MARAÑON SAYS
Ferrer for vice guv?
read body language
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Read the body language.

That is what Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. told reporters yesterday when asked if La Carlota Mayor Juliet Marie Ferrer will be his running mate in the 2013 polls.

The governor and Ferrer joined the distribution of P18.8 million worth of farm equipment and postharvest facilities to farmers’ groups at the Negros Occidental Multi-Purpose Activity Center in Bacolod City yesterday.

Farmers get
P18.8M aid, more coming
BY LISA GAPAC

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday announced that the Department of Agriculture in Western Visayas will have a 39 percent increase in its budget in 2013 and Negros Occidental is one of the provinces that will benefit from it.

Marañon, who turned over P18,864,000 worth of farm equipment and post harvest facilities to 176 farmer organizations and associations at the Negros Occidental Mutlti-Purpose Activity Center in Bacolod City yesterday morning, said that the increase in budget means more help will arrive from the national government.

He also noted that when President Benigno Aquino III assumed office in 2010, DA’s national budget increased by 30 percent for calendar years 2011 and 2012, and it will go up by 20 percent next year.

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago yesterday said the Western Visayas senators will join forces in pushing for the passage of the Senate’s version of House Bill 6113 or the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2012.

Defensor, who is from Iloilo City, was one of the speakers at the Banco de Oro organized economic briefing: “Philippines, where are we going? The Sugar Industry: Challenge and Opportunities”, at L’Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City.

Other speakers were Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Ma. Regina Bautista Martin and Jonathan Ravelas, BDO 1stvice president.