Press Release

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 Pharm...

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 C...

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, Negros O...

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 of t...

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 still ...

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 low...

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 pensi...

Uratex Philippines and POS Home – TLPJ Marketing Inc. recently turned over 22 bed mattresses to the Immaculate Concepcion Health Center in Victorias City.The health center was affected twice by flashfloods that hit northern Negros last month.All of the mattresses were submerged in floodwaters and it would be unhygienic to use them, hospital administrator Ann Rose Gicana said.“The foul smell was intolerable,” she said, adding that they have no choice but to change them all. Already struggling since the pandemic started, Gicana said, this posed another financial challenge on the foundation.When the center’s plight was brought to the attention of POS Home manager Patricia Liza, she immediately solicited the assistance of manufacturer Uratex which promptly agreed to replace all...

Some of SM Foundation’s scholars at the General Assembly in 2019.Since 1993, SM Foundation (SMFI) has been helping deserving and qualified students from low-income households earn their bachelor’s degrees or advance in technical-vocational studies. To date, the SM College Scholarship Program has helped 5,500 scholars nationwide reach their dream of completing their studies.  This scholarship program started from the vision of the late SM patriarch, Henry “Tatang” Sy, Sr. He believed that if you send one child from an economically challenged family to college, that child would have more opportunities to have gainful employment and later on help his/ her siblings or uplift the economic status of their family. The foundation is now inviting incoming college freshmen...