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Silay Mayor Mark Golez denied Friday, April 16, that he is engaged in quarry operations in Silay City or in any other place.The New People’s Army (NPA) Roselyn Jean Pelle Command (RJPC) in Northern Negros, in a statement Friday, said it burned heavy equipment operated by Golez in Hacienda Vista Alegre, Barangay E. Lopez, Silay City in Negros Occidental in response to the people’s clamor to punish large-scale quarry operations, which recently caused massive flooding in the area.The sanction was carried out by the RJPC at about 10 p.m. Monday, April 12, and paralyzed three backhoes at the Malogo river quarry site, the group’s spokesperson Cecil Estrella said.The NPA also warned that sanctions will also be meted on other entities who ravage the environment and cause harm to the pe...

Bacolod PIO file photoNegros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson is appealing to passengers from other parts of the country expected to start arriving in Negros Occidental on Tuesday, April 20, to agree to be tested for COVID-19 and quarantined on arrival.The moratorium on the entry of passengers from the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Davao and Cebu in Western Visayas is only up to Monday, April 19.He has not received any advice from his colleagues in Panay on a request for a third moratorium, Lacson said Friday, April 16.“Most likely there will be no more extension,” he said.Lacson said he is still hoping the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) will grant Negros Occidental permission to test p...

The Moises Padilla municipal hall was closed Friday, April 16, after one of its department heads tested positive for coronavirus.Employees who had direct contact with the patient were also directed to go on quarantine pending the result of their reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.Among those who went on isolation was Mayor Ella Garcia-Yulo.While she had no direct contact with the department head, who had gone to the different offices including the Mayor’s Office at the municipal hall, she went on quarantine and was swabbed to ensure that she has not contracted the virus, Yulo said.She said that the department head was supposed to have had an eye check-up in Bacolod City but she was required to submit an RT-PCR test result.The department head ...

Three local government units in Negros Occidental have closed all of their tourist destinations to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Provincial Tourism Officer Jennylind Cordero said Friday, April 16.The three are Himamaylan City, Candoni and Sipalay City, she said.Other LGUs are also set to close their tourists destinations, while some are operating at 50 to 30 percent capacity only, Cordero said.Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson has asked local government units with triple digit COVID-19 cases to close down their tourist destinations.Lacson said he has always given leeway to local government units. “I always think local chief executives know what is best for their areas”, he said.Mayor Jose Nadie Arceo has issued an executive order suspending activities in ...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief assured local government officials that the AztraZeneca vaccine rollout will continue, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said Friday, April 16.AstraZeneca has said the vaccine orders of the local governments are expected to arrive by July, Lacson added.Negros Occidental and Bacolod City have made advance purchases for AstraZeneca vaccines.FDA Director General Eric Domingo met with members of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines via Zoom, which was attended by Lacson, Friday morning.The meeting was held after AstraZeneca was put on hold last week because of findings, not in the Philippines, of serious adverse effects such as blood clotting, Lacson said.Domingo, at the ULAP meeting “made it clear that ...

A 17-year-old boy was arrested in a police drug bust operation at Purok Ylac, Barangay 1 in Bacolod City Friday, April 16.The teenage suspect, whose name was withheld by the police, yielded six sachets of suspected shabu worth P20,400 and a .38 caliber pistol loaded with live ammunition.The suspect will be charged for illegal possession of drugs and a firearm.*

COVID-19 active cases in Negros Occidental hit an all-time high Thursday, April 15, and “it will take a while before we will see a downward trend,” Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said.There were 1,936 COVID-19 active cases Thursday, the highest since the pandemic hit in March last year, Lacson said.The province had 290 new cases Thursday, the Department of Health also reported.Of the 290, the DOH said local cases were 213, returning overseas Filipinos – 62, locally stranded individuals – 13, and Authorized Persons Outside Residence - 2.“Our present number of active cases may continue to increase, we all should do our share in trying to halt this rise. Avoid non-essential travel,” Lacson said.Seven of the 31 local government units in the province have three-digit COVID cases a...

Twenty-five of 214 newly committed inmates brought to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology male isolation facility in Barangay Handumanan, Bacolod City, have tested positive for COVID-19.The newly committed persons deprived of liberty from the various Philippine National Police and other law enforcement units in Negros Occidental were brought to the isolation facility for COVID-19 testing, Jail SSupt. Gilbert Peremne, BJMP Region 6 assistant regional director, said.Those who tested positive were placed in the BJMP Ligtas Covid Center in Talisay City for healing, he said.Those who tested negative were brought back to their jails of origin in various parts of the province, he added.The procedure is before they are placed in their jails of origin they need to be quaranti...