After we grew up in Davao City, our family flew back to native land Negros Occidental. The first Catholic Church we saw in Bacolod City was the Queen of Peace where my cousin Noel Jimenez brought us for our first mass in the city. More known as Hua Ming Church, we were awed by its design, said to have been built by an Uychiat family member.
It breaks our heart to hear that a bishop has declared to close the church, which eventually deprives the Catholics of a place to worship. We could not imagine what will happen to the images and the air-conditioning system that are in it. How painful it is for a church leader to declare such closure, many say. He has his reasons others do not know of.
In many angles of disputes on earth, the most common cause is wealth or money. It is said that Hua Ming devotees share around two hundred thousand pesos in donations thru church collections weekly. Wow! No wonder it broiled a conflict.

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Travel is still the best way to learn, and the thrust of DOT Region VI boss Atty. Helen Catalbas for everyone to have experiential travel is worth noting. RD Helen is one unique breed who continuously promotes Western Visayas’ treasures, surprising every traveler of the natural attractions of the destinations.

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The other day, our friend Fannie Galang of Thai Airways messaged us to say that in commemoration of the founding of the ASEAN fifty years ago, Thai Airways introduced a promo for both business and economy classes which are available online thru their website www.thaiairways.com. We flew on the airline few years back on its business class to Bangkok, and it was indeed a pleasant experience.

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Manila Times has voted Bacolod as the Top Model City in the country and that is something that residents should be proud of. It is something that the local leadership has to maintain as expectations on hospitality and tourism have risen. Congratulations to Mayor Bing and to the people of Bacolod… the City that Smiles.

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We see on Facebook many negative comments on the appointment of Mocha Uson and her group to the PCOO. Many think the Mocha girls are useless. In contrast, nobody criticized the appointees of the previous administration.
Those Hongkong tourists could not have been killed inside that bus had the leader and his men were decisive. Yet, after everything, nobody apologized./WDJ