ERC hearing tomorrow
on bid to recover P414M
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The Energy Regulatory Commission will hold a hearing on the application of Central Negros Electric Cooperative to be allowed to collect P414.6 million in under-recoveries from its consumers, at the CENECO Annex building in Bacolod City at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow.

Arnel Lapore, CENECO president, said the hearing was supposed to be held at the ERC Main Office in Manila but was cancelled and postponed upon the request of the intervenors and oppositors who want it held in Bacolod.

He said ERC people are coming to Bacolod tomorrow and, based on the order, this will be a pre-trial and trial hearing.

Deliberations on sugar
act slowing down
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Deliberations on the proposed Sugarcane Act at the House of Representatives has been slowed down by the change in the Committee on Appropriations’ chairmanship, following the designation of Rep. Emilio Joseph Abaya as secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication, its author, Rep. Alfredo Benitez said.

The proposed Sugarcane Act is among the proposals of Benitez in his State of the District Report, that also includes proposed bills for a Magna Carta for barangay health workers, institutionalizing the implementation of the cyber education program, and a Palarong Pambansa Revitalization Act.

Judge Estefanio Libutan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 50 has set the next hearing of the petition filed by SM Prime Holdings Inc. against Negros Occidental officials for the sale and lease of the 7.7-hectare provincial government property to Ayala Land Inc. to Jan. 18, 2013.

The case was filed against Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, and the Bids and Disposal Committee of the provincial government.

Mary Ann Lamis, legal counsel of the provincial officials, said thatduring the hearing Friday, former Judge Lorna Demonteverde, in her personal capacity, was supposed to present evidence for the Governor.