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.

Negros is filled with activities just waiting for you to discover.  Change the scenery and go out of Bacolod City.  Go for a half day trek to the foot of Mt. Kanlaon, at the Rafael Salas National Park and take a dip by the waterfalls.  For the more adventurous, the crater of Mt. Kanlaon can [...]

(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 [...]

 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 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, [...]

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 (visayandailystar.com)
The 4th BacoLaodiat Festival in Bacolod City opened yesterday with the blessing of the Chopsticks Alley along Narra and Tindalo Avenues at the Capitol Shopping Center by Fr. Noli Que and Fr. June Earl Salugsugan, of the Queen of Peace Parish.
Marivic Rio, event coordinator, said diners at the Chopsticks Alley will [...]

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 [...]

 (www.visayandailystar.com)
An ordinance requiring the full disclosure of entities receiving public funds from Bacolod City through a single searchable website is being proposed before the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
The measure, proposed by Councilors Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Dindo Ramos, Wilson Gamboa Jr., Catalino Alisbo, and Celia Matea Flor, aims to strengthen the transparency and accountability in the spending of public [...]

BY NANETTE GUADALQUIVER (www.visayandailystar.com)
Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco yesterday said he has asked the Capitol department heads to submit their programs for 2009 so he can identify the projects to be prioritized this year.
“We need to know where the P194 million fund for development programs will go,” he said after meeting with the department heads [...]

 BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO (www.visayandailystar.com)
The Bacolod City government is reconvening its local economic council to map out contingency plans to cushion the impact of the international economic recession.
Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said “We will try to list down the possible effects of the global economic recession on us.” He said this has affected even [...]

The Mariano Ramos Ancestral House is the ancestral home of the late Don Mariano Ramos, first appointed Presidente Municipal of Bacolod City, Philippines. It was built in the 1930s and its architecture is a combination of Castilian and Tuscan traces. It comprises three storeys including the tower room, known as the mirador.

BY ALEX PAL (www.visayandailystar.com)
“It doesn’t matter.” Rep. George Arnaiz (Neg. Or, 2nd District) said while admitting that the province of Negros Oriental received P5 million worth of fertilizers, farm implements and equipment from the Department of Agriculture in February 2004.

BY NIDA BUENAFE (www.visayandailystar.com)
Overcoming pressure and maintaining his composure after squandering a 6-0 early lead, veteran pool player and 2006 US Open runner-up Rodolfo Luat prevailed over Bacolod City’s billiard hero Ramil “Bebing” Gallego, 13-10, to bag the $15,000 cash prize of the First Senate President Manny Villar Cup Bacolod leg at the Garden Royale, [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)

More than 1,000 bikers joined the Go Bike Pilipinas 2008 cycling fun ride in Bacolod City Saturday to push for a healthy lifestyle. In a message read for her at a program in front of the Provincial Capitol building in Bacolod City, Senator Pia Cayetanao said she supports the Philippine Society of [...]

BY NIDA BUENAFE (www.visayandailystar.com)

Negrense billiard champion Ramil “Bebeng” Gallego remained on track of his goal of getting his second title in the ongoing Villards Cup 9-Ball island-hopping series by dismissing Japanese Kenji Taguchi, 11-5, yesterday to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson yesterday said he will ask that local officials, including those from Negros Occidental, who were offered a share of the P728 million controversial fertilizer funds be summoned to testify before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

BY GILBERT BAYORAN (www.visayandailystar.com)
Region 6 police director Isagani Cuevas yesterday said he will not condone or tolerate any form of violence at the 6th Regional Mobile Group, and vowed to file administrative and criminal charges against those involved in the alleged maltreatment of 51 policemen and women enrolled in the Special Counter-Insurgency Course Training at [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO (www.visayandailystar.com)
A Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows of Bacolod City that was distributed to the media yesterday, showed that for 2005 the city government spent P262,273,000.84 for payment/reimbursement of traveling expenses.
It also paid total traveling expenses of P3,881,919.56 in 2006, based on a Commission on Audit report.
City Accountant Ed Ravena, however, [...]

 BY GILBERT BAYORA (www.visayandailystar.com)
BRGY. MAILUM, Bago City – The Energy Development Corp. is running against time in meeting its target of commissioning the estimated P2 billion geothermal pads inside the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park buffer zone by 2011. Erwin Magallanes, Environmental Senior Supervisor of the Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant Field, yesterday said they have [...]

By: Carla Gomez (www.visayandailystar.com)
US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said she is hugely optimistic about the Philippines, despite the worldwide economic crisis, because of the creativity and ingenuity of its people as she saw during her visit to Talisay and Bacolod cities Friday.

Monarch Sands Resort is situated on a secluded cove, located North of the sleepy town of Siaton. Native style cottages made of Nipa, Bamboo and local materials face the blue waters of the Bohol sea. Each cottage has a large porch to watch the local fishermen sail their small Bangka boats out for the nightly [...]

In olden times the island of Negros was referred to as Buglas, after the tall reeds that predominated. A map said to have been drawn by Diego Lope Povedano dated 1572 shows an island named BUGLAS INSULIS.

The Philippines is an archipelago composed of 7,100 islands and islets, 462 of which have an area larger than one square kilometers while others have an area of less than 3 hectares. The irregular coastline of the country extends to about 35,000 kilometers, twice as long as the entire coastline of the United States.

Bonista Beach Resort has been in business since January 2000. Our goal is to provide an international standard resort at local prices. We try to present a modern facilities located in a sun-drenched tropical setting. We are environmental friendly resort taking steps to improve and preserve the natural habitat surrounding the resort.