DAILY STAR: Negros Oriental

Local environmentalists are pushing for wider public support on the move to reduce or even halt the operation of coal-fired power plants in the Philippines.

The Dumaguete City-based national organizers of 350.Org-Pilipinas agreed in a meeting yesterday, to map out a campaign strategy to involve high school and college students, in the anti-coal campaign, Trelly Marigza said.

The campaign from September to October will include a series of forums in schools that will focus on the ill-effects of coal on health, energy and the environment, and also the legal concerns, she added.

IN DUMAGUETE:
121 smokers apprehended
BY ROMY AMARADO

About 121 smokers have been apprehended since the Dumaguete City government started implementing its Smoke Free Ordinance on September 1, Joey Abella of the City Legal Office.

The violators included four foreigners, although only one was fined P500 for having been caught smoking in a public place twice. The others were issued citation tickets, he added.

Under the ordinance, first-time offenders will be reprimanded and obliged to attend a reorientation seminar on the dangers of smoking. Second-time offenders will be fined P500; and third-time and recidivist offenders will be fined P1,000, or imprisoned for five days, or both, depending on the discretion of the court, or a three-day community service.

Bizman seeks stop to ‘defective’
axle weighbridge in Bais City
BY JUDY F. PARTLOW

An official of the Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry is asking the Department of Public Works and Highways to stop the operation of an axle weighbridge in Tamisu, Bais City in central Negros Oriental.

NOCCI board director Danford Sy, who is in the trucking and hauling business, said the Tamisu axle weighbridge is deficient as it is built on an uneven surface, so the weighing of trucks and other vehicles for their axle load is not accurate.

He said the uneven surface of the weighbridge shifts the weight of each axle, so some of them tend to exceed the weight limit, and the owner of the vehicle made to pay fines under the law. The closer the axles are to each other, the greater the chance of weight transfer, and the greater the effects of this transfer of weight, he added.

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