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City PIO photoMayor Evelio Leonardia said today, December 28, that he expects Bacolod City to retain its Modified General Community Quarantine status in January with its daily COVID-19 cases having dropped to single digits.Bacolod’s new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday were 7, Thursday - 4, Friday - 4, Saturday - 1, Sunday – 0, and today – 1, the Department of Health reported.The city’s active COVID-19 cases were also down to 74 today, the DOH reported.But they are keeping a close watch on the COVID-19 cases in the next two weeks because of the holiday gatherings, he said.BREAKING NEWS President Rodrigo Duterte announced tonight, December 28, that Bacolod City and Negros Island will remain under Modified General Community Quarantine in January. Metro Manila, the provinces of...

"When it rains, it pours."That is what Mayor Evelio Leonardia said after Malacañang announced that government contractual and job order workers are set to receive P3,000 in Gratuity Pay as allowed by President Rodrigo Duterte today, December 28.Leonardia has requested the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), headed by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, to pass an appropriation ordinance amounting to P21 million for the P3,000 Gratuity Pay of the city government contractual and job order workers for 2020, a press release from the Bacolod City Information Office said."This is the best year ever for our employees in terms of bonus and incentive packages. We were able to give all including the rare ‘Performance-Based Bonus’ for the first time. And it is timely because there is a pandemic," Leon...

Capitol photoVice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer said today, December 28, that it is better for the Negros Occidental seat of government to be located in an area that is under its jurisdiction, “especially since Bacolod has a separate kingdom.”He said the provincial government officials will begin a serious discussion in January on the proposed transfer of their offices to the Capitol’s 25-hectare property in Talisay City.The seat of the provincial government is currently located in Bacolod that is a highly urbanized city and is not under the control of the provincial government.Ferrer said he is okay with the transfer as long as the new site is near the Bacolod Silay Airport.The 25-hectare property of the provincial government in Talisay is located along the Bacolod-Silay Air...

Capitol file photoThere have been fewer locally stranded individuals arriving in Negros Occidental lately, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said today, December 28.This is because of the moratoriums on LSI arrivals in the 19 cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental, he said.Many of the moratoriums are expected to end by early January.Diaz said because of the drop in LSI arrivals swab samples for COVID-19 tests from air and seaports in the province have not exceeded 500 daily.Earlier, the samples for COVID-19 testing were from 1,200 to 1,400 a day, he said.Diaz said the Teresita L. Jalondoni Provincial Hospital molecular laboratory in Silay City staff have been working in three shifts a day to hasten COVID-19 test results to ensure the faster release of ...

Outstanding teachers in Negros Occidental were recognized during the Department of Education’s Seal of Excellence awards.Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson and DepEd-Western Visayas director Gemma Ledesma led the rites today, December 28.In his speech, Lacson said that the most part of 2020 was overwhelming, and at some point, vicious and consuming.“It tested mankind in ways that were never known before. However, if there is any comforting prospect brought about by this crisis, is the fact that it was able to show the kind of fortitude humanity is capable of,” he said.He recalled that in April this year, face to face classes were suspended in the country, and that the educational system was thrust into an unknown and complex situation. “The old challenges were further aggravated ...

BCPO photoA curfew violator was arrested at Purok Progreso, Barangay 32 in Bacolod City early today, December 28.Nabbed was 43-year-old Kenneth Reyes of Rojas-Arellano Street in Barangay 40.During his arrest at about 3 a.m., policemen also recovered four sachets of suspected shabu from his possession.The recovered items were endorsed to the Crime Laboratory for examination, while the suspect was brought to Police Station 1.*

The Bacolod City government is preparing a multi-million peso fund for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, Mayor Evelio Leonardia said today, December 27.Leonardia said he has been meeting with his Finance Committee and they are finalizing the amount to be allocated.“We are very confident we have the funds,” the mayor said.“We will see to it that any and all resources that we have, we can realign, we can augment, including our savings” will be used for the purchase of the vaccines, he said.Leonardia said providing COVID-19 vaccines for the people of Bacolod will be the highest priority of his administration in 2021.Leonardia, president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, on December 23 created a Committee on Vaccine Availment headed by Iloilo Mayor Jerry ...

Mayor Evelio Leonardia has issued an executive order creating the Bacolod City COVID-19 Vaccination (CoVac) Council to set up a roadmap for providing Bacolodnons access to coronavirus vaccines “at the soonest possible time with the widest and most realistic coverage possible.”Leonardia, in Executive Order No. 83, Series of 2020, said the American drug company Pfizer reported that its new COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90 percent effective, and shortly after, Moderna reported similar positive news regarding its own vaccine.There are also other COVID-19 vaccines in advanced stages of development in other countries that may later on be authorized for Philippine use by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), including vaccines from the United Kingdom, Russia, India, and China, he saidIt...