Negrenses ready suits
versus Legacy officials
BY CARLA GOMEZ

About 80 Negrenses who have invested in pre-need plans under the controversial Legacy group are filling claims before the Securities and Exchange Commission and criminal cases against its officials, their lawyer Caesar Distrito said yesterday.

Legacy’s Nation Bank at Libertad Street in Bacolod City remained closed as of yesterday.

“Based on our collated records, we have listed at least 110 investors in Legacy from Bacolod with  aggregate investments of around P200 million,” Distrito said.

The Negros Occidental provincial government is seeking a P30 million allocation from the Department of Labor for the purchase of National Food Authority rice to assist sugar workers during the “dead season,” Gov. Isidro Zayco said yesterday.

Zayco said they are asking that the amount be taken from the Social Amelioration Fund of the sugar industry collected by the DOLE.

Although the provincial government has limited resources, Zayco said it will also allocate funds for a food-for-work program for displaced workers during the “dead season” when there is no work on sugar farms. He, however, did not give a specific amount.

The National Solid Waste Management Commission sent a final notice to the Bacolod City government reminding it of its commitment to comply with the conditions on the Authority to Close pertaining to the dumpsite in Brgy. Felisa, Bacolod City.

NSWMC executive director Gerardo Calderon in his letter dated Jan. 19, 2009 to Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, said that, reports dated Dec. 8, 2008 of the Environmental Management Bureau VI, showed that the city is still in the process of rehabilitating the Felisa dumpsite.

However, he said, that the city government is very slow in providing measures to address the problem in the disposal facility, particularly the odor, and leachate flowing in the water body, among others.