DA giving ‘Yolanda’ aid,
organic farming projects
Funds also raised at dinner for a cause
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat yesterday said the Department of Agriculture has more projects in the pipeline for Negros Occidental, that she called “the trailblazer of organic agriculture in the country”.

Puyat, who was the keynote speaker at the opening rites of the 8th Negros Island Organic Farmers Festival at the Capitol grounds in Bacolod City, also assured that super typhoon Yolanda-hit areas in Negros Occidental, including fishermen who lost their fishing boats, will get assistance from the  DA.

She said the DA has already delivered 75,000 bags of rice to Yolanda-hit areas, and will provide free fishing boats with 5 horsepower engines to fishermen whose vessels were destroyed by the super typhoon.

Gun, ammo seized
from docs’ house
BY SHIELA GELERA

A cache of ammunition, magazines and an M-16 rifle were seized from a house owned by a family, most of them doctors, at 102 Street, Greenplains Subdivision in Brgy. Singcang-Airport, Bacolod City, at about 6:30 a.m. yesterday.

Bacolod City Police Office, Special Operations Group chief, Supt. Jefferson Descallar, said they confiscated an M-16 rifle with a tampered serial number, 927 live M-16 rifle ammunition, 182 empty shells of an M-16 rifle and 26 magazines.

The raid also yielded a bandolier with “AFP” markings, a rifle case and several gun cleaning tools, police records show.

WV deaths rise to 197
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

The death toll from super typhoon Yolanda in Western Visayas rose to197 yesterday, with 412 injured and 19 still missing, the Office of the Civil Defense 6 reported.

Of the 197 deaths, two were recorded in Negros Occidental that had 84 injured, 81 of them residents of Brgys. Tiglawigan and Sicaba in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental.

The OCD 6, chaired by regional director Rosario Cabrera, placed the total damage at P6.4 billion, with P4,421,941,982 on infrastructure, fisheries – P1,334,220,441 and agricultural loses in the amount of P710,616,784.