www.visayandailystar.com
The 30th MassKara Festival celebration enters its third and final week with some of the exciting highlights during the weekend building for the final day on Monday next week when Bacolod City celebrates its 71st Charter Anniversary, a press release from organizers said.

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
www.visayandailystar.com
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita will be the guest of honor during the 71 st Charter Day celebration in Bacolod City on October 19, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said yesterday.
The city has adopted the theme “Bacolod Going Beyond Expectations” for this year’s Charter Day celebration because as a highly urbanized city, the performance [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ
www.visayandailystar.com
Bacolod City ’s annual MassKara Festival is celebrating 30 years of smiles this month with something new – a dramatic fusion of public art and street entertainment.
“We are going to unveil a major work of art at the Bacolod public plaza in the evening of Oct. 14 that is our vision of [...]

BY ADRIAN NEMES III
www.visayandailystar.com
Despite the pressures joining the MassKara Queen 2009 pageant entail, these two girls said their families and friends inspired them not to give up.
Christine Daphne Villanueva, 19, said she does not want to disappoint her family and friends, so she is doing her best to win this year’s crown.

BY CARLA GOMEZ
Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Manuel “Mar” Roxas will visit Talisay, Bago and Bacolod cities tomorrow to conduct consultations with Negrenses, former Negros Occidental Gov. Daniel Lacson Jr. said yesterday.
It will be the first visit of Aquino to Negros Occidental since he announced his bid for the presidency under the Liberal Party [...]

BACOLOD CITY MASSKARA FESTIVAL
S C H E D U L E   O F   E V E N T S
MASSKARA FESTIVAL 2009

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO (www.visayandailystar.com)
Transcom Asia, a call center company based in Europe, will start operating in Bacolod City in September 2009 with 800 personnel, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said yesterday.
Leonardia said the call center, which will be located at Lopue’s South Square in Brgy. Tangub, targets to hire 2,000 to 3,000 employees.
Leonardia, with Vice [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ  (www.visayandailystar.com)
A Research Institute for Tropical Medicine test yesterday confirmed that one of the two American missionaries earlier confined at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City was positive for Influenza A(H1N1), Health Regional Director Ariel Valencia said.
Found positive for H1N1 was a 20-year-old male from San Diego, California, who [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ  (www.visayandailystar.com)
The Research Institute for Tropical Medicine yesterday confirmed three patients positive for influenza A(H1N1) in Western Visayas, two of them brothers who returned to Bacolod from the United States, DOH Regional Director Ariel Valencia said.
“Although the patients were found positive, they all exhibited mild symptoms of fever, cough and sore throat,” Valencia [...]

The winners of the Bulawan Awards for Product Excellence, an annual initiative of the Association of Negros Producers as a vehicle to spur the creativity of its members and encourage them to innovate new products, were announced yesterday.
There were no awardees in some categories because only products that reached a score level of at least [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
Two male American missionaries with fever were admitted at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City yesterday for possible Influenza A(H1N1), Health Regional Director Ariel Valencia confirmed last night.
The missionaries aged 20 and 53 years old were admitted for observation, he said.
They arrived in the Philippines on June [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
Health Regional Director Ariel Valencia said the 17-year-old student found positive for Influenza A(H1N1) was discharged from the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City yesterday and, so far, there is no indication that anyone who came in contact with her was infected.
The student was hit by A(H1N1) at De La [...]

(www.visayandailystar.com)
About 1,674 job hunters joined the Independence Day job fairs of the Bacolod City Public Employment and Services Office and the Department of Labor and Employment in search of local and overseas hiring opportunities yesterday.
A total of 887 persons registered for their job fair at Robinson’s Place, nine of whom were hired on the spot [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
An Indian national who arrived from HongKong is under observation for possible Influenza A(H1N1) at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City, Gov. Isidro Zayco said last night.
Zayco said he has ordered Dr. Luisa Efren, Provincial Health Officer, to ensure close monitoring of the case.
She said it [...]

By Carla Gomez (visayandailystar.com)

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—A blog with over 2.5 million worldwide visitors a month has featured The Ruins in Talisay City, Negros Occidental as among the 12 of the world’s most fascinating ruins.
Oddee at www.oddee.com, a blog that “features, odd, strange and bizarre things” in the world, ranked The Ruins in the [...]

 www.visayandailystar.com
The Negros Interior Biodiversity Expedition has confirmed that it had found evidence of two groups of the Visayan Spotted Deer alive and well, in the North Negros Natural Park in the Philippines, a press release from the British Embassy said.
The team of experts recently returned from the first scientific exploration of the park interior [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO (www.visayandailystar.com)
The proposal of the Bacolod City Water District to increase its water rates by 30 percent this year is untimely, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said.
Water is very basic, so everybody is going to be affected, he said.
If at all Baciwa has to raise its water rates, it should not be 30 [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO (www.visayandailystar.com)
Bacolod City was able to set up a 3.985-kilometer chicken barbeque grill at the North Wing Parking area of SM City-Bacolod yesterday in its attempt to break the world record.
However, this has yet to be validated by the representatives of the Guinness Book of World Records.
The current world record for [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO (www.visayandailystar.com)
The City of Bacolod is all set in its attempt to break the world record for the longest “chicken barbeque grill” at the North Wing parking lot of SM City-Bacolod at 4 p.m. today.
Inasal festival chairman Councilor Alex Paglumotan yesterday said Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero will lead the city officials in lighting [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday had lunch at The Ruins, a once grand mansion built by a Negrense sugar baron and ancestor of her husband in Talisay City, which has been turned into a tourist attraction.
The president who is pushing the Visayas as the tourism hub of the country said The Ruins “is [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
The first Chicken Inasal Festival will kick off today with a grand parade and the recognition of public officials and private citizens who have contributed to the establishment of the Manokan Country in Bacolod City during the opening ceremony.
To receive public service awards are former Mayor Jose “Digoy” Montalvo as the “founding father” [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ(www.visayandailystar.com)
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday instructed Finance Secretary Margarito Teves to assist Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco in generating job opportunities for Negrenses.
Zayco said he informed the President of efforts undertaken by the provincial government to help sugar farm workers during the dead season, over lunch at The Ruins and she called Teves.
Teves [...]

By: Carla Gomez (www.visayandailystar.com)
The Energy Regulatory Commission granted the  National Power  Corp. a provisional generation rate increase  of .8376 centavos per kilowatt hour for the Visayas grid but consumers are actually paying a 96-centavo hike, Enrique Tabino, Central Negros Electric Cooperative manager, said yesterday.
That is because systems loss and Expanded Value Added Tax fees have [...]

By: Carla Gomez (www.visayandailystar.com)
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will present awards for the Best Public Sector Projects in Western Visayas at the New Government Center in Bacolod City this morning, before flying to Indonesia.
The Philippine National Police has gone on full alert for the president’s visit and will be fielding 1,500 policemen at the government center, [...]

A mall-wide sale and other activities where customers can get up to 50 percent off on great selections will be kicked off by SM City Bacolod, in cooperation with the Bacolod City government and the 1st Inasal Festival Committee, May 17 and end May 24, a press release from the mall said.
An afternoon of fun [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
Bacolod was named as one of the top five among the 10 next-wave cities for Information Communication Technology during the Nine e-Services Global Sourcing conference and exhibition at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia in Pasay City Monday.
It topped the criterion of business environment because of the presence of ready IT parks [...]

 (visayandailystar.com)
The 16th year of Panaad sa Negros Festival will be celebrated April 18 to 25, at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Brgy. Mansilingan, Bacolod City, a Capitol press release said.
Gov. Isidro Zayco, festival Executive Committee chairman, said this year’s celebration is even more significant after Panaad sa Negros Festival was adjudged as the country’s [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (visayandailystar.com)
Gov. Isidro Zayco yesterday said the Negros Occidental provincial government is allocating P15 million for food-for-work programs for sugar workers during the dead season in the industry.
Zayco said he has also written to the National Food Authority for the purchase of 15,000 bags of rice from part of the fund to be [...]

 BY CARLA GOMEZ (visayandailystar.com)
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia has created a task force that will coordinate with the President’s Bridge Program of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the construction of the proposed two flyover projects in Bacolod City, City Administrator Roger Balo yesterday said.
He said the mayor has suggested that he chair the task force [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
A public hearing on the proposed flyover projects in Bacolod City will be conducted by the Committee on Public Works chaired by Bacolod Councilor Roberto Rojas Tuesday, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson said yesterday.
Rojas said the public hearing will be conducted on the resolutions proposed by Councilors Catalino Alisbo, Celia Flor and [...]