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Bacolod DRRM photoBacolod City will continue to require negative COVID-19 tests results from Authorized Persons Outside of Residence as APORs from Panay entering the city have been found positive for the virus, City Administrator Em Ang said Thursday, August 5.“We want to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Bacolod City, especially the highly contagious Delta variant that has already been detected in Panay,” Ang, executive director of the city Emergency Operations Center, said.On Wednesday alone, out of 40 new COVID-19 positive cases in Bacolod City, 12 came from Iloilo, nine of whom were APORs and three were returning residents, she said.She said if those persons who entered Bacolod were exempted from testing, they would be spreading the virus in the city, she said.If ev...

Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said he hopes the national Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) reverses its policy that exempts government Authorized Persons Outside of Residence from mandatory COVID-19 testing and quarantine on entering the province.There have been cases where APORs have been carriers of the virus, he said Friday, August 6.IATF Resolution 98-A provides that government officials/personnel on official business shall be allowed unimpeded travel to their place of destination and shall not be required to undergo mandatory testing and quarantine protocols of the local government unit of destination, the governor pointed out.“We have appealed even before to no avail,” the governor said of their call to be a...

Em Ang file photoThe Emergency Operations Center – Task Force (EOC-TF) thanked the security and safety officers who effectively managed huge crowds of vaccinees who flocked to mall vaccination sites in Bacolod City, recently.In a statement on Tuesday, August 10, the EOC-TF said: “We thank our Bacolod City Police Office, Public Order and Safety Office, and the safety officers of mall-based vaccination sites for effectively managing the huge crowds of vaccinees.”Among the crowd-control measures implemented at vaccination sites is the setting up priority lanes for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs), a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office said Wednesday, August 11.These priority lanes, according to City Administrator and EOC-TF executive di...

The Negros Occidental provincial government’s human resource management officer (HRMO) has been formally charged and preventively suspended for 60 days, Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. said Tuesday, August 10.Anabelle Palic has been charged for oppression, conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, grave misconduct and for being notoriously undesirable based on prima facie evidence, Nellas said.The formal charge, order for preventive suspension and investigation report were served to Palic Tuesday afternoon, he said.Palic can opt for a formal investigation hearing or submit her position paper, he said.This stems from a complaint by the Progressive Alliance of Capitol Employees wherein 57 job order workers at the Mambukal Resort in Murcia, one utili...

Bacolod PIO photoNegros Occidental and Bacolod City received more Sinovac vaccines Thursday, August 5, to boost the fight against the spread of COVID-19.Bacolod and Negros Occidental received 15,000 doses each, City Administrator Em Ang said.They were also informed that the city and province will receive Moderna vaccines next week, Ang, who is also executive director of the Bacolod Emergency Operations Center, said.Negros Occidental and Bacolod will receive 15,000 doses of Moderna vaccines each, Ang said.Moderna vaccines allocated for Iloilo City were 50,000 doses and Iloilo province 92,400 doses despite Bacolod and Negros Occidental having bigger populations, she said.She is hoping Bacolod receives more vaccines so they can hasten their vaccination drive to reach h...

Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante is studying whether they should also take legal action against a 19-year-old student who entered Negros Occidental with a fake negative RT-PCR test result and S-PaSS.The student who is from Cadiz City had obtained a barangay certification that she was a resident of Barangay Alicante, EB Magalona, in order to return to the province.Her application to return to Cadiz City had been rejected because they detected that her RT-PCR test result was fake and she was not issued an S-PaSS, the mayor said.The 19-year-old was advised to have a test again but instead got a barangay certificate in EB Magalona to return to Cadiz, Escalante said.When they learned that she had arrived in Cadiz City she was picked up by the city’s Inter-Agency Task Force te...

Charges will be filed against a 19-year-old who used fake documents to gain entry into Negros Occidental and two others who entered EB Magalona town without any S-PaSS (Safe, Swift and Smart Passage) in violation of COVID-19 protocols, Mayor Marvin Malacon said Monday, August 9.The 19-year-old who submitted a fake Red Cross COVID-19 negative RT-PCR test report, also used a certification that he is a resident of Barangay Alicante, EB Magalona, when he is in fact a resident of Cadiz City, Malacon said.The provincial government quarantined him on arrival in Negros Occidental on August 3 and he was swabbed for an RT-PCR test, Malacon said.The EB Magalona municipal government will file charges against the 19-year-old for violation of Republic Act 1132 or the "Mandatory Reporting of ...