MORE NEWS, PAMPANGA

Priest electrocuted by microphone

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – A 32-year-old parish priest died April 7 after he was electrocuted while holding the microphone of a karaoke sing-along machine at a beach resort in Morong, Bataan.

Senior Supt. Manuel Gaerlan, Bataan police director, said Fr. Roberto del Rosario, parish priest of Balagtas, Bulacan, was about to sing when he was electrocuted by the microphone of the karaoke machine at Managers’ Beach Resort in Barangay Nagbalayong in Morong at about 6:30 p.m.

Investigators said the priest had a swim in the sea and was about to sing a song when he was electrocuted.

PO3 Francis Aquino of the Morong police, said Del Rosario joined his parishioners for an outing at the resort when the accident happened.

“The report is that the priest emerged from swimming and was still wet when he held the microphone,” Aquino said.

The priest’s companions saw the victim trembling as he held the microphone.
They pulled out the plug of the microphone and then rushed the victim to the James Gordon Memorial Hospital in Olongapo City, but the victim died on the way.

Aquino said police probers are looking into the liability of resort owner Rodolfo Abella for allowing guests to use a defective machine.

Gearlan ordered a thorough investigation of the incident to determine if the resort owner was responsible for the priest’s death. – George Trillo


Marathoners commemorate World War 2 Death March
By George Trillo

SAN FERNANDO, Pam­panga – For more than two decades, a group of marathoners have been honoring survivors and other heroes of the Death March during World War II.

Last week, they again retraced the steps of the infamous march that started on the same date, exactly 66 years ago.

Marathoner Ed Paez, founder of the San Fernando Runners Unlimited Inc. (Safer
RUN) said it was a “tribute run for World War II veterans and those of them who are still alive starting at the Mariveles marker where the actual Death March started.”
Paez’s group is now on their 22rd year of commemorating the Death March, which happened after the fall of Bataan into the hands of Japanese invaders in World War II.

“The relay marathon is the oldest and longest-running tribute run honoring our World War II veterans,” Paez said.

Dubbed “Araw ng Kagi­tingan Ultra-Marathon,” the two-day, 102-kilometer run, launched by Paez’s group in 1986 after People Power I, started with a “Walk with the Heroes” program at the Death March marker in Mariveles.

Paez said 87-year-old Veterans Federation of the Philippines post commander Abra­ham Regala and Mariveles Mayor Jesse Concepcion led the first 10-meter stretch as a send-off to the mara­thoners.

Regala then passed on the symbolic torch to Paez.

Paez said the torch, along with the flags of the Philippines, Japan and the United
States, were carried up to the final destination at a Death March marker at a railway site in San Fernando.

The runners retraced the actual course of the Death March through nine towns of Bataan and will spend the night in Lubao, Pampanga before moving on the following day to Guagua, Bacolor, and finally to San Fernando where Mayor Oscar Rodriguez welcomed them.