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Ronnie Baldonado photoFourteen employees of the Bacolod Public Information Office (PIO) have tested positive for COVID-19 and have been quarantined.They are all asymptomatic, a PIO source said Friday, August 6.One PIO employee tested negative while the results of five others are being awaited.Four PIO employees tested positive on Sunday, eight on Wednesday and two others on Thursday.The PIO office at the Bacolod City Government Center has been closed.Ten of the COVID-19 positive employees are at the city’s South Hills quarantine facility in Barangay Alijis and four others are at a private facility.*

Negrense veteran television producer and director Kitchie Benedicto-Paulino passed away at her home in Pasig City at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, August 4, her son-in-law Negros Occidental Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer confirmed.She was 74 and had liver problems.Paulino was the daughter of the late ambassador Roberto Benedicto and the mother of Rep. Juliet Marie Ferrer (Negros Occidental, 4th District).She was the producer of Nora Aunor’s weekly musical “ Superstar” and oversaw the production of Dolphy and Nida Blanca’s sitcom “John and Marsha" and Vilma Santos' weekly musical “Vilma in Person” among other television shows.The vice governor said “she was the best mother-in-law, she was a good person”.Her children, Juliet Marie, Tintin, Pia and Paulo, in a joint statement said t...

A suspected rebel was killed and a government soldier and a civilian were injured in an encounter in Sitio Bugalo, Barangay Santol, Binalbagan in Negros Occidental 5 p. m. Thursday, Maj. Cenon Pancito, 3rd Infantry Division spokesman, said Friday, August 6.The 94th Infantry Battalion soldiers were conducting pursuit operations when they encountered five armed men believed to be New People’s Army rebels in Sitio Bugalo that resulted in a five-minute firefight.An unidentified alleged rebel, whose body was recovered, was killed, Pancito said.A soldier, whose name was withheld, was wounded on the right leg, and a civilian identified as Henry Pial was hit by a bullet on the left ear, Pancito added.The soldiers seized a .38 caliber pistol with ammunition from the encounter site. ...

A drug surrenderer was found dead at Palanca Street, Reclamation Area, Brgy 2, Bacolod City, early Friday, August 6.The victim was identified as Ralph Suspeñes, 24, of Brgy. Mambulac, Silay City. He was found by a rider who happened to be in the area.The victim succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, a police report said.Recovered from the crime scene were two empty cartridges and one live ammunition of a .45 caliber pistol.Capt. Paul Vincent Pendon, officer-in-charge of Police Station 2, said in a press conference that they are still investigating the motive of the killing.He said they coordinated with the Silay police and found out that the victim was arrested for drug charges in May 2018, but was released two years later, in 2020, following a plea bargaining agreement....

City PIO photoAll active COVID-19 cases in Bacolod City have been promptly extracted and brought to treatment or isolation facilities, Executive Assistant Ernesto Pineda, head of the City’s Extraction Cluster, said.Pineda reported this during the daily huddle of the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center-Task Force (EOC-TF) Thursday, August 5.This means that all patients with COVID-19, including those in line lists, have been transferred from their homes to their assigned quarantine facilities on time.The EOC-TF lauded this extraction achievement, as it would help improve the overall COVID-19 situation in the City, a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office said.City Administrator Em Ang said that zero backlog in extraction is vital in lowering the num...

Police Station 5 photoMore than P1 million worth of drugs were seized in separate police buy-bust operations in Bacolod City in less than 24 hours.In a buy-bust operation at Purok Gonzaga, Brgy. Taculing Thursday, August 5, the subject of the operation, Jobel Blam, evaded arrest, while his companion, Jaime Garde, was apprehended.The suspect yielded five sachets containing suspected shabu weighing 110 grams and worth P770,000, the P2,000 marked money and drug paraphernalia, a police report said.In another buy-bust operation at Prk. Magsanaya, Brgy 6, Garry Cartalaba, 34, was arrested when he sold drugs to a police poseur buyer.Recovered from his possession were seven sachets of suspected shabu weighing 35 grams and worth P238,000, the P1,000 marked money, and P11, 000 bo...