Meat, rice prices
in Negros rising
BY ADRIAN NEMES III

Prices of meat products, rice and garlic in Negros Occidental have started to increase since last month, reports from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics and the Provincial Veterinary Office showed yesterday.

Renante Decena, Provincial Veterinarian, said the average price of beef went up to P188.33 from P180 for every kilo in April.

Decena said the average price of pork also went up to P171.35 per kilo from P160 in April.

Ayalin withdraws
slay plea bargain
BY GILBERT BAYORAN

Massacre suspect Noel Ayalin yesterday withdrew his plea bargain to plead guilty to three counts of qualified direct assault for frustrated murder, if the four counts of qualified direct assault for murder are downgraded to homicide.

This was during the joint pre-trial of the cases at the sala of Regional Trial Court Judge Felipe Banzon in Silay City.

However, Armando Occeña, father of slain Kapitan Ramon Sangguniang Kabataan chairwoman Imee Occena, then 16 years old, expressed vehement opposition to the manifestation of Ayalin, who was assisted by his counsel, Danilo Pabalinas of the Public Attorney’s Office.

Ceneco rates down 16c

Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc. yesterday said its residential rate for its June 2014 billing is P9.9859/kWh, a decrease of P0.1583/kWh from last month’s P10.1442/kWh.

CENECO manager Sulpicio Lagarde Jr. said in a press release that the decrease is due to a drop off of 2.87 percent in generation charges and average transmission rate compared to the previous month due to stable power supply and less exposure in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.

In May CENECO had increased its power rates by 22 centavos bringing its rates up from P9.9224/kWh to P10.1442/kWh, citing generation charges as the biggest contributory factor to the rate hike.