PNoy arriving today,
more officials join LP
BY CARLA GOMEZ

President Benigno Aquino III will administer the oath to about 250 new Liberal Party members, about 130 of whom are elected officials of the province with many coming from the Lakas CMD party, during a two-hour visit to Negros Occidental this afternoon.

The president is expected to arrive at the Nature’s Village Resort in Talisay City at 1:30 p.m. where he will be welcomed by Gov. Alfredo Marañon, Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) – LP provincial chairman and Talisay Mayor Eric Saratan.

The president will administer the mass oath-taking rites, deliver a speech and have a photo opportunity with the new LP members before departing for the airport to return to Manila.

Seven business groups in Bacolod City are calling on President Benigno Aquino III to prevent the retroactive implementation of a national law that they say will cause local businesses to die.

“By February 14, 2013, Business in Bacolod will Die, Mr. President, please help us,” is the message on streamersalong main roads of Bacolod City, from the city’s business community.

The business groups are asking for the exemption of existing buildings from the retroactive clauseset in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 9514, or the Fire Code of the Philippines of 2008 that requires the installation of sprinkler systems.

Protest rallies await President Benigno Aquino III as he arrives in Negros Occidental today to administer the oath to the new members of Liberal Party, of which he is the chairman.

Task Force Mapalad national deputy coordinator, Lanie Factor, said their members in Negros Occidental will picket near the Natures Village Resort in Talisay City, where the oath-taking ceremony will be held, to press for the immediate distribution of land under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program to farmer-beneficiaries.

Factor said that they will also ask the President to intervene in the cases filed before the Supreme Court regarding 11 haciendas in the province covered by the stock distribution option.