Senators, congressmen
set to create sugar bloc
BY CARLA GOMEZ

A sugar bloc to push the concerns of the sugarcane industry in the Senate and the House of Representatives will be formed next month, Manuel Lamata, United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines president, said yesterday.

There are 60 congressmen from sugar producing provinces and 16 senators sympathetic to the industry who are expected to join the bloc, Lamata said.

Sugar leaders and Sugar Regulatory Administrator Ma. Regina Martin yesterday met with Senator Nancy Binay, Sen. Ralph Recto’s chief of staff, and representatives Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District), Pryde Henry Teves (Neg. Or., 3rd District), Raneo Abu (Batangas, 2nd District) and Noel Villanueva (Tarlac, 3rd District) at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City, where the 60th Philippine Sugar Technologists Association national convention is being held.

ERB rejects
181 voter applicants
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

A total of 181 voter applicants from Bacolod City for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections in October were disapproved by the Election Registration Board yesterday.

Of that number, 87 are regular voters and the rest are SK voters, Bacolod City Election Registrar Mavil Majarucon said.

Majarucon said petitions for disapproval were filed against 98 regular voters and 102 SK election voters because they failed to prove that they are residents of the area, where they want to vote.

Super Metro opens in Talisay,
gives boost to organic farmers
CONCERN RAISED ON
NEG. OCC. POWER SITUATION
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Organic farmers in Negros Occidental got a boost with the opening of the Super Metro hypermarket at The District North Point of Ayala in Talisay City yesterday.

Their vegetables and herbs now being sold at the Super Metro in Talisay will also be sold in stores in Cebu and Manila.

Ernest Potgieter, vice president for operations, said they are not only purchasing the products sold at their Talisay store from Manila and Cebu, they want to support the local market, too.