Carla P. Gomez

Photo from Greg Gasataya FBThe budget for the Bacolod City General Hospital has been included in the 2022 National Expenditure Program (NEP), Bacolod Rep. Greg Gasataya said Sunday, July 25.Gasataya said he was informed by the Department of Health of the Department of Budget and Management‘s move.He had requested Health Secretary Francisco Duque for the inclusion of the hospital’s budget in the NEP last week, Gasataya said.President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11564, an act establishing the Bacolod City General Hospital and appropriating funds for it, on June 24.The law was based on House Bill 6731 authored by Gasataya and Senate Bill 1647 authored by Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri seeking the creation of a P600 million Bacolod hospital.*...

Capitol file photoNegros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson on Sunday, July 25, expressed his condolences to the family of a Japanese philanthropist who has helped provide scholarships to numerous Negrenses.“It is with sadness that I learned of the passing of Chairman Yutaka Shimizu. On behalf of the people of Negros Occidental, I send my deepest condolences to the Shimizu family, the Houei Group, and Miyakonojo Higashi High School,” Lacson said.He was a good man and his love for Negros Occidental was evident, Lacson said.Lacson said because of his help and generous support, 30 Negros Occidental healthcare workers are about to finish their two-year course in Japan, giving them the opportunity to take the licensure exam and the possibility of having permanent employment the...

The Western Visayas Regional Incident Management Team (RIMT) is inspecting key facilities in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City to ensure the safety of COVID-19 responders and the public, an Office of Civil Defense official said Sunday, July 25.Recommendations will be made to the local and regional COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Forces to further improve the COVID-19 response in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City, Alet Nogra, Civil Defense Officer 5, said.They inspected critical areas for COVID-19 management that included hospitals crematoriums, public markets, isolation and quarantine facilities, places of worship, vaccination sites, bus terminals and ports, she said.The RIMT has recommendations on the operation of local cold chain facilities and hospitals, she added.The Offic...

Contributed photoThe COVID-19 Delta variant is the “perfect storm” for unvaccinated people in our society, a health official warned Friday, July 23.Western Visayas needs to vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate to ward off the Delta variant that is the most dangerous and transmissible form of the coronavirus to date, Dr. Cynthia Palmes Saloma, executive director of the Philippine Genome Center, said.Saloma was one of a battery of DOH officials who briefed the WV media on the COVID-19 situation in the country and region in an online press conference.She also said there is a plan to put up a genome center at the UP Visayas in Iloilo to help detect new COVID-19 variants in the region.Dr. Althea De Guzman, DOH Epidemiology Bureau OIC director, said although only two Delta cases w...

Protests against close to 100 new voter registrants from eight barangays in Bacolod City have been withdrawn, City Election Officer Kathrina Trinio-Caña said Friday, July 23.Caña, who heads the Bacolod Election Registration Board, said most of the withdrawals apparently were made after it was established that they indeed reside in Bacolod barangays.Opposition to 242 new voter registrants, including former Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez were up for hearing before the ERB at the start of the week.Caña said at the rate the hearings have been going only very few are likely to be denied voter registration in Bacolod City.She said the ERB hopefully will decide on all protests before the end of July.She said withdrawn were the opposition to 72 out of 98 new registrants in Baran...

Contributed photoThere were 43,000 more doses of Sinovac vaccines that arrived for Bacolod City and Negros Occidental on Friday, July 23, Department of Health 6 Regional Director Adriano Suba-an said.Negros Occidental received 23,000 additional doses, while Bacolod City was given 20,000 doses, he said.He said a total of 1.3 million of doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been dispersed in Western Visayas so far, with Negros Occidental having received 298,760 doses and Bacolod City 165,340 doses.Negros Occidental and Bacolod City aside from Sinovac vaccines, have also received Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, and Johnson and Johnson brands.Dr. Edwin Miraflor Jr., Bacolod City Health Office OIC, said the 20,000 Sinovac doses that arrived Friday will be administered as second doses to Bac...

The Negros Occidental provincial government is studying the possibility of providing its health workers with booster shots to protect them against the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Thursday, July 22.He also said Negros Occidental frontline health workers, and disaster and quarantine facility personnel recently received more than P41 million in special risk allowances and active duty hazard pay from the Department of Health.Diaz said he has asked the Provincial Health Office to study the possibility of using the provincial government purchased AstraZeneca vaccines as boosters for its health care workers.This is because in Indonesia more than 160 of its health care workers hit with the Delta variant died despite being fully...

Bacolod Comelec photoFormer Rep. Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez is asking the Bacolod City Election Registration Board to dismiss the opposition to the transfer of his voter registration from Victorias City to Bacolod City.Benitez, in his position paper filed by his lawyer Andrei Saril on Wednesday, July 21, before the ERB, asked that the transfer of his voter registration instead be approved.Three oppositiors - Hector Yula, Teodoro Abao and Jonah Abao, who are allied with Grupo Progreso, the party of Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, are opposing the transfer of the voter registration of Benitez to Bacolod City.Benitez has announced that he is running for mayor of Bacolod in 2022 against Leonardia.The prefatory statement in the 27-page position paper of Benitez states ...