Top Stories

Himamaylan City has vaccinated 101.63 percent of its target population keeping its lead as the top performer in the Negros Occidental Chikiting Ligtas 2023 campaign, Dr. Girlie Pinongan, OIC provincial health officer, said Friday, May 19.Chikiting Ligtas is a supplemental immunization campaign to vaccinate children aged 9 to 59 months old against measles rubella.Negros Occidental also remains the top performer in Western Visayas for the Chikiting Ligtas 2023 campaign, the Department of Health (DOH) reported.Negros Occidental vaccinated 75.29 percent of its 222,590 target population.It had vaccinated 167,594 as of May 18, and has 44,967 more to cover before the end of the month.Trailing Negros Occidental is Guimaras with a 64.21 percent accomplishment rate, followed by I...

A septuagenarian woman was found dead inside her house in Binalbagan town, Negros Occidental, the police said Friday, May 19.Estrella Flores, 75, from Sitio Ubay, Brgy. Progreso in Binalbagan, was found dead on her sofa bed Thursday night.Her body had no physical wounds or signs of struggle, the police said.PMaj. Randy Babor, Binalbagan police chief, said the victim was found alone inside the house and might have been dead for almost a day.The cadaver was already decomposing, Dr. Hazel Pagunsan of the Binalbagan Rural Health Office reported.The victim was bedridden for almost three months having arthritis and was taking medications for a long time, the police said.*

Andrea Nicole Sumugat, Keana Marie Bartolome, Venus Nicole Jucal and Alvord Valencia (l-r)*A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos in Bacolod City topped the board examination for elementary teachers, the Professional Regulation Commission announced Friday, May 19.Andrea Nicole Sumugat, 24, of Paglaum Village in Brgy. Mansilingan, Bacolod City, was among the six takers who topped the licensure examination for elementary teachers with a 92.20 percent rating.Together with Sumugat, Kabankalan Catholic College’s Silverio Tortocion III, also placed ninth in the board examination for elementary teachers.Andrea Nicole Sumugat, who graduated summa cum laude from the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, with her parents Noel and Christine Su...

One of the houses destroyed by the whirlwind.* Oscar Mangao Abajon photoA whirlwind destroyed three houses and damaged seven others in Puroks Lower Baras, Upper Baras and Kalubihan in Brgy. Bantayan, Kabankalan City, Thursday afternoon, Mayor Benjie Miranda said Friday, May 19.No one was injured as most of the children were in school and their parents, who are mostly farmers, were working in the fields, he said. The whirlwind that flattened houses also destroyed trees and plants in its path, Miranda said.He said food assistance has been delivered to the victims who started to rebuild their homes on Friday.The city government will give P4,000 each to those whose houses were destroyed and P3,000 for those with damaged houses, Miranda said.He also gave P1,000 to each of t...

The Victorias City government sealed its partnership with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements – Asia (IFOAM-Organics Asia) and will conduct the Organic Foundation Course (OFC), a training program on organic agriculture for stakeholders of the Local Government Units.Victorias City Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez signed a memorandum of agreement with IFOAM-Organics Asia Vice President Edgardo Uychiat to launch the Organic Foundation Course on Friday, May 19.IFOAM-Organics Asia is an organization that develops and promotes organic markets and organic foods, a press release from Victorias said.One of their projects is the Asian Local Government for Organic Agriculture (ALGOA) which led to the formulation of the OFC.Through the MOA signing, Victorias LGU wi...

Skittles was shot at Greenplains Subdivision in Brgy. Singcang, Bacolod City on February 20.*The Bacolod resident accused of allegedly killing Skittles, a Siberian Husky, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment at Branch 1 of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities at the Bacolod Hall of Justice on Thursday, May 18.Dominador Divinagracia Bangero Jr. is facing a criminal case for violation of the Republic Act 8485 or the "Animal Welfare Act" before Judge Jose Paolo Ariola.He has been accused of allegedly shooting Skittles, the dog of his neighbor, at Greenplains Subdivision in Brgy. Singcang, Bacolod City, on February 20.The Community Animal Rescue Efforts (CARE) Inc. is calling for justice for Skittles.*

The Negros Occidental Incident Management Team (IMT) will color code areas with hog deaths and set up quarantine zones to prevent the spread of the deadly virus that has killed 2,421 pigs in the province.The IMT created by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson on Tuesday began operations at its headquarters at the Negros Residences in Bacolod City on Thursday, May 18, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said.Diaz is the IMT action officer, and its incident commander is the provincial veterinarian, Dr. Placeda Lemana.Hog cholera has been identified as the cause of the pig deaths in the province, with no positive African swine fever (ASF) case detected yet, he said.Also called swine fever or classical swine fever, hog cholera is an often fatal viral disease of pigs characterized by hi...

The SRA is urging block farming in the sugar industry.*Andrew Altarejos photoThe Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) on Thursday, May 18, urged farmers to form cooperatives to pursue block farming for the sugar industry.SRA Acting Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said this strategy would help local producers increase their yield by 5 tons to 10 tons per hectare, referring to 30 hectares to 50 hectares of block farming.“To make it more efficient, we need to group the beneficiaries into farms, a minimum of 30 hectares… The efficiency of a tractor is about 90-95 horsepower. That’s why if their group is that big, we can give them a tractor. We can also help them with technology because they will be able to plan the planting and harvesting into one farm,” Azcona said.“We also e...

The Department of Education (DepEd) has reported that 2,179 of the 4,048 public schools in Western Visayas have shifted to alternative delivery modes (ADM) of learning as a precautionary measure against the effects of hot weather.“Modular distance learning is allowed under DepEd Order No. 37, series of 2022 in cases of unfavorable weather and environment, such as but not limited to extremely high temperatures, which could considerably affect classroom learning and put learners’ health and well-being at risk,” Hernani Escullar Jr., the department’s regional information officer, said Thursday, May 18.Escullar added that 441 schools are into modular distance learning, 138 adopted online distance learning, and 1,600 shifted into blended learning or a combination of distance and in-pers...

Bacolod City officials and organizers conduct an inter-agency coordination meeting on Thursday for the Chicken Inasal Festival.*Bacolod City is all set to celebrate its three-day Chicken Inasal Festival on May 26 to 28, Bacolod Councilor Celia Flor said Thursday, May 18.“We will show the entire Philippines that Bacolod’s chicken inasal is really the best in the country,” she said.The festival will be fun as it will also include concerts and other entertainment activities at its event sites at the North Capitol Road, Megaworld Upper East, and Manokan Country, she said.The city government aims for a successful and safe celebration, she said.The police will be deploying 596 personnel to secure the festival, Flor said.*