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City file photoPresident Rodrigo Duterte has announced that Bacolod and Iloilo cities will remain under General Community Quarantine until November 30.Duterte, in a pre-recorded message aired on national television, said it is for the good of everyone.Meanwhile, Negros Occidental will remain under Modified GCQ.Local government units have until October 28 to file appeals to their quarantine status before the national Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, Health Secretary Francisco Doque III said.Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson welcomes Negros Occidental’s remaining under MGCQ to ensure the continued enforcement of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Provincial Administrator Ray Diaz said.Mayor Evelio Leonardia has filed an appeal for Bacolod City ...

BY CARLA GOMEZThe Civil Service Commission has disapproved the appointment of three Sugar Regulatory Administration deputy administrators on the ground that the composition of the Human Resource Merit Promotion and Selection Board (HRMPSB) for 2nd Level Managerial and Executive Officers was not in accordance with the rules.This was disclosed by CSC-National Capital Region Director 4 Judith Dongallo-Chicano in a letter to SRA Board Members Emilio Bernardino Yulo and Roland Beltran following their request for the commission to disapprove the permanent appointments of the three issued by SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica for alleged violation of the Civil Service Law.“We maintain that the appointment of the deputies was regular and the board members, as members of th...

The Bacolod-Silay Airport (BSA) is rolling out a coronavirus contact tracing system for its employees, passengers, and port users as part of its measures to curb the spread of the virus and to ensure the safety of everyone.In a statement Friday, October 23, BSA said it will implement the mandatory use of the mobile application Traze within the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) offices and facilities under the directive issued by the Department of Transportation on October 9.This is not only for CAAP and BSA personnel but for all airport users and passengers, it added.It said that the Traze mobile application is “a nationwide and unified contact tracing app that automates manual contact tracing by using Quick Response (QR) code scanning without the use of Blueto...

Photo courtesy of Frank CarbonThe business community in Bacolod City is calling on the local government to put “more effort” into its recovery action plan to stimulate economic activities.Frank Carbon, Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer, said they sought a meeting with the city officials “to ask for an update on where we are in the economic recovery effort and what has been done.”But during the meeting on Wednesday, October 21, it was lawyer John Orola, the city’s special consultant on trade and investment, along with lawyer Jesus Hinlo Jr., Land Bank of the Philippines director, who talked with the business community.The city government was supposed to update the business community on its economic recovery plan, but the latter ended up p...

BY CARLA GOMEZCapitol file photoThe Philippine Coast Guard has been instructed not to allow migratory workers to board vessels for Negros Occidental without prior coordination with the provincial government to ensure that they undergo COVID-19 tests, Zeaphard Gerhart Caelian, Provincial Disaster Management Program Division chief, said yesterday.There are 1,808 migratory workers from Antique who have recently arrived in Negros Occidental for the harvest season, eight of whom were found to be COVID -19 positive, he said.The majority of the migratory workers, , also known as sacadas, work as cane cutters in Negros Occidental that is the top producer of sugarcane in the country.They are swabbed for COVID-19 tests on arrival in Negros Occidental and quarantined in farm quar...

Another 48 residents of Victorias City were swabbed Thursday, October 22, at Victorias Elementary School in Victorias City by a combined team of healthcare frontliners of Metro 3rd Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and Victorias Inter-Agency Task Force.*Photos from 3rd District EOC

BY CARLA GOMEZThe Western Visayas Regional Inter-Agency Task Force has approved the suspension of the arrival of Locally Stranded Individuals into two cities in northern Negros Occidental effective today, October 23.Entry of LSIs into Victorias City is suspended until October 30 and to San Carlos City until November 6, RIATF Resolution No. 50 Series of 2020 issued yesterday said.Victorias officials had requested a seven-day moratorium on the entry of returning overseas Filipinos and LSIs to the city to enable them to decongest and disinfect quarantine facilities.San Carlos City made a similar request but asked for a 14-day moratorium.As of Wednesday San Carlos City had 94 active COVID-19 cases and Victorias City had 63.*

Persons showing COVID-19 symptoms are encouraged to seek consultation at the Bacolod Respiratory Outpatient (BRO) Center, instead of going to the City Health Office (CHO), which will no longer accommodate such patients starting Monday, October 26.This new development in the CHO policy aims to prevent other patients, especially pregnant women who often seek consultation at the CHO’s lying-in clinic, from contracting the viral disease, a press release from the Bacolod Information Office said today."In our daily reports, there are always pregnant women who test positive (for COVID-19,” City Administrator Em Ang, executive director and deputy for administration and operations of the Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center - Task Force (EOC-TF), said.IATF- Visayas chief implementer...

The city government of San Carlos City has restricted non-essential travel following the reported local transmission of coronavirus in the locality.Mayor Renato Gustilo, in an executive order signed on October 18, said that local transmission was recently reported in the city, and if that trend continues, the local healthcare system might not be able to cater to confirmed positive patients. He added that government and private hospitals have already refused admission of patients due to the influx of Covid-19 positive individuals.He said the Incident Management Team has recommended imposing border restrictions on certain activities and regulation of movement of residents to contain the spread of the virus.In the EO, citizens are enjoined to stay home except for frontliners, esse...

A total of 19 barangays in Bacolod City have been COVID-free for the past 14 days, the locality's Emergency Operations Center Task Force (EOC-TF) reported on Monday.These barangays are 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 36, 38, and Punta Taytay, data from the EOC-TF showed.“These barangays should maintain their status and the other barangays should also try to catch up with these COVID-free barangays,” said Mayor Evelio Leonardia, who heads the EOC-TF.According to the mayor, the COVID-fre’ status of 19 out of 61 Bacolod barangays is “something to celebrate” considering the efforts of the city government in containing the pandemic for several months now.*