Thousands of Negrenses are staging a protest in front of the Coca Cola plant in Barangay Mansilingan, Bacolod City, this morning and marching to the Bacolod public plaza in the afternoon to denounce the firm’s importation of sugar in the guise of premixes, and to kick off a boycott of its products.

The protests spearheaded by Sugar Watch, composed mainly of labor groups and agrarian reform beneficiaries, will be joined by the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters, United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, and other independent sugar groups.

Sugar Watch leaders yesterday met with Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin to ask her to convey their demands to Coca Cola.

Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. turned over the management of the newly-built Negros Occidental District Jail in Barangay Tabunan, Bago City, that cost more than P100-million, to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology yesterday morning.

Marañon and BJMP chief, Director Rosendo Dial, signed a memorandum of agreement for the BJMP management takeover at rites held at the new jail.

The 411 inmates of the Negros Occidental provincial Jail, 10 of whom are women, will be transferred on July 15 if finishing touches on the new facility, that has a capacity for more than 600 inmates, is completed by then, Lt. Dionisio Silva, Provincial Jail Warden, said.

The pills recovered from an architectural firm contractor during a buy-bust operation at the Palmas del Mar Village and Beach Club in Bacolod City Saturday are indeed Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or ecstasy, based on the test results released by the Crime Laboratory of Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office.

City Police Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Group team leader Senior Insp. Joemarie Occeña said Insp. Paul Jerome Fuentespina conducted the laboratory test and the result was certified by the NOPPO crime lab chief, Supt. Lazaro Sumagi.

With the release of the crime laboratory results, Occeña said they have a strong case against Angelo Jimenez Bongco, 40, of Henrietta Heights, Bacolod City.