Japanese negotiating
direct flights to Negros
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Government officials from the Ibaraki Prefecture met with Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. at the Capitol in Bacolod City yesterday to discuss the opening of direct flights from Japan to Negros Occidental.

The Japanese delegation, led by Ibaraki Prefecture Assembly Vice Chairman, Kikuchi Toshiabe, is in Negros to negotiate for the direct flights from the Ibaraki Airport to the Bacolod Silay Airport and vice versa, the governor said.

“Travel time by plane from Negros Occidental to the Ibaraki Prefecture is about four and a half hours, and we were told that to land there is cheaper than at the Narita Airport,” Marañon said.

2 more found
negative for MERS-Co
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The number of quarantined Negrenses found negative for the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Corona virus (MERS-CoV) rose to four yesterday, all of whom have been released from hospitals where they were confined, Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, provincial health officer, said.

Two others from Bacolod City are still confined at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital until their test results are released, he said.

Of those found negative for MERS-CoV, two were from Bacolod, one from Toboso, and one from Talisay, he said.

Araneta ‘beheaded’
BY SHIELA GELERA

The statue of General Juan Araneta riding on a horse in front of the Ramon Torres Memorial Coliseum in Brgy. Poblacion, Bago City in Negros Occidental, was beheaded, at about 3:30 a.m. Monday.

A man, believed to be mentally unstable, rode on the horse replica bearing the Araneta statue, and rocked it as if he was riding a real one, Bago Mayor Ramon Torres told the DAILY STAR yesterday.

A police report said Ricky Rivera, 40, of Pulupandan town, told bystanders he wanted take the gold from the head of Araneta.