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Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said today, March 2, that he is proposing to Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson that those who agree to be vaccinated first against COVID-19 be given passports that will allow them free travel to wherever they want to go.“This is a way of giving them an incentive for being among the first to be vaccinated,” he said.Hopefully, the passports will draw more people to be vaccinated because a lot already want to travel and go on vacation, he added.Diaz said he hopes that the vaccine passport will enable one to enter any part of the country without restrictions, such as RT-PCR tests and quarantines.He is also encouraging the national government to get in touch with other countries to grant holders of vaccine passports entry “uncondi...

Photo from BACIWA-PrimeWater FBA consumers’ group slammed the Bacolod City Water District-PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp. today, March 2, for its “inadequate" service.Water Watch, a local advocacy group protecting the rights of the consumers, has expressed alarm over “the resurgence of our perennial water woes like turbid water, inadequate water supply, lack of pressure that limits water supply like a drop in the bucket.”Wennie Sancho of Water Watch, in a statement today, said: “We cannot save water at night because there is no water at all. We are again hounded by the same problems that PrimeWater promised to solve when it tied the knot with BACIWA in the so-called joint venture.”Following the joint venture, PrimeWater, which was owned by the Villar family, took over the o...

Capitol photoCommissioner Rowena Guanzon of the Commission on Elections called on Congress and political parties to break the cycle of inequality by providing the means for more women to run for public office.Guanzon, who was the keynote speaker at the celebration of Provincial Women’s Day at the Capitol in Bacolod City today, March 2, in an interview said “the cycle inequality cannot be broken unless there is a drastic change in the law and allocation of resources.”The commissioner, at the same time, encouraged women to join politics by organizing from the barangay level and making their presence felt through their contributions to the community.However, she also said that it has been difficult for many women to mount campaigns because it usually is the men who hold the pu...

A "Run Sara Run" tarpaulin along Lacson Street in Bacolod City.*Ronnie Baldonado photoDavao Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio said she is grateful to all her friends who believe in her and have relentlessly expressed their call for her to run for president.“Run Sara Run” tarpaulins sprouted in Bacolod City Monday, March 1, and in other parts of Negros Occidental earlier.The Davao mayor, in a recorded message Monday thanked her supporters but said there is no need to keep calling on her to run for president through motorcades and tarpaulins.“I hear you, and I understand what’s in your heart because that is also what I feel,” she said.She said even if she will not run for president, “in our show of strength and unity we are able to uplift many Filipino families in need".“Let ...

Rep. Stephen Paduano (Abang Lingkod partylist) filed a resolution Monday, March 1, seeking an inquiry into the current plight of nurses in public health institutions with the end in view of providing appropriate measures to support them.Paduano, who is from Negros Occidental, said on July 17, 2020, the Department of Budget and Management issued Budget Circular No. 2020-4 to implement Section 32 of the Republic Act No. 9173 or the Philippine Nursing Act of 2002, raising the minimum monthly base pay of entry-level nurses, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2020.“The main concern of the nurses in public health institutions are the demotion or downgrading of their positions based on the DBM Budget Circular No. 2020-4, thus from Nurse 7 to Nurse 6, Nurse 6 to Nurse 5, Nurse 5 to Nurse 4, Nurse 4 to...

BCPO photoThe Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) anti-criminality operations resulted in the recovery of P1.76 million worth of illegal drugs and the arrest of 19 suspects in one week.A BCPO accomplishment report said that 15 buy-bust operations were conducted from February 22 to 28, which led to the seizure of 258.977 grams of shabu worth P1.761 million.The operations also led to the arrest of 19 persons, two high-value individuals and 17 street-level individuals. The suspects have been charged for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 before the Bacolod City Prosecutor’s Office.In the campaign against wanted persons the BCPO arrested 13 suspects, while nine persons were nabbed for illegal gambling, during the same period.For lo...

“Run Sara Run” tarpaulins surfaced in Bacolod City today, March 1.*Ronnie Baldonado photo"Run Sara Run" tarpaulins apparently urging Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to run for president in 2022 have surfaced in Bacolod City today, March 1.Similar tarpaulins earlier emerged in other parts of Negros Occidental, including Himamaylan City.Himamaylan Mayor Rogelio Raymund Tongson said he personally supports the campaign urging the Davao mayor to run for president.There are other Negros Occidental mayors who share his stand, Tongson said, but did not name them.It is up to those mayors to disclose their positions, he said.Tongson said he supports the call for Carpio to run for president so she can carry on the good things started by her father, President Rodrigo Duter...

Capitol photoGov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said the provincial government will insist on testing all passengers arriving in Negros Occidental by air and sea for COVID-19 and on their quarantine until their negative results are out to prevent a surge in local transmissions.He pointed out that Negros Occidental’s COVID-19 active cases jumped by 21 overnight and all of those who tested positive came from outside the province.If the testing and quarantine protocol of the province is lifted, Covid-positive travelers could enter Negros Occidental undetected, he said.The National Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in Resolution 101, Series of 2021 issued Friday said testing is not mandatory for a traveler except if the local government unit (LGU)...