A crowd of more than 15,000 Negrenses converged at the Bacolod Public Plaza yesterday afternoon in a stepped-up campaign to call on the country’s legislators to junk the Reproductive Health Bill that is up for plenary debates in the House of Representatives starting next month.

Members of the House rules committee yesterday voted unanimously to send it to the floor after a consolidated version of the measure passed the committee level, Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said.

As this developed, Church and government leaders at the Bacolod rally called on members of Congress to protect life, especially of the unborn, by withdrawing support for the RH bill, which they called immoral and unconstitutional.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Western Visayas will launch its version of Task Force Drug Courier today following cases filed against Overseas Filipino Workers arrested in different countries for being alleged drug mules, PDEA-6 Director Paul Ledesma said yesterday.

Ledesma, who was in Bacolod City, said the task force earlier formed by virtue of Administrative Order 279 is composed by different agencies, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Information Agency, has been launched in several regions.

Power rates of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative in Bacolod City  are expected to go up next month.

That is because the current 20 megawatts of power it is purchasing from the Kepco-Salcon coal-fired power plant in Cebu at a commissioning rate of P1.59 centavos per kilowatt hour will be P5.01 per kwh when the plant starts commercial operations, Norman Pollentes, CENECO Corporate Planning Division chief, said yesterday.

Ceneco’s contract with Kepco states that the commercial operations of the plant will start in mid March, but they have been told that this will start on February 28, he said.