BFP: Install sprinklers
or face closure, fines
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

The Bureau of Fire Protection yesterday warned businessmen in Bacolod City to install sprinkler systems in their establishments or they will be fined administratively or face closure.

Bacolod City Fire marshal, Chief Insp. Bartolome Beliran, said this is because the moratorium on the retroactive implementation of the sprinkler system ended on February 14 and has not been extended.

Businessmen in Bacolod had asked Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II for an additional six months to one year extension on the moratorium but it was not granted.

Flower girl dies,
injured rise to 60
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The 5-year-old flower girl who was among the passengers of the Isuzu Canter truck that fell on its side in Purok Mabuhay, Barangay Pandanon, Don Salvador Benedicto town, in Negros Occidental Thursday afternoon, died from massive loss of blood, while 60 of her companions were injured, Insp. Celjun Nemenio, DSB police chief, said yesterday.

Gia Mae Montaño, 5, of Purok Malipayon, Brgy. Busay, Bago City, died at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod, Nemenio said.

The child's legs had been pinned beneath a wheel of the truck.

A contract for the 50-year lease of the former site of the Negros Occidental Provincial Jail at Gatuslao Street, Bacolod City, owned by the Negros Occidental provincial government, was signed yesterday.

The contract was signed by Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. and William Ong, president of the Bacolod Capitol Hill Land Development Corp.

An 888 Chinatown Square phase two will be built at the site, Provincial Administrator Enrique Pinongan said.