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The Bacolod SP members during their Zoom session Wednesday, April 28.*The Sangguniang Panlungsod is showing renewed interest in the creation of a second congressional district in Bacolod as politics starts to heat up in the city.The SP during its regular session Wednesday, April 28, unanimously passed a resolution inquiring from Bacolod Rep. Greg Gasataya about the status of his proposed bill entitled:“An act reapportioning the lone district of Bacolod City.“Gasataya told DIGICAST NEGROS his proposed bill is pending before the House Committee on Local Government, and a resolution from the city council favoring the reapportionment is needed for it to be acted on.Hopefully, it can then be included in the next hearing of the Committee on Local Government when the House resumes...

Fire burned trees in Spur 21 of Salvador Benedicto town Wednesday afternoon, April 28.*CENRO Bago photoA forest fire hit 250 Acacia mangium trees and other native species at Spur 21 in Barangay Bunga, Salvador Benedicto town, Negros Occidental, Wednesday afternoon, April 28.The trees on half a hectare of the National Greening Program area were burned in the fire that lasted from about 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Joan Nathaniel Gerangaya, head of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office - Bago City, said.The fire started from the grass and burned the leaves of the trees, but they can grow again when it rains, he said.The 250 Acacia mangium trees planted in the area are about four to five years old, Gerangaya said.The trees are located on a hill beside the highwa...

Condrad Garcia photoThe Moises Padilla municipal government has placed Barangay Montilla under granular lockdown to minimize the spread of coronavirus in the community.The lockdown that began Monday, April 26, will end on May 10.Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo, in an executive order issued on Monday, said a wake was held for a retired army officer on April 11 to 15, which was attended by residents and non-residents of the barangay and the municipality, however, several of the attendees were found to have tested positive for COVID-19.She said the contact tracing team was “unable to effectively detect and isolate possible confirmed COVID-19 cases due to the non-cooperation of the primary contacts of the confirmed COVID-19 case during the wake of the retired army officer.”On April ...

Provincial Administrator’s Office closed for disinfection.*Richard Malihan file photoThe Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator’s Office at the Capitol in Bacolod City will be closed for disinfection Thursday, April 29, after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.The employee who tested positive for COVID-19 is symptomatic, he has a fever and cough, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said Wednesday, April 28.He will be quarantined at the Mambukal Resort in Murcia and three of his close contacts will be swabbed for COVID-19 RT-PCR tests Thursday, Diaz said.If the three close contacts test positive more employees at the Provincial Administrator’s Office will have to be tested for COVID-19, he added.Meanwhile, the rest of the staff of the Provincial Administ...

The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod approved a resolution Wednesday, April 28, endorsing the use of a portion of Bacolod City’s property in Purok Neptune, Barangay Singgcang-Airport, as a residential area for recent fire victims who had been residing in the area for years.The SP expressed its unanimous support to the commitment of Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia and Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran of providing residential areas to the residents of a portion of Purok Neptune in accordance with terms and conditions permissible under the law and affordable under the housing program of the city, Councilor Renecito Novero said.The resolution authored by Novero, chairman of the SP Committee on Urban Poor Housing and Resettlement, also supports the plan of constructing a connecting road from P...

Healthcare workers should also be protected from COVID-19 infection, which is why patients who need to be admitted at the Bacolod City Health Office Lying-in Clinic must first undergo an RT-PCR test and must be negative prior to admission.“This precautionary measure is imperative as COVID-19 is still here,” said City Administrator Em Ang, who is also the executive director of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), in a press release from the Bacolod Public Information Office.Close and “skin-to-skin” contact with patients during childbirth is inevitable for healthcare workers at the Lying-in Clinic. “Thus, it is necessary to know whether you test positive or negative [for COVID-19], so that clinic staff can take precautionary measures,” Ang added.Pre-admission testing will not o...

Screen grabbed from PaghimutadCause-oriented groups slammed the alleged anti-worker policies of the Duterte administration as Filipinos continue to suffer from the “unprecedented economic and health crisis.”At a press conference Wednesday, April 28, church, workers and cause-oriented representatives lamented that the Philippine economy continues to plunge, prices of basic goods have increased rapidly, and Filipinos have lost their livelihoods.The Church Peoples and Workers Coalition claimed that the administration’s economic managers are using the pandemic as a shield against criticism for their “anti-poor and neoliberal policies.”“The conditions of the Filipino working class remain dire. (President Rodrigo) Duterte failed to fulfill his promises to address the demands of w...

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia visited the Purok Neptune fire victims at the J.R. Torres Elementary School to check on their situation Tuesday afternoon.*City PIO photoThe number of houses destroyed in Bacolod City rose to 58, with another fire hitting Barangay 23 Tuesday afternoon, April 17.A fire destroyed three houses and two were damaged in Purok Mahinangpanon, Barangay 23, at about 5 p.m. Tuesday, Barangay Captain Wenceslao Parlan said.Chief Inspector Rodel Legaspi, Bacolod fire chief, said destroyed in the Barangay 23 fire were the two-storey wooden houses of Elsa Valera, Junalyn Libiogo and Carmen Morales initially estimated to cost P270,000.The fire originated from the house of Valera situated at the center of the two other houses, he said.They have only ...