HEADLINE

By JEN BAYLON The government’s highly anticipated plan to sell rice at P20 per kilo — a key campaign promise of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. — will not be implemented immediately, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said yesterday. “It might take a while. Although the idea was to implement it immediately, I don’t think …

By JEN BAYLON The Environmental Management Bureau in Western Visayas (EMB-6) has issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) against Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company (Biscom) following a molasses spill that threatens the Binalbagan River in Negros Occidental. “Biscom is hereby ordered to cease and desist from discharging molasses in its perimeter canal, which ultimately leads to the Binalbagan …

By JEN BAYLON The Negros Occidental provincial government suspended the release of P14 million in funds intended for the permanent relocation site in La Castellana town after the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) rejected the proposed location for evacuees of the Kanlaon Volcano eruption. “The release was canceled because the MGB denied the proposed site, which …

By JEN BAYLON A major molasses spill has impacted four barangays in Negros Occidental’s Binalbagan town, resulting in a fish kill in the river near Barangay Canmoros. Forester Lucia Salazar, supervising environment specialist of the Kabankalan City Environment and Natural Resources Office (Cenro), said the spill affected Barangays Canmoros, Progreso, Marina, and San Juan on …

By JEN BAYLON Evacuees from several barangays in Negros Occidental, still unable to return home since the eruption of Kanlaon Volcano late last year, will cast their votes in alternative or makeshift polling centers for the May 12 midterm elections. During the Provincial Joint Security Control Center meeting last week, provincial election supervisor Ian Lee …

By JEN BAYLON Three individuals were killed while 17 others were injured after a vehicle driven by an Indian national rammed into a religious procession on Good Friday, April 18, in Bacolod City’s Barangay Alangilan. Authorities identified the fatalities as 66-year-old Dionelo Solano, a lay minister; his friend Gilven Tanique, a barangay tanod; and 21-year-old …

By JEN BAYLON Brigadier General Arnold Thomas Ibay, chief of the Police Regional Office in the Negros Island Region (PRO-NIR), announced that they are on full alert for Holy Week and the midterm elections. “We are considering all our security preparations to help us,” Ibay said. He said their personnel would not be allowed to …

By JEN BAYLON Negros Occidental has recorded seven dengue-related deaths, as the number of infections continues to rise, the Provincial Health Office (PHO) said yesterday. The most recent dengue fatality was a 49-year-old woman from Bago City, data showed. The PHO earlier recorded six deaths due to dengue, which included individuals aged nine to 22 …

More explosive eruptions are possible at Kanlaon Volcano as it had another minor eruption yesterday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said. “The current eruptions are just a prologue. The major eruptions that we are seeing are taking place in shorter intervals now,” Mariton Bornas, chief of Phivolcs’ Volcano Monitoring and Eruption Prediction …

By JEN BAYLON The Negros Occidental provincial government is taking steps to relocate families living within Kanlaon Volcano’s six-kilometer extended danger zone to permanent, safer sites to restore normalcy in their lives, Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said. Diaz stressed the importance of finding a permanent solution for the displaced residents. He explained that the evacuees, …