Press Release

A fund to protect agrarian communities and land and human rights defenders (LHRDs) working on agrarian reform in Negros Occidental was launched through a virtual event on Tuesday, September 21, by non-government organization Kaisahan Tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan at Repormang Pansakahan (KAISAHAN). Two types of grants are made available under the project of KAISAHAN Dagyaw Negros Para sa Duta (Negros Solidarity for Land Rights). These are the Protection fund and the Community subgrant for land rights defenders working on agrarian reform facing threats of human rights violations. PROTECTION FUND FOR LHRDs The protection fund may be used by LHRDs for legal fees, bond or guarantees, medical expenses from injuries because of land rights activities, obtain psychosocial support, ...

With the rampant malware apps posing as real apps and malicious links that don’t even work, Colegio San Agustin-Bacolod continues to strengthen its Information Technology program to educate its students on identifying cybersecurity threats and attacks. Headed by Engr. Allan Patrick Benjamin Paculan, the IT Program of CSA-B is already a PAASCU Level 2 accredited. The program covers different fields of practices such as Cybersecurity, Programming, System Analysis and Design, and Database Management. The IT program of CSA-B is also conducting Cybersecurity webinars as part of their educational awareness campaign to other schools, particularly on how to recognize computer fraud and phishing scams. Enrollment for the IT program is ongoing. Early bird enrollees will also get a chan...

To strengthen collaboration in terms of curriculum, training, and activities for students and faculty, the three medical programs of Colegio San Agustin–Bacolod were merged into one. College of Health and Allied Professions is a merger of the former College of Nursing, Medical Technology program and the Pharmacy program of CSA-B. Headed by Dean Jo Ann Flores, Phd., the College of Health and Allied Professions continues to excel in the licensure examinations, garnering the titles as the top-performing nursing school in Negros Occidental in the 2019 Nursing Licensure Examination and the only school in Western Visayas that offers a virtual laboratory with high fidelity simulators. CSA-B also excels in the Pharmacy program, being the top-performing Pharmacy School in August 2019 ...

Close to 3,000 solar panels installed at Coca-Cola's Bacolod manufacturing site has enabled sizeable monthly cost savings, with solar utilization at around 15 percent of the total average monthly consumption of the plant.* Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc. (CCBPI), the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country, has achieved another sustainability milestone in Q1 of 2021 upon completing the installation of almost 14,000 solar panels in its Davao del Sur, Misamis Oriental, and Bacolod plants. A multi-phased solar panel project is underway that covers four more sites— namely, Canlubang, Sta. Rosa, Zamboanga, and Cebu—with 2022 as a target deadline. With this, CCBPI is pursuing a 24,000 solar panel project, with the total capacity to produce a maximum of 9.4MW, a press release from ...

Residents of Negros Oriental will no longer have to worry about paying for expensive fees to avail of the gold standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for COVID-19. This benefit comes from the provincial government’s decision to allocate the P18 million worth of total remittances that it received from the Department of Energy (DOE), from Lopez-led renewable energy leader Energy Development Corporation (EDC) and from its power subsidiary Green Core Geothermal Inc. (GCGI), as part of its Energy Regulations (ER) No. 1-94 funds. The fund is part of the province’s Energy Regulations (ER) No. 1-94 benefit as host to EDC’s 222.5 megawatts (MW) Southern Negros geothermal facility, including its Green Core Geothermal, Inc. (GCGI) subsidiary in Valencia, Neg...

Teleperformance Philippines renews its commitment to the planet as it pledges to do monthly switch-offs of non-essential lights in all 22 of its business sites nationwide this 2021. The pledge was announced at its recent “Let’s Change the World” Citizen of the World (COTW) Meet-up, which shared updates on current advocacy projects of Teleperformance. The townhall, also held in celebration of Earth Hour, included special guest World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines Ambassador Mikee Cojuangco-Jaworski. “As we work to help bring awareness around environmental sustainability and, in addition to this commemoration this month, we at Teleperformance also commit to have an Earth Hour every single month. So for one hour every single month, we will switch off our lights for the rest...

Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año has commended the functional and efficient response efforts of Bacolod City against COVID-19 through its Emergency Operations Center. "The DILG commends the efforts of the local government of Bacolod City in ensuring the functionality and efficiency of its EOC," Año said in his letter to Mayor Evelio Leonardia dated April 26, a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office said Tuesday, May 4. “It is heartwarming to receive this commendation, which is richly deserved by our government workers and volunteers working so hard at the EOC and its various service clusters”, Leonardia said. “While Secretary Año was primarily referring to how we contained the spike in COVID cases during those critical days last September 2020, it is s...

EDC’s 112.5MW Palinpinon-1 geothermal power plant in Valencia, Negros Oriental has been supplying clean, renewable 24/7 power to Negros and other parts of Luzon and Visayas for over 37 years. On this same day 45 years ago, Lopez-led geothermal leader Energy Development Corporation (EDC) was established to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuels by harnessing indigenous power primarily from geothermal sources. Fast forward to today, EDC continues to live up to its mandate to generate low carbon, clean power and may have expanded its portfolio to include solar, wind, and hydro but geothermal remains as its core business. “Our country needs a reliable, stable source of clean, renewable power, which only geothermal energy or Geo 24/7, can provide to power the economy and lo...

The Social Security System (SSS) released the second batch of February 2021 pensions on February 16, 2021 amounting to P5.2 billion, through the Philippine Electronic Fund Transfer System and Operations Network (PESONet) and other checkless disbursement channels. The pension fund—which will benefit 1.1 million pensioners whose dates of contingency are from the 16th to the last day of the month—was released through PESONet participating banks, e-wallets, and M Lhuillier branches. Pensioners covered by the said batch can withdraw their pensions starting February 16 and onwards. The first batch for the February 2021 pensions—with a total amount of P6.5 billion—was released on February 1, 2021, through the same disbursement method. Covered in the first batch are some 1.5 million ...