Top Stories

May62023 by Carla P. GomezNo Comments

WHO: Covid-19 no longer global health emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday, May 5, declared that COVID-19 is no longer a "global health emergency".WHO, in a statement posted on its website, said there has been a decreasing trend in COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions.“COVID-19 is now an established and ongoing health issue which no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said in the statement.“While the global risk assessment remains high, there is evidence of reducing risks to human health driven mainly by high population-level immunity from infection, vaccination, or both,” WHO said.*

May62023 by Carla P. GomezNo Comments

‘Bodies dumped in Bacolod sending negative biz signals’

Top Stories

Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer*A business leader is calling on city and police officials to swiftly solve the dumping of bodies and body parts problem in Bacolod City that is “sending negative signals to would be-investors”.“The situation is alarming,” Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer, said Friday, May 5.This will be bad for the community because if there are no investors there will be not new jobs, Carbon told DIGICAST NEGROS.One criteria for businesses to invest in an area is peace and order, he said.Carbon said the dumping of bodies and body parts could be the work of vigilante groups.The police have yet to solve the killing of four persons whose remains were...

May52023 by Carla P. GomezNo Comments

One pig farm quarantined but Neg. Occ. still ASF-free

Top Stories

Negros Occidental remains African Swine Fever-free but close monitoring of a farm in the north is up, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Friday, May 5.Pigs and workers at the farm in EB Magalona have been quarantined, as a biosecurity security measure, after some hogs got sick and died, Diaz said.The quarantine was enforced to facilitate the screening and culling of the sick pigs, he said.The pigs were believed to have become sick because of over population and extreme heat, he said.Conditions in the overcrowded pigpens were aggravated by the heat, Diaz said.Samples from the sick pigs have been sent to the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) for testing, he said.The pig population at the farm has been reduced by more than 200 through culling to address the ove...

May52023 by Nanette GuadalquiverNo Comments

City to use ‘My Basurero’app for garbage pick-up

Community, Top Stories

A garbage truck collecting trash in Bacolod City*PNA photoThe Bacolod City government, together with private garbage hauler IPM-Construction and Development Corp. (CDC), will soon launch the use of a mobile application (app) that will allow households and business establishments to book a garbage pick-up.City Administrator Pacifico Maghari III said on Friday, May 5, that the IPM-CDC, whose new contract runs from May to December this year, has already presented the development of the “My Basurero” app to the city officials."We are trying to target that within the year, you will just have to make a booking for your garbage pick-up," he told reporters.Maghari said that through the mobile app, the user would know the arrival schedule of the garbage truck and would be able to tr...

May52023 by Nanette GuadalquiverNo Comments

209 farmer-beneficiaries get land titles in north Negros

Community, Top Stories

Some of the 49 farmer beneficiaries.*Some 209 farmers received certificates of land ownership award (CLOAs) for agriculture lands located in two localities in northern Negros Occidental in April, data from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) on Friday, May 5, showed.Among the beneficiaries are 49 farmers given the owner’s duplicate copy for a 21.23-hectare property, formerly managed by Danao Development Corp., in Barangay Salamanca, Toboso, on April 25.Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer Jasmin Castillo told the farmer-beneficiaries to protect and continue cultivating the lands they now own.“Pay your taxes regularly and refrain from getting involved in illegal arrangements that may lead to your disqualification,” she said.On the same day, some 40 farmer-benefi...

May52023 by Carla P. GomezNo Comments

Flooding causes heavy traffic

Top Stories

The flooding at Lacson Street on Friday.*Flooding hit Lacson Street at the northern end of Bacolod City Friday afternoon, May 5, causing heavy traffic and numerous complaints from netizens.Three ambulances were also seen stuck in traffic as vehicles moved at a snail’s pace.Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the city government is working with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to review and implement the 2018 drainage master plan.Anna Maria Laarni Pornan, City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office head, said a team was dispatched to the flood-hit City Mall area to determine how the problem could be mitigated.Flooding brought on by heavy rain was also reported in some parts of Barangay Banago and Santa Clara Subdivision.There was also a s...

May52023 by Digicast NegrosNo Comments

BAYAN Negros condemns red-tagging of transport strike

Top Stories

BAYAN Negros condemned the call of a “serial red tagger” to arrest the leaders of the upcoming transport strike in Bacolod City.Jeffrey Celiz, “National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict mouthpiece”, alleged that the transport strike in Bacolod on Monday would be "economic sabotage", BAYAN Negros said in a press release Friday, May 5.His demands for state forces to arrest transport workers amid a crisis threatening their very livelihood is a greater form of sabotage than a legitimate and justified strike, BAYAN said.Red tagging BAYAN Negros and transport group UNDOC PISTON is a desperate attempt to minimize the jeepney drivers' and operators' right to dissent, the press release said.Celiz has long been a propaganda mouthpiece for smearing legal and legitimate...

May52023 by Carla P. GomezNo Comments

2 Negrenses meted life for selling shabu to cops

Top Stories

Two Negrenses were sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday, May 5, for the sale of shabu to police poseur-buyers.Judge Raymond Joseph Javier of Bacolod Regional Trial Court Branch 52 in separate decisions found Joel Landazabal Alma and John Paul Eduato Alisbo guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.Alma was sentenced to two life imprisonments for the sale and possession of shabu and ordered to pay fines totaling P900,000.Alma was arrested for selling .212 gram of shabu for P1,000 to a policeman at Purok Fuentebella, Barangay Alijis, Bacolod City, on Aug. 18, 2021.On his arrest 17. 537 grams of shabu was recovered from his possession, the court said.Alisbo was sentenced to life imprisonment and to pay a fine of P500,...

May52023 by Carla P. GomezNo Comments

Police: Beware of ‘salisi’ gang stealing ATM cards at malls

Top Stories

The woman who stole the ATM card (second from right) being confronted by the seaman at the mall.*The police is warning the public, especially mall-goers, to beware of individuals who may be part of a syndicate stealing automated teller machine (ATM) cards.A seaman nearly lost about P107,000 when a woman who offered to help him at a mall ATM machine in Bacolod City stole his card Thursday afternoon, PMaj. Elmer Bonilla, Police Station 1 chief, said Friday, May 5.Fortunately the seaman spotted her at another Bacolod mall, which led to her arrest.Bonilla said one should never accept the help of a stranger at an ATM machine because that person could be part of a “salisi” gang.A “salisi” gang usually involves at least two to a maximum of four individuals, who will distract ...

May52023 by Digicast NegrosNo Comments

CSAV grad 7th placer in criminology exam

Community, Top Stories

Edmar Condiman Valladolid*Edmar Condiman Valladolid made history as the first-ever Criminology topnotcher of Colegio de Sta. Ana de Victorias in Victorias City, Negros Occidental.Valladolid made it to seventh place in the April 2023 Licensure Examination for Criminologists with a rating of 87.70 percent, the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced Thursday, May 4.The PRC announced that 4,139 out of 13,000 passed the Licensure Examination for Criminologists given by the Board of Criminology in 30 testing centers all over the Philippines in April.*