Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the Committee on Awards and Disposal of Real Properties of the province has awarded the sale and lease of 7.7 hectares of its prime properties in Bacolod City to AyalaLand, after SM Prime Holdings Inc. failed to join the announced negotiated bidding yesterday.

“This P6 billion development plan of AyalaLand for the properties adjacent to the Capitol is  historic  for the province and Negrenses. It will change the landscape of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental,” the governor said.

AyalaLand vice president Jose Emmanuel Jalandoni thanked the committee for its decision, saying his firm is very optimistic and excited about the project.

Two elderly women were killed brutally Thursday in the hinterlands of Calatrava and Cauayan, Negros Occidental, one of them allegedly by her own son, police reports showed yesterday.

Egliceria Pacquiao Guipo, 65, succumbed to multiple stab wounds, while her throat appeared to have been slashed, allegedly by her  son, Balbino, 23, early Thursday morning, at their house in Sitio Palala, Brgy. Marcelo, Calatrava.

SPO4 Bob Tipdas, of the Calatrava police, citing the testimony of the suspect, said the victim was stabbed by her son, after she attacked and hacked him with an ax, for still unknown reasons.

Twenty-three out of 26 freelance commercial sex workers apprehended by the policemen from different areas in Bacolod City during a saturation drive from 10 p.m. Thursday to 1 a.m. yesterday have sexually transmitted diseases, City Police Director Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz said yesterday.

De la Paz said the girls were apprehended by a team led by Supt. Santiago Rapiz from the Goldenfields Commercial Complex and along Lacson Street.

He said the girls are now detained at Police Stations 2 and 8 and will be charged for violation of Article 202, of the Revised Penal Code, or the law against vagrancy and prostitution, which could lead to imprisonment and/or fines from P200 to P2,000.