Negros officials plan
island-region summit
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday said a summit of officials from Negros Occidental and Oriental is being planned to discuss the proposed one-island region.

He said congressmen, provincial officials and mayors of both provinces will be invited to the summit that is likely to be held at the border Kabankalan City.

No date has been set yet as the congressmen of both provinces are being consulted on the matter, the governor said.

Drivers protest vs. oil prices
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

Members of the United Negros Drivers and Operators Center held a noise barrage by blowing the horns of their jeepneys at the Fountain of Justice in Bacolod City at noon yesterday to protest the continuous increase of fuel prices.

UNDOC secretary general Diego Malacad said their members in Escalante and Kabankalan cities, Negros Occidental failed to come to Bacolod but they also held a simultaneous noise barrages.

Malacad said the noise barrage is a wake-up call for the government to review the oil deregulation law. He slammed oil companies for having more oil price increases than roll-backs of oil costs.

COURT SAYS
Bredco takeover ordinance void
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The Regional Trial Court declared City Ordinance 454, or the “takeover ordinance” null and void for being violative of the Constitutional guarantee on the right to due process and non-impairment of contractual obligations, in the civil case filed by Bacolod Real Estate Development Corp. against Bacolod City.

The case was filed in January 2008 by BREDCO, represented by its president Simplicio Palanca, against the City of Bacolod, former Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Councilors Al Victor Espino, Dindo and Kevin Daniel Ramos, Homer Bais, Councilor Roberto Rojas and former Councilors Greg Gasataya and Celia Flor for the passage of C.O. 454.

BREDCO asked the court to declare C.O. 454 null and void for being unconstitutional.