- all kinds of fruits until their stomachs bloat; all sorts of finger-licking food; beautiful scenic spots that even the locals have not seen; and more. We shall unfold the grandest fiesta ever to be celebrated as part of our tourism program -- to draw in not only tourists but also investors. It''s about time that the Zamboecozone flourish with locators from other cities and countries. We need capital investment and venture capitalists to help our city grow, economically and socially.

All that saber rattling by MILF Chairman Ibrahim Murad is not doing the Moro people and the rest of the Mindanaoans any good. Only those who cannot live in peace will be in accord with Murad. We do not think that the pioneers and the indigenous peoples will think soberly of the threats that the MILF Chairman aired following the stalled peace talks in Kuala Lumpur. We do not even know why the talks were suspended although from the threats of the MILF we can surmise that their demand for wider sphere of Moro ancestral domain does not appeal to government negotiators for this can breed a more complicated problem in Mindanao later.

We don''t think that there is a quick solution to resolve the stalemate of the Kuala Lumpur sponsored peace talks. The biggest impediment to whatever agenda the MILF has is the fact that the government has a peace accord with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The MILF should work out their problem through the MNLF and not just presume that they are superior to the MNLF of the indigenous peoples.

September 8, 2006 marked the beginning of a new sense of direction for a Nuevo Zamboanga, for Monsi Crisanto Dela Cruz celebrated his last mass at the St. Joseph Parish located at Nuñez St., this city. Even before the mass began, a great number of people were already crowding the parish, and as soon as the mass started at 5:30 in the afternoon, an estimated number of 1,000 to 1,500 people were trying to make an entry into an already-crowded church. Co-presiding were his brother priests, Msgr. David Alonso, Rev. Fr. Nonoy Dela Peña, Rev. Fr. Rene Rivero, Rev. Fr. Gilbert Jente, Rev. Fr. Mars Villagracia, Rev. Fr. Butch Candido Rev. Fr. Larry Galor and Msgr. Arnold Dela Serna.

The last mass celebrated by the local priest denoted his resignation from his priestly functions. No final say was announced yet for Msgr. Cris Dela Cruz has not yet given his formal declaration regarding his candidacy in the 2007 mayoral elections. Regular church goers, members of the media, some political and prominent personalities were highly expecting Monsi Cris'' most awaiting declaration. But all that was heard during the mass was his resignation.

A four-year-old girl died while her four brothers and sisters were hospitalized after they ate boiled cassava in Barangay Lumayang last Sunday.

The fatality was identified as Aivy Delos Reyes. Taken to the hospital were Aiza, 15, Anirose, 10, Richard, 8 and Melissa, 6, all residents of Lumayang.

Six crewmembers of a small steel-hulled interisland cargo boat were rescued by Coast Guard and Navy personnel after the vessel capsized off R.T. Lim Boulevard yesterday afternoon.

ML Arsima 1, owned by Hji. Hassan Judaini, was docked at the Wee Bin wharf yesterday when its anchor was cut off by strong waves.

A team of ARMM policemen, carrying high-powered firearms and escorting a Sulu politician, were sent home Sunday after arriving at the Zamboanga port aboard a fast craft ferry plying the Jolo-Zamboanga route.

Task Force Zamboanga soldiers under Col. Antonio Supnet reprimanded the police escorts and explained to the Sulu politician that there is total gun ban in effect in Zamboanga City and they have to deposit their firearms at the local port depository before entering the city.

Regional Monitoring Services Inc. (RMSI) president Ghalib Espital, who was a principal negotiator of the Gonzalez family who also helped for the safe release of Grace Eleanor Gonzales, disclosed the other day that the kidnap victim could have been freed much earlier had it not been for the undue interference of several groups who have self-interest and political motives.

Espital said that Grace could have been freed several weeks earlier if these groups which he declined to identify have not meddled in the earlier negotiations being carried out with the kidnappers in Basilan.