Carla P. Gomez

Former Bacolod Rep. John Orola has registered to vote in Salvador Benedicto town fuelling speculation again that he plans to run for governor of Negros Occidental in 2022 against Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson.The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi is holding “sort of a convention” in Negros Occidental, which is tentatively set on September 4, Orola said on Wednesday, August 25.The gathering will be a get-together of potential candidates in Negros Occidental and Bacolod, said Orola, who said he is a member of PDP Laban.He may decide what his political plans will be after the PDP-Laban convention, he said.Asked if he would run for governor if fielded by PDP-Laban, Orola said it will depend on the outcome of the convention. ...

President Rodrigo Duterte, in his speech in Dumaguete City on March 11 said Senator Bong Go, right, want to run for president.*Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said that it is very important that the issue on whether President Rodrigo Duterte can run for vice president in 2022 be brought to the Supreme Court to decide.“And hopefully the Supreme Court will judiciously and expeditiously decide on the matter,” Lacson said on Wednesday, August 25.While an incumbent president cannot run for reelection, if Duterte runs for vice president and wins, and there is a vacancy in the presidency the question is can he fill that vacancy, Lacson said.“That is an issue that has to be resolved by the Supreme Court,” Lacson said.Duterte would drop his intent to run for vice pres...

The Hall of Justice (HOJ) in Bacolod City got another bomb threat Wednesday morning, August 25.A lawyer at the Bacolod City Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) received a landline phone call from their hotline number at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday instructing them to immediately leave their office because there was a bomb that was about to explode at 9 a.m., Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Raymond Joseph Javier said.The PAO staff member immediately informed the HOJ security services, he added.Javier said he then gave instructions to all HOJ employees and visitors to immediately leave the building.A composite bomb disposal team composed of the Negros Occidental Police Bomb Squad Unit, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine Army Explosive and Ordinance Division and the Philippi...

Richard Malihan photoThere will be more battles for mayoral posts in Negros Occidental in 2022, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said Wednesday, August 25.He said in Hinoba-an, Mayor Ernesto Estrao is on his third and last term and is expected to run for vice mayor.Two candidates who are allies of Rep. Genaro Alvarez (Negros Occidental, 6th District) of Love Negros areeyeing the mayoral post in Hinoba-an, Lacson said.They are Councilor John Ray Reliquias and Culipapa Barangay Captain Oscar Daclan, he said.Lacson said he is leaving the matter to the congressman to address.In Toboso, two Love Negros members are being considered to run for mayor against the wife of Mayor Richard Jaojoco, Madonnah, of the United Negros Alliance (UNegA), Lacson said. They are Vice Mayor Edgar Ba...

A bus that got stuck in the sand at Margaha Beach in Sagay City was submerged in water Wednesday, August 25, Wally Afuang, Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office head, said.The driver parked the Cebro bus on the beach front that is not allowed after his passengers had disembarked, he said.The bus then got stuck in the sand and could not be pulled out of the area as the tide rose, or the rescuers’ vehicle would also get stuck, Afuang said.It was submerged in water with only its roof visible from the shore until the tide subsided at about 5 p.m., he said.*

The 45-year-old overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from Barangay Villamonte, Bacolod City, found positive for the Delta variant and four members of his family refused to be reswabbed for COVID-19 tests Tuesday, August 24, City Administrator Em Ang said.Ang, who heads the Bacolod Emergency Operations Center, said the EOC and the swab team will return to the house of the OFW Wednesday, accompanied by the police.The OFW from Dubai, who had returned Bacolod Sunday after being hospitalized for 18 days in Manila, questioned why he had to be retested again, she said.Meanwhile, the 6-month-old baby boy from Barangay Bata who tested positive for the Delta variant and his family tested negative for COVID-19, results released Tuesday night showed, Ang said.The baby and family will be rele...

Pablo Tariman in an interview with Digicast Negros.*The father of slain rebel Kerima Lorena Tariman wept unabashedly on seeing the remains of his daughter at the morgue of a funeral parlor in Manapla, Negros Occidental.Pablo Tariman, who writes performing arts stories and reviews for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, said he had not seen his daughter for a long time and learned of her death after an encounter between the New People’s Army and the 79th Infantry "Masaligan" Battalion in Hacienda Raymunda, Brgy Kapitan Ramon, Silay City in Negros Occidental, on Friday.He arrived in Negros Monday to claim the body of his 42-year-old daughter, which was cremated Tuesday afternoon, August 24.On seeing Kerima in the morgue, Tariman said “I stared at her not believing she was surround...

Iloilo Mayor Jerry Treñas ordered the lockdown of the Region 6 Department of Health office on Tuesday, August 24, after two of its employees tested positive for the COVID-19 Delta variant.However, a DOH 6 official said their office will continue operating with a skeleton workforce until September 6.This is to ensure the delivery of essential services, such as the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Bea Camille Fillaro Natalaray, DOH 6 Medical Officer III, said.The two DOH 6 employees who tested positive for the Delta variant had recovered from COVID-19 on August 21, Natalaray said.They will be subjected to a second repeat RT-PCR test, she said.Natalaray said 96 percent of the 261 employees of the DOH 6 have been fully vaccinated.“The DOH 6 assures the public that...

City PIO photoA total of 118,220 doses of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City Tuesday, August 24.Negros Occidental received 87,710 doses and Bacolod City 30,510 doses.Among the vaccines that arrived were 27,000 doses of Astra Zeneca for Bacolod City and 4,200 for Negros Occidental, which the local governments had purchased.The Astra Zeneca delivery is part of 650,000 doses purchased by the Bacolod City government and the 100,000 doses by Negros Occidental.The national government also sent 80,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines and 3,510 doses of Pfizer vaccines to Negros Occidental.Bacolod City also received 3,510 doses of Pfizer vaccines from the national government.*

“This is nothing but undisguised arrogance and greed for power, not to mention the height of pretentiousness.”That was the reaction of former Negros Occidental Gov. Rafael Coscolluela on Tuesday, August 24, to President Rodrigo Duterte’s accepting the nomination to run as vice president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in the 2022 national elections.Duterte’s decision to seek the vice presidency next year was announced by PDP-Laban executive vice president and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles in a statement issued Tuesday.“I think it runs counter to the intent of the Constitution. It’s a devious way of circumventing the provision against reelection,” Coscolluela said.“The intention is to shield himself from prosecution and it is totally self-se...