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 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.

Welcome to Bacolod City – the Cleanest and Greenest and the Most Livable City in the Philippines. Bacolod City, the capital of the Province of Negros Occidental which is the Sugarbowl of the Philippines. Bacolod City serves as the entrance of the sugar-rich cities and towns of the Province. Visitor’s facilities abound, modern means of [...]

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)
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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 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 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 (www.visayandailystar.com)
Director Roberto Montelibano of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative board yesterday said he and other officials were not aware that an actual and physical disconnection to the Bacolod City government offices was effected by the power firm Thursday.
Montelibano said he, together with CENECO directors Luis Cuenca and Edward Gasambelo, were waiting for [...]

The structure of The Ruins is of Italianate architecture with neo-Romanesque columns, having a very close semblance to the facade of Carnegie Hall in New York City. In New England, they often were homes to ship’s captains. A belvedere, facing west, affords a beautiful view of the sunset in a glassed-in sunroom with bay windows.The [...]

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday morning declared Bacolod’s 29th MassKara Festival open at the Bacolod public plaza amid a shower of confetti and balloons filling the sky with a kaleidoscope of colors.
She also did a bit of dancing to the beat of the MassKara music with a festival dancer.
“The masks at the MassKara festival are [...]