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The Negros Occidental provincial government is allocating P16 million for the development and expansion of the production of Robusta coffee in the province, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said on Tuesday, August 30.Assistance will also be given to four coffee producing communities in La Castellana, Cadiz City, La Carlota City and Sipalay City for processing plants, he said.Diaz said only 8 metric tons of coffee is being produced annually on about 8,000 hectares, which is very low and is barely 10 percent of what is expected.Good yield should have at least about 90 metric tons, which is their aim in the next three years, he said.The coffee plantations are operated by people’s organizations and non- government organizations, some of whom have Special Agreements on Pr...

Victorias Mayor Javier Miguel “Javi” Benitez* Ronnie Baldonado photoMayor Javier Miguel “Javi” Benitez issued a memorandum on Tuesday, August 30, to all Victorias City government employees to observe proper conduct while hosting persons on official travel.Benitez issued the memorandum in view of the recent suspension of five employees of the Negros Occidental Office of the Provincial Agriculturist who have been formally charged for grave misconduct.The five OPA staff made a provincial government vehicle and its driver wait beyond office hours while they engaged in a drinking spree with Victorias government employees at a restaurant in Victorias City, Provincial Legal Officer Alberto Nellas Jr. said earlier.Benitez, in his memorandum, said ”everyone, regardless of the nature...

Negros Occidental, Iloilo Province and Antique still have the highest number of dengue cases in Western Visayas, the Department of Health reported Tuesday, August 30.Western Visayas had 414 new dengue cases and four deaths from August 14 to 20 or Morbidity Week 33 for a total of 10,899 cases and 63 deaths this year.The cases from January 1 to August 20 are 600 percent higher than those in the same period last year, the DOH report said.Negros Occidental is still the topnotcher with 3,648 cases and 24 deaths, or more than one third of the total cases in Western Visayas for this year.Antique has 2,213 cases and 10 deaths, Iloilo province – 2,079 cases and 16 deaths, Iloilo City – 793 cases and one death, Bacolod City - 669 cases and eight deaths, Capiz – 526 cases and one deat...

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez launched a Citizens Kuryente Watch on Tuesday, August 30, where Bacolod residents can report their electricity problems to him so they can be acted on.Survey results 10 hours after the Citizens Kuryente Watch was launched on the Albee Benitez Facebook page showed that 96.3 percent of the of the 383 respondents said it is not easy to contact the Central Negros Electric Cooperative hotline.There were also 67 percent who said the payment of CENECO bills is easy and 33 percent who disagreed.Topping the list of complaints were the high cost of electricity, unscheduled brownouts and appliances destroyed during power interruptions.Those who wish to report electricity problems to the mayor may use this linkhttps://bit.ly/KURYENTEWATCH or scan ...

A signature campaign calling for the investigation and criminal prosecution of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative board of directors (CENECO-BOD) and management for signing an alleged illegal power supply contract and extensions has been launched, former Bacolod councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. said Tuesday, August 30.The petition also cited the consequent high cost of electricity and brownouts.The petition calls on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, Senator Rafael Tulfo – Senate Committee on Energy chairman and Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez to look into the matter and help CENECO member-consumers file formal complaints in a proper court.They are also asked that CENECO immediately be registered with the Cooperative Development Authority. ...

Councilor Al Victor Espino presided over the hearing of the tax relief ordinance*Delinquent real property taxpayers in Bacolod City will be asked to sign a memorandum of undertaking (MOU) to avail of relief on surcharges and penalties, Councilor Al Victor Espino said Tuesday, August 30.This was agreed on in a Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Laws, Ordinances and Good Government hearing with stakeholders on a proposed “ordinance granting tax relief to delinquent real property taxes in the city of Bacolod”, Espino said.Espino, who chairs the committee, said the MOU will state that the taxpayers who are granted condonation of the their penalties and surcharges agree to pay the amounts waved if the ordinance granting it is disallowed for not being compliant with national laws....

An 11-year-old girl drowned in the river at Purok Libertad, Brgy. Ma-ao in Bago City, Negros Occidental, Monday, August 29.Her mother is still missing.The body of the minor, identified as Ma. Ella Gargaceran, was recovered at Taytay California in Barangay Ma-ao, the Bago Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office reported.The DRRMO received a call regarding the drowning incident at 1:41 p.m. Monday.Still missing as of this writing is her mother, 43-year-old Myra Gargaceran.The minor tried to retrieve her slippers that were floating in the river, but she drowned., the DRRMO report said. Her mother tried to save her, but she too was swept away by strong current, it added.The current was strong due to heavy rain, Bago DRRMO head Merijene Ortizo said.Their search and...

The elderly was buried at the Kabankalan City public cemetery.*Aksyon Radyo Bacolod photoThe corpse of a 67-year-old woman who was buried Sunday, August 28, was removed from her coffin at the public cemetery in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.It was the caretaker of the cemetery who discovered the body of the elderly woman with no clothes on, Monday morning, August 29.Lt. Col. Raymond Cruz, city police chief, said it is possible that the incident happened Sunday night or early Monday morning.One of the possible motives is that the suspects may have been looking for valuables on the body of the corpse, but the family said that there were none in the coffin, the police said.It was not yet clear if the elderly woman was raped, the police said.An investigation is ong...

The P7 million worth of drugs seized.*PRO-6 photoThe police seized P7.561 million worth of drugs in another buy-bust operation in Silay City, Negros Occidental, Sunday night, August 28.Nabbed was 36-year-old Mark Villaran of Antonio Luna Street, Brgy. 1. He was tagged by the police as a high-value drug individual.The suspect sold four plastic sachets of suspected shabu worth P48,000 to a police poseur buyer at the entrance of Mallery 2 Subdivision in Brgy Rizal.During the bust, he yielded 1,112 grams of suspected shabu worth P7,561,600, the buy-bust money, P1,280 in cash believed to be cash proceeds, and drug paraphernalia.Prior to the bust, authorities also recovered two kilos of suspected shabu with an estimated value of P13.668 million at Brgy. Lantad which led to th...

Thirty one private schools in Negros Occidental and Bacolod City have closed, Department of Education 6 data showed Monday, August 29.Twelve schools closed permanently and 19 temporarily because of lack of students and financial constraints, the DepEd said.Of the 12 private schools that closed permanently four are in Bacolod City, four in San Carlos City, three in Silay City and one in Sagay City.Those that temporarily closed under the Negros Occidental Schools Division are seven, Silay City – six, Bacolod City - two, and Bago City, Cadiz City, Kabankalan City and Sagay City – one each.The total number of private schools that closed in Western Visays are 76, with 59 temporarily and 17 permanently, the DepEd said.*