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Senator Imee Marcos with Vallacar Transit matriarch Olivia Yanson and Valladolid Mayor Enrique Miravalles in Talisay City Thursday afternoon.*Senator Imee Marcos said on Thursday, March 9, that the proposed Negros Island Region sounds like a good idea but she still needs to study the bill seeking its creation."I haven't studied it completely but I've heard so much about it already. I don't think I'm in a position to say yes or no right now simply because I haven't looked at it carefully," she said at a press conference held at the private beach resort of of the Yanson family in Talisay City, Negros Occidental.“But it sounds like a good idea quite frankly because in this day and age you really have to group together to be able to negotiate better for goods and services from the ...

The wake of slain Negros Oriental Governor Roel Ragay Degamo was transferred to the Negros Oriental Capitol in Dumaguete City on Thursday*No matter how influential or how powerful the persons behind the killing of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo are, it is essential that the culprits should be punished, Senator Imee Marcos said on Thursday, March 9.Marcos, at a press conference in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, was responding to a report that one of the suspects in the Pamplona massacre had named Rep. Arnolfo “Arnie” Teves Jr. (Neg. Or., 3rd District) as the mastermind.Degamo and eight others were killed, and 17 others were injured, when heavily armed men opened fire on them at the governor’s residence in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, on Saturday, March 4.“I heard that and...

Senator Imee Marcos accompanied by Mayor Joedith C. Gallego (1st and 2nd from left) distributed aid to indigent residents in Silay City on Thursday, March 9.*The Silay City government is availing of loans totaling P1.4 billion for its new city hall, college, public market, and a possible sports facility, Mayor Joedith C. Gallego said Thursday, March 9.Gallego said a P900 million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines has been approved by the Silay Sangguniang Panlungsod and a Memorandum of Agreement has been signed.He said P300 million from the loan will be used for the construction of a city college and P300 million for a public market.The use of the remaining P300 million is still being determined, it was supposed to be for a sports complex or coliseum, Gallego said. ...

Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez named the 4,000 jobs now available to Bacolodnons with the start of the construction of 10,000 Yuhum housing units in Bacolod City soon.More landowners are now offering their properties, some for free, for the mass housing program of the city, Benitez also said on Thursday, March 9.He said the 10,000 housing units for the city’s informal settler families (ISFs) is just the start, as the total target is 50,000 units.Benitez signed a contract with WRS Holdings and Pag-Ibig on Tuesday for the start of the first Pambansang Pabahay Program in the country.The private investor is putting in P2 billion for the project.He said the housing project will be the best pump priming industry for the city because it will decrease unemployment.It will a...

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said it is the look out of Tangub barangay captain Noli Villarosa to respond to the complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against him for being an alleged “financier” of illegal Small Town Lottery (STL) operations.Benitez said he was surprised because he had no reports about that, but the NBI must have their basis for whatever their doing.It would be up to Villarosa to clear his name and prove it in the proper forum, he said.Benitez said barangay captains should not participate in anything that is illegal.The NBI filed criminal charges against Villarosa, and Kabankalan City barangay captains Franz Leonard Seguero and Joel Alibango and one alias Ma’am, NBI Bacolod Chief Renoir Baldovino said on Wednesday.NBI ...

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos.*First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos is arriving in Bacolod City Friday night, March 10, for the mass wedding of 2,023 couples Saturday afternoon, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said.The mass wedding will be held at the Bacolod City Government Center grounds at 2 p.m. Saturday, he said.A raffle will be held where winning couples will be given livelihood packages, Benitez added.He said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not confirmed his attendance at the event.*

The suspected Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) cases in Negros Occidental from January 1 to February 25 increased by 7,520 percent compared to the same period in 2022, the Department of Health 6 reported Monday, March 6.Negros Occidental recorded 762 cases this year compared to 10 in the same period last year, it said.Bacolod has 117 cases this year or an increase by 3,800 percent with only three cases recorded in 2022, the DOH added.Iloilo province has the highest number of HFMD cases in Western Visayas at 2,420 followed by Negros Occidental with 762, Antique – 411, Guimaras – 315, Iloilo City – 284, Capiz – 245, Aklan – 216 and Bacolod City -117, the DOH said.HFMD is a common infection in children that causes sores called ulcers inside or around their mouth and a rash o...

The women's protest in Bacolod on Wednesday.*Paghimutad photoWages, dignified work, public services, safe spaces, and human rights were the demands of Negros women’s groups as they marked the 112th year of International Working Women’s Day on Wednesday, March 8.Women Workers United – Negros staged a rally to reaffirm their fight against injustice and exploitation of women in all forms, a press release from the group said.The WWU-Negros members marched from the Rizal Park at Araneta Street to the Bacolod City Government Center replica at the Bacolod Public Plaza for a joint rally.“Filipino women find ourselves in a time of crisis today. Joblessness is at an all-time high, 7 in 10 Filipinos—mostly women—are being driven into informal, precarious work, inflation is soaring at ...

The nine Pamplona massacre victims.*Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said on Wednesday, March 8, that the search for the mastermind behind the killing of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo has been boosted by a supposed video-conference call between the alleged mastermind and the suspects.While Interior and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. said aside from the relief of police personnel in Bayawan City, a revamp of the entire Negros Oriental police force is underway.“The move to overhaul and relieve the entire police force in Negros Oriental is part of the DILG and PNP's efforts to double up initiatives in maintaining security in the province, “Abalos said.Relieving the whole police personnel of the province would help strengthen peace and order in the...