Carla P. Gomez

The vaccination of VMC employees kicked of Wednesday, July 28.Two large firms in Negros Occidental have launched their own vaccination programs for their employees.Victorias Milling Co. started its COVID-19 vaccination program for its employees, service providers, family and household members at its mill site Wednesday, July 28, Anne Tiongco, VMC corporate communications chair, said.VMC thanks its partners, the Lucio Tan Group and Zuellig Pharma for facilitating the procurement of AstraZeneca vaccines, she said.By the end of this week, more than 2,000 members of the VMC community will have been inoculated, Tiongco said.San Miguel Corp. also announced that it has started administering company-procured vaccines to its workforce, after taking delivery of 150,000 vaccines i...

Nationwide there will be at least 40 masses offered for former president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III, including in Bacolod City, on Sunday, August 1, lawyer Andrea Si said Wednesday, July 28.“In Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, grateful Negrosanons are invited to join the special mass to be celebrated at the University of St. La Salle Chapel at 2:30 p.m. on August 1, she said.Aquino, the 15th president of the Philippines, succumbed to renal disease, secondary to diabetes on June 24 at the age of 61.Si said the main mass offering with the Aquino family will be live at 5 p.m. on August 1 at the FB page of Kaya Natin: https://www.facebook.com/KayaNatinPH.Vice President Leni Robredo will give a message after the 5 p.m. mass, she said.“Everyone who joins this online mass is...

House Minority Floor Leader Stephen Paduano in his “contra SONA (state of the nation address)” delivered before the House of Representatives Wednesday, July 28, said the Philippines is in very bad shape and there is a need to act on its problems swiftly.“We are suffering from terrible heartbreak due to the COVID outbreak. Whatever gains we have achieved cannot measure up to the pains we have endured. The loss of lives and livelihood, the economic collapse, and the hard climb to recovery tell us only a thing - this country is in a very bad shape,” Paduano (Abang Lingkod Partylist) said.Filipinos need not have to choose to die in hunger or from the virus. Amid the pandemic, a balance between health and economy must be maintained, said Paduano, who is from Negros Occidental.Inequi...

The vaccination drive against COVID-19 at Bacolod City malls was more orderly Tuesday, July 27, after walk-ins were no longer allowed, City Administrator Em Ang said.However, there were still a lot of vaccinees on Tuesday, she said.That is because there was a delay in the second dose jabs that were supposed to be administered last week as the vaccines from the Department of Health did not arrive on time, Ang said.So now they are administering second dose jabs on those who were scheduled last week along with the vaccinees for this week, she added.Huge crowds, many defying health protocols, trooped to the mall vaccination sites Monday. This prompted Ang to announce that the vaccination centers at Ayala Malls Capitol Central, Robinsons Place, and SMX Convention Center would no...

Petitions against 145 new voter registrants in Bacolod City have been withdrawn, Election Officer Kathrina Trinio Caña said Tuesday, July 27.That left the Election Registration Board with petitions against 77 other voter registrants, including former Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, to resolve, Caña, who also heads the ERB, said.The ERB has already resolved the petitions against the 77 but a written resolution has yet to be released, she said.The resolution will be out this week, she added.The petitions were initially against 240 registrants but it was later discovered that there were duplications of some names in separate complaints filed by oppositors from Barangay Mandalagan, bringing the number down to 222, she said.The ERB had earlier approved the applications of 9,9...

Swab samples of southern Negros Occidental residents will now undergo COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests at the Safeguard DNA Diagnostics Inc. Laboratory in Valladolid town, Provincial Administrator Rayfrado Diaz said Tuesday, July 27.Starting Tuesday, swab samples from Bago City to Hinoba-an will be brought to the laboratory in Valladolid town that can conduct 2,000 tests a day, he said.This will ease the load of the Teresita L. Jalandoni Provincial Hospital laboratory in Silay City that will be able to concentrate on testing swab samples of travelers arriving at the Bacolod Silay Airport and residents of northern Negros Occidental, he said.This will ensure a faster turnaround time for the release of the test results, he said.The target...

PIMT photoThe Negros Occidental provincial government will have fully vaccinated 200,000 Negrenses when all of its 70,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccines are administered, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Tuesday, July 27.The target is to vaccinate 1.4 million Negrenses, so they have 1.2 million more to cover, he said.The rollout of the provincial government’s Johnson and Johnson vaccines in towns and cities of Negros Occidental began Monday.Diaz said 11,515 Negrenses were vaccinated with Johnson and Johnson vaccines on Monday and 12,455 on Tuesday.The provincial government will also rollout 700 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines it purchased to frontline workers in essential sectors under the A4 category at the Negros Residences in Bacolod City on Wedn...

Capitol file photo“We are exploring ways to bring down the cost of green energy in Negros Occidental”, Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, provincial consultant on economic affairs, said Tuesday, July 27.Benitez and Rafael Coscolluela, provincial consultant on energy and environment affairs, led a pre-power summit on Monday.They noted that green energy is more expensive than coal.If we want to go green in Negros we have to work on finding ways to bring down the cost, he said.They are looking at batteries to store solar generated power, Benitez said.“The goal is to reduce power cost to benefit consumers, and allow stable and competitive rates and power supply to entice the technology industry to come here and invest ,” he said.A power summit is likely to be held in August,...