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The huge crowd at the Ayala Malls Capitol Central for the DSWD payout on Saturday.* Screen grab from Xian Lim videoA huge crowd flocked to the Ayala Malls Capitol Central in Bacolod City to avail of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) cash assistance to indigent students on Saturday,, August 20.Secretary Erwin Tulfo has apologized for the chaos that marred the first day of the agency’s distribution of cash aid for indigent students in various parts of the country, including Bacolod City.Those seeking cash assistance, who formed a long line outside the Ayala Malls Capitol Central and rushed into the building when it opened, were from Bacolod City and Negros Occidental.There were 587 clients in the province who received P2,203,000 on Saturday, May Rago-Cas...

David Alba, Pablo Luis Azcona and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag (l-r)*The newly appointed acting administrator of the Sugar Regulatory Administration and the two SRA board members are all from Negros.President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed David John Thaddeus Alba as SRA acting administrator, and Pablo Luis Azcona and Ma. Mitzi Mangwag as board members, Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez confirmed on Saturday, August 20.Alba is the general manager of the Asociacion de Agricultores de La Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. and the La Carlota Mill District Multi-Purpose Cooperative. Azcona, who will represent the planters on the board, is a United Sugar Producers Federation director.Alba and Azcona are from Negros Occidental.Mangwag, who is from Negros Oriental, will represent the ...

Two suspects were caught in a drug bust operation at Moises Padilla Friday, August 19.*Moises Padilla PNP photosTwo top drug suspects of Moises Padilla town, Negros Occidental, were arrested in a buy-bust operation Friday night, August 19, at Brgy. 7 Poblacion.Arrested were 30-year-old Jayvee Dingcoy, who was said to be in the town’s Top 1 Target Priority List, and 33-year-old Jioseen Vinson, a high-value individual, and in the Top 2 Target Priority List.During the bust, the suspects yielded 15 sachets containing suspected shabu that weighed 60 grams worth P408,000, the P1,000 buy-bust money, and two short firearms.The suspects are now in the custody of the police and are facing drug charges.*

Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose  Lacson is urging students returning to face-to face classes on Monday, August 22, to be mindful not just of COVID-19, but also of dengue.“We want you back in school healthy and safe," Lacson said on Sunday.Bacolod City is on alert for the opening of classes, Mayor Alfredo Benitez also said.There are 12,368 or 97.60 percent of the teaching and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education - Division of Negros Occidental who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, DepEd Negros Occidental spokesperson Ian Arnold Arnaez said.He also said 13 percent have received booster shots.“It was March of 2020 when schools sent their students home at the onset of the COVID pandemic.  And now, after two school years of online and modu...

A woman was shot to death at Prk. Sigay, Brgy. 2, Bacolod City, early Saturday, August 20.Killed was 27-year-old Ericka Jane Castaneda.Police said that the victim was walking at the footwalk with her companion when she was attacked by a masked suspect who shot her five times.The suspect fled after the killing.The police are still investigating the incident.*

A scene of the crime int Brgy. Buluangan.*San Carlos PNP photoA “love triangle” triggered the  attack on a couple while they were asleep in Brgy. Buluangan, San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, Friday night, August 19.The victims were identified as Evelyn Concha, 31, and Julieto Ugdiman, 44, of Calatrava town.They sustained gunshot wounds and were rushed to the San Carlos City Hospital. They are now in a stable condition.They were shot by the suspect identified as 29-year-old Charles Brandi-ase, who is also from Calatrava, with an unknown firearm. He then fled after the shooting.Two days later, on Sunday, August 21, the suspect surrendered to Bacolod City authorities at Taculing Road, in Brgy. Taculing.He was then turned over to the San Carlos police, who are lo...

Three planters' groups reiterate their confidence in Aurelio Gerardo “Bodie” Valderrama Jr.'s integrity.*Negrense sugar planter Aurelio Gerardo “Bodie” Valderrama Jr., who was replaced as planters’ representative on the Sugar Regulatory Administration Board, on Saturday, August 20, called on everyone to support the new SRA board members and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.While leaders of three planters groups thanked him for “his forthright and selfless service to the sugar industry during his brief stint in the SRA”. Enrique D. Rojas - president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, Raymond M. Montinola - president of the Confederation of Sugar Producers, and Danilo A. Abelita - president of the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers in a joint statement issued ...

Members of the Federation of Urban Poor (FedUp) mark Ninoy Aquino Day in Bacolod City.*Members of the Federation of Urban Poor (FedUp) in Negros Occidental, clad in yellow and waving  Philippine flags, marked Ninoy Aquino Day  by laying flowers at the foot of his statue at Araneta Avenue  in Bacolod City City on Sunday, August 21.Ninoy Aquino Day is held every August 21 to mark the assassination of former senator Beningo “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.  at the Manila International Airport, now the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,  in 1983.Aquino, a longtime political opponent of then president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was returning to the Philippines after three years of self-imposed exile in the United States when he was shot in the head at the tarmac of the airport.“Heroism ...