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Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (second from right) meeting with potential renewable energy investors during the Belt and Road Summit.*A multi-billion peso Bacolod Coastal Express Way from barangays Banago to Punta Taytay, which will decongest traffic in the city, was one of six projects pitched by the team of Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez to investors at the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong last week.The Bacolod Coastal Express Way is envisioned to connect to a coastal highway from Barangay Banago all the way to Victorias City to be built by the Department of Public Works and Highways, Benitez said at a press conference on Tuesday, September 19.Benitez said he also discussed connecting the coastal express way from Bacolod to Pulupandan with the DPWH. The Guimaras-Negr...

SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, Planning Officer Ann Kristine Dilay, Manager III Digna Gonzales, SRA director Dave Sanson and Executive Assistant Andre Corro (l-r) at the Sugarex Thailand 2023 Conference.*The Sugar Regulatory Administration remains optimistic that there will be better millgate prices for the country’s sugar farmers with the world market trend showing a drop in production in big sugar producing countries, SRA Administrator Pablo Azcona said Tuesday, September 19.“We continue to be positive of growth in the sugar industry and at the moment, we are moving to ensure stable farmgate prices as this has shown a net increase in sugar planted areas because of last year’s good prices,” Azcona said, adding that, “ barring any severe El Niño, we may have the same or sligh...

“Many farmers were disappointed that sugar tonnage and yield were below their expectations", Enrique Rojas, NFSP president, said.* Nic Ledesma photo“Hopefully, for the sake of thousands of small planters and their families, sugar tonnage and millgate sugar prices will substantially improve in the succeeding weeks,” Enrique Rojas, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters president, said Tuesday, September 19.Millgate sugar prices dropped last week despite the promise of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to keep in at P3,000 per 50-kilo (Lkg) bag at the start of the milling season to protect farmers from selling below production cost, amid importation done earlier.Farmers speculate that the market is still flooded with imported sugar, leaving little demand for domestic s...

Charges against a councilor of La Castellana and a Bacolod resident tagged in an alleged police recruitment scam involving millions of pesos are expected to be filed this week.The complainants earlier reported to the police that La Castellana Councilor Donato Dumaguit, alias Nat-Nat, and a certain Mary Jun Tagua Delos Santos allegedly offered to facilitate their applications to the Philippine National Police for a fee, Maj. Nelson Amsiwen Jr., La Castellana police officer-in-charge, said on Friday, September 15.The provincial government is assisting the complainants in executing their affidavits before the La Carlota Prosecutor’s Office, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Monday, September 18.La Castellana Mayor Rhummyla Mangilimutan said she was told about 16 complaint affidavi...

The P80 million promised by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to improve the Bacolod-Silay International Airport in 2024 is not enough, Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Monday, September 18.CAAP Director General Captain Manuel Antonio L. Tamayo, who recently inspected the airport, committed to allocate P80 million in 2024.Tamayo, during his visit, said he was disappointed with the security, management and maintenance of the airport infrastructure.Benitez said it is about time CAAP improves the airport but P80 million is not enough to upgrade the crowded airport.“We’ve been asking CAAP to give better service,” he said, pointing out that it takes the agency a long time to act on escalator and air conditioning breakdowns, and bathroom repa...

Anything below P3,000 will allow some farmers to just break-even while the rest may not be able to do so, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said.*The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is investigating the drop in sugar millgate prices to below P3,000 per 50-kilogram (Lkg) bag.“Definitely none of the farmers want the low price so we will focus our investigation among the mills, traders and importers to see if there is some abnormality in their dealings but rest assured that we will get to the bottom of this”, SRA Administrator Pablo Azcona said Monday, September 18.“Someone is definitely making a scenario and we will not take this sitting down,” he said.Azcona said he was informed that trading of sugar went below the P3,000 mark that the SRA had forecasted.“Two mills had pric...

Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson and Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (right)*The Negros Occidental and Bacolod City governments will have bigger budgets next year.The proposed 2024 provincial government budget is P5.5 billion, which is P400 million higher than this year’s P5.1 billion budget, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said Monday, September 18.The governor attributed this to an increase in tax collection following the COVID-19 pandemic, although it is still not back to the 2019 level.The Negros Occidental provincial government’s National Tax Allotment (NTA) share for 2024 will be P4,904,713,544, or an increase by P287,622,099.Locally sourced funds of the province have also increased by about P10 million, from P329 million to P339 million, Lacson said....

Bacolod City councilors Al Victor Espino, Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Em Ang, Celia Flor and Simple Distrito(3rd to 7th from left) receiving Bacolod's Most Business-Friendly Award.*Bacolod City won the Most Business-Friendly Award at The Manila Times’ Top Philippine Model Cities and Municipalities 2023 awarding rites at the Diamond Hotel in Manila on Monday, September 18.Bacolod’s award was accepted for the city by councilors Em Ang, Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Al Victor Espino, Celia Flor and Simple Distrito.It was the third time Bacolod City won the award in that category.“We have won this award three times already, aside from also consistently topping the business-friendly awards being given by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry annually. This is a validation of our...

There will be a P1.396 billion increase in the National Tax Allotment (NTA) for Bacolod City, the Negros Occidental provincial government and its 31 towns and cities in 2024.This is contained in the 2024 indicative NTA figure issued by the Department of Budget and Management under Local Budget Memorandum No. 87, OIC Provincial Budget Officer Gemma Flores said Monday, September 18.The Negros Occidental provincial government’s NTA share for 2024 will be P4,904,713,544, or an increase by P287,622,099 or 6.23 percent from P4,617,051,4554 this year.Bacolod City’s NTA will be P1,895,045,662 in 2024, or P110,702,531 higher than this year’s P1,784.343,131.The NTA of the 12 cities of Negros Occidental will increase by P737,2116,930 or 6.20 percent, the DBM reported.The NTA of th...

Officials from the Netherlands have offered to send a team to Bacolod City to help find solutions to its flooding problems, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said on Monday, September 18.Benitez said he and the city councilors during the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong last week spoke with the Dutch officials who offered to share their experience and expertise to help Bacolod City.The Netherlands is a country that is below sea level that has come up with a system to prevent floods, Benitez pointed out.“Their flood protection system is one of the best in the world,” Benitez said.The team that is expected to come to Bacolod will include representatives from the Dutch government and non-government organizations, he said.*