Monday, June 7, 2021

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Yap welcomes creation of Task Force Ceneco

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:24 AM PDT

"WE HAVE nothing to hide."

This was stressed by Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) president Jojit Yap, as she welcomed the move of the Provincial Government to create Task Force Ceneco amid various concerns hounding the local power industry like high electricity cost.

"We would gladly clarify all insinuations and misinformation being thrown against Ceneco," she added.

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, during the Quarterly Provincial Development Council (PDC) Meeting recently, approved the business sector's request for the creation of the task force.

Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI) Chief Executive Officer Frank Carbon, who represented the business sector in the meeting, said the governor has recognized the need to look at the power overpricing concern raised against Ceneco, which also caters to areas under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.

Lacson told Carbon that he will issue the EO creating the task force so that the Provincial Government can call for a coordination meeting with the Ceneco Board, management, and Third-Party Bids and Awards Committee, among other groups.

"The task force will mainly help Ceneco to explore avenue where we can reduce power cost which will most likely result to lower electricity bills among consumers," he said, adding that the price difference between the contracted cost and lowest calculated bid, which is close to 100 percent, could have been huge savings on the part of households and businesses.

Concerns on alleged overpricing at the recently extended 20-megawatt (MW) power contract for one year of Ceneco with Kepco Salcon Power Corp. (KSPC) were earlier raised by consumer group Power Watch Negros Advocates.

In fact, the group has already brought the issue up to the Department of Energy (DOE).

In a letter to Energy Secretary Eduardo Cusi dated May 29, 2021, a copy of which was obtained by SunStar Bacolod, Power Watch Negros Advocates Secretary-General Wennie Sancho asked the DOE top official to look into the matter that would have an adverse economic impact on the consumers.

Sancho told Cusi that the decision of the Ceneco Board of Directors on the "short-term extension" was made notwithstanding the fact that in the meeting last April 12 of the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) on the procurement of 20 MW baseload supply requirement for 2021 to 2031, there was already a lowest calculated bid of P3.2929 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from KSPC.

"The Ceneco Board failed to act on this vital concern. Instead, they opted to close this short-term extension at the price of P5.42 to P5.58 per kWh," he added.

The group is also keen on bringing the issue up to the national government particularly at the House of Representatives.

As the business sector, for its part, underscored the "very damaging" impact of expensive power cost during the PDC meeting, Carbon said overpriced power supply contract will affect households mainly by taking food on the table.

It will also prevent businesses to open up and hire more especially during this coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, he said, adding that the task force will concentrate on opening up the avenue for talking so similar woe in the power utility can be prevented in the future.

Ceneco caters to the largest number of electric consumers in the province including those in cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.

Its acting general manager and project supervisor laywer Dan Pondevilla welcomed the move of the consumer group, saying that he sees no problem with the consumer group pushing for a Congressional inquiry as well as raising the matter to the DOE.

"It is better to have an inquiry so at least everybody can be heard," he said, adding that "[there was] no overpricing primarily because all rates were approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC)."

On May 26, Pondevilla confirmed that the power distribution utility accepted the earlier offer of KSPC for a one-year extension of their power contract.

Pondevilla, however, said the extension should be at a reduced capacity of 20 MW or half of the 40 MW that was previously contracted by Ceneco with the KSPC for 10 years.

"This is the most practical and beneficial on the part of the consumers. Contracting just 20 MW, and not 40 MW, will enable us to maximize our supply and reduce our power rates," he said, reiterating that based on the utility's power supply plan "what we need is just 20 MW."

As this developed, Bacolod City Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. proposed a resolution last week, urging Ceneco to consider implementing the CSP for its power supply contract with KSPC.

Gamboa said the result of the bidding should be implemented immediately instead of extending the existing 40-MW power supply agreement at a reduced capacity of 20 MW with the Cebu-based coal-fired power plant.

On the basis of the resolution proposed by Gamboa, the City Council set a public hearing today, June 8.

Councilor Archie Baribar, chair of the committee on energy, said this will be a public hearing on whether the resolution be considered.

Baribar said the endpoint of the hearing is to see if are they going to follow or approve the resolution.

"We will discuss this resolution, ask everyone who has knowledge on this particularly on which is more favorable to the general public, and should we see that it is good to have this resolution passed, we will pass it," he added.

For her part, Yap said the public hearing sought by the City Council would be a proper venue to clarify matters of concern regarding the proposed resolution.

Yap said the Board and management of Ceneco are more than willing to make representations to clarify and discuss such concerns.

"Maybe this would settle once and for all the issues being raised that we believe are all misleading or incorrect information," she added.

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Vaccine-reluctant LGUs will not get Covid-19 vaccines

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:23 AM PDT

LOCAL government units (LGUs) that are reluctant and were not able to utilize their allocations will not receive the Covid-19 vaccines, according to Negros Occidental Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz.

Diaz said he has instructed provincial health officer Dr. Ernell Tumimbang to pull out the vaccines from the LGUs that were not able to use them and give them to other LGUs that have demands for the vaccines.

"There are LGUs still having reluctancy of the vaccine," Diaz said without naming them.

Meanwhile, Diaz also said that provincial Capitol employees who are also reluctant about the vaccines will be made to sign a waiver to establish "that we offered to give them the vaccine but they are the ones who refused it."

"As of now given the situation, there are already employees having second thoughts, but if they decide [not] to get jab they already lost their priority because we will cater to the next priority," Diaz said.

Diaz added that so far, the PHO is happy with the vaccination program after they reached the target in last week's vaccination at Barangay Kapitolyo.

The vaccination last week reached about 180 a day.

Diaz also encouraged those who got the first dose to get the second dose to get the protection for themselves and their families against the virus.

"We need the vaccine especially with the rising cases of Covid-19. We need to secure ourselves and avoid death," he added.

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More schools as quarantine facilities sought in Bacolod

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:22 AM PDT

THE City Government of Bacolod will ask the Department of Education (DepEd) to open additional schools as quarantine facilities to accommodate the Covid-19 patients in the city.

This was stressed by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), on Monday, June 7, as the Covid-19 cases in the city continue to increase.

Familiaran said Councilor Renecito Novero, chairman of the city's quarantine center action team, will finalize their request and it will be submitted to DepEd.

He said, for now, the city is still using about 20 public schools as quarantine facilities and most of them were already occupied.

He added that the rooms in hotels intended for Covid-19 patients were also occupied.

As of June 6, Bacolod City had a total of 10,300 cases of Covid-19. Of the number 8,560 patients already recovered, 1,473 active cases, and 265 deaths.

On the same day, Bacolod City has a total of 128 new Covid-19 cases with one death.

"Our Covid-19 cases continue to increase and we need more facilities to accommodate all the Covid-19 patients so they can complete their 14-day quarantine," Familiaran said.

Familiaran, along with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and various cluster teams, such as the contact tracing, extraction, isolation or quarantine facilities, establishments monitoring, testing, information, and education campaign, One hospital Command Center, and the Bacolod City Police Office, held a meeting Monday, June 7, to harmonize their data.

The isolation or quarantine facilities cluster reported that as of Monday, the city still has a total of 187 unutilized beds for Covid-19 patients.

The contact tracing cluster also reported that on June 6, 97 Covid-19 patients were infected due to household transmission and 43 others were infected from outside transmission.

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Bacolod to get 7,000 more doses of Sinovac vaccines

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:21 AM PDT

THE City Government of Bacolod will receive an additional 7,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines Tuesday, June 8, from the national government.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Monday, June 7, that this is on top of the 10,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines that were delivered to the city on Saturday, June 5.

"It means that in only a matter of few days, our city will receive a total of 17,000 doses, which is a big boost to our aggressive vaccination program. Our local vaccination teams will continuously inoculate our people at the fastest possible time," he said.

Leonardia also expressed his gratitude to Secretary Charlie Galvez and Department of Health (DOH) Regional Director Emilia Monicimpo for keeping Bacolod on the priority list of the national government vaccination plan.

"We salute our men and women who have been tirelessly doing this noble job of vaccinating Bacolodnons in our desire to achieve herd immunity as soon as possible," Leonardia said.

Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, chairman of Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), said the additional vaccines will be administered to the priority groups A1 and A3.

He said they are still waiting for the guidelines to inoculate the priority group under A4.

He said the National Government earlier announced that they may start the vaccination this month for the priority group A4, but for the city, they have not yet received a copy of the guidelines for the said group.

A4 group covers frontliners, government employees, essential workers, and uniformed personnel.

Familiaran noted the additional vaccines will be inoculated to 8, 500 individuals under the priority groups A1 and A3.

The City has an ongoing vaccination rollout at SM City Bacolod and Ayala Malls Capitol Central.

Familiaran said they are also eying to open another vaccination center in Robinsons Mall in the city.

The vaccination centers will accommodate the healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and persons with comorbidities (A3) eligible priority groups who have yet to receive Covid-19 vaccine jabs.

They will accommodate only those who have completed their vaccination registration and have received a call or text from the Emergency Operations Center of their confirmed appointments.

Familiaran said he is hopeful that by next month, the city's purchased 650,000 doses of AstraZeneca will be delivered so that the city will no longer dependent on the national government vaccines' supply.

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16,800 vials of Sinovac arriving in Negros Occidental June 8

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:18 AM PDT

AN ADDITIONAL 16,800 vials of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines are set to arrive in Negros Occidental Tuesday, June 8.

This was confirmed Monday, June 7, by Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz, who said that the arriving vaccines will be released to the local government units that would like to use them.

"Those who do not use the vaccines will not be given the allocation," Diaz said.

Diaz also revealed that Covid-19 cases in the province have been declining already compared to the high cases in the month of April where Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson even requested the National Inter-Agency Task Force to place the province under a stricter quarantine status.

"About the general community status, Iloilo is asking for it because they are worried about the rising cases in their area. Our situation is improving and we managed to lower our cases to thirty percent," Diaz said.

He noted that the previous super spreader of Covid-19, such as Kabankalan City, Sagay City, San Carlos City, and even Himamaylan City, their positivity [rate] have gone down.

"I already presented the data to the governor and it is up to him to decide about the future quarantine status of the province," Diaz said.

He said the executive order signed by the governor in April limiting to only 30 percent the venue and gatherings had helped in lowering the number of cases.

He also said that from the previous 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., the curfew hours throughout the province have already been lowered to 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. because of the decline in the number of cases.

Diaz also said that the Provincial Quarantine facilities are not full at this time despite the province accommodating quarantine from out of town.

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5-year-old girl swept away by flood

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:18 AM PDT

A FIVE-YEAR-OLD girl remained missing Monday, June 7, in La Carlota City after she was swept away by strong current in a river in Barangay La Granja, La Carlota City on Sunday, June 6.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Jonel Guadalupe, chief of Police of La Carlota City, said the girl was left by her mother on top of a big stone after they crossed the river to get the girl's younger sibling. A sudden flash flood, however, swept the girl away.

Rescuers of La Carlota City have been conducting search and rescue operations but failed to find the girl as of Monday, June 7.

Guadalupe said the flash flood was caused by heavy rains in the area on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a total of P7,760,433 worth of crops were damaged by Tropical Storm Dante that hit the country last week.

Based on the report of the Provincial Agriculture Office, 540 farmers were affected from Cadiz City, Victorias City, Pontevedra, La Carlota, Bago City, Moises Padilla, Binalbagan, Isabela, and Hinoba-an.

The total area affected was 502.35 hectares.

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Unega appoints 2 new aldermen for San Enrique

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:17 AM PDT

THE United Negros Alliance (Unega) led by Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer has formalized the appointment of the new members of the Municipal Council of San Enrique in the persons of Councilors Reynaldo Guzman Severino and Genesis Gervacio Tumbis.

Severino and Tumbis took their oath of office before Love Negros top official Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson in the presence of the new members' fellow officials and family members on Monday, June 7.

Lacson administered their oath of office as witnessed by Ferrer and San Enrique Mayor Jilson Tubillara in rites held at the Governor's Office.

The two new town officials were appointed to replace the former officials of the town.

The governor and vice governor extended their congratulations to the newly inducted officials and wished them well in their service to their fellow men.

Ferrer, who served as the top official of Unega, said the new town officials are expected to perform their duties and responsibilities under the law until their term ends by June 30, 2022.

The party has decided to appoint them with the support of their respective families, he said.

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P50,000 shabu seized in Bacolod

Posted: 07 Jun 2021 08:17 AM PDT

AN ESTIMATED P50,000 worth of shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride was seized in a drug bust conducted by operatives of Police Station 7 on 18th Street, Barangay 4, Bacolod City Sunday evening, June 6.

The operation also led to the arrest of Cirmar Deduyo, 29, and Mark Lyster Ganancial, 26, both residents of Cereza South, Barangay 3.

Police records showed the suspects were arrested after they sold a sachet of shabu to a police undercover around 11:10 p.m.

Police recovered from the suspects' possession two big plastic sachets of shabu weighing seven grams and the marked money.

The suspects are detained at the custodial facility of Police Station 5. They are facing charges for violation of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

Meanwhile, three persons were also arrested by operatives of Police Station 2 for illegal gambling on Purok Tanguigi, Barangay 1, Bacolod City Sunday evening.

Arrested were Roger Apayat, 34, of Barangay 4, and his two other male companions.

The suspects were caught in the act of engaging in illegal gambling or Cara y Cruz around 11:15 p.m.

Police recovered from the suspects P3 cue coins and P165 cash.

The suspects were detained at the custodial facility of Police Station 2. They are now facing charges for violation of Presidential Decree 1602, which prescribes stiffer penalties on illegal gambling.

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