SPOTLIGHT VISAYAS: Daily news and latest updates from central Philippines

Around 50 families have been evacuated after their homes were damaged by a landslide in Salcedo town, Eastern Samar.

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BACOLOD, Philippines – After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this city’s Bacolaodiat Festival returns for three days from January 20 to 22 to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

The 18th edition of the festival, which celebrates the city’s vibrant Tsinoys (Chinese-Filipinos) will open with a grand parade on January 20 from Megaworld’s The Upper East to the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC) followed by the Ceremonial Lighting of Lanterns and Lotus, Cultural Show and the anticipated Sparkling Symphony of Lights (Fireworks).

A Lantern Street Dance competition is scheduled on January 21. The Dharma Prayer at the Yuan Thong Temple will happen at 10:30pm on Jan. 21, the eve of the Chinese New Year.

Awarding rites for the Lantern Street Dance contest will be held at SM City Bacolod, another festival site, on January 22.

“The comeback of the Bacolaodiat Festival this year will be more vibrant, happier and meaningful to everyone considering that we are easing out of the pandemic,” Bacolaodiat Festival Chairman John Stephen Sy said.

After two years of celebrating Fiesta Señor at home, hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors finally returned to the streets of Cebu City, on Thursday, January 5, to show their devotion for the Holy Child.

This is the 458th celebration of the religious festival. It includes a nine-day novena to be followed by a day of vespers, and will culminate on January 15, coinciding with the cultural-secular Sinulog festivities.

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Some local government units in the provinces of Aklan and Antique in Western Visayas suspended classes in all levels on Wednesday, January 4, because of floods and continuing rainfall warnings.

While the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said in its 11 am advisory that neither of the two low pressure areas (LPAs) inside the Philippine Area of Responsibility were likely to develop into tropical depressions within 24 hours, the Visayas and Mindanao were seeing rain.

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BACOLOD, Philippines – Former sports journalist Eric Loretizo, who served as a commissioner of the Philippines Sports Commission and public relations specialist for an array of Negros Occidental politicians died of cardiac arrest at the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center on Saturday, December 31.

Loretizo, the son of the late Antonio Limos Loretizo and Edith Tenerife, was a PSC commissioner from December 2007 to July 2010 and represented the country in the 2008 4th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)  Paralympic games in Thailand. 

From 2012 to 2019, he was one of the executive assistants of Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. 

His other former clients include former Cadiz 2nd district representative and now Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr., former Sagay mayor and now 2nd district representative Alfredo Marañon III, former 2nd district representative and now Sagay vice mayor Leo Rafael Cueva, and Bacolod representative Greg Gasataya, the former ally of Loretizo’s main client in 2022 elections, former Bacolod mayor Evelio Leonardia.

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CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City government announced on Thursday, December 29, the replacements of the officials recently named in a complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7).

“To keep public trust in our day-to-day affairs, we hereby relieve from all their duties and responsibilities the city officials who the NBI named in the garbage plunder case as this statement is issued,” read Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama’s press statement.

The mayor’s secretary, Lawyer Collin Rosell named the new officials taking over the positions of City Accountant Jerome Ornopia, City Treasurer Mare Vae Reyes, and Department of Public Services (DPS) Head John Jigo Dacua.

The newly appointed officials are Giovanni Delgado as City Accountant, Anthony Aguhar as Acting City Treasurer, and John Paul Gelasque as Acting DPS Head.

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CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City Council in a majority vote approved Mayor Mike Rama’s proposed budget of more than P51 billion for 2023 with some major amendments.

This is the biggest approved annual budget that the city has ever had—five times the city’s P9-billion fund for 2022. 

It includes P49,703,047,474.00 for General Funds and P1,754,668,211.30 for Special Accounts.

The total amount for the construction of MRBs is now at P26.3 billion from the proposed P24 billion. The council added P1.5 billion for the acquisition of lots for the MRBs.

Ten councilors from the majority party approved the ordinance for the proposed budget, authored by Councilor Noel Wenceslao.

Opposition leaders Nestor Archival, Mary Ann De Los Santos, and Jose Abellanosa voted against it. Only Councilor Franklyn Ong abstained. Four councilors were absent.

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BORACAY, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has approved the Malay local government unit’s new policies regulating the popular sandcastle-building trade on the beaches of the world famous resort island.

Malay Mayor Floribar Bautista told Rappler on Wednesday, December 28 that DENR Region 6 director Livino Duran on December 13 affirmed the municipality’s power to “impose regulations on sandcastle building within the 25+5 beach easement and part of the forestland for protection purposes.”

The town of Malay in Ibajay province has administrative control over Boracay, the country’s premier tourist destination.

Bautista said Duran stressed the need to prevent further degradation of the shoreline of Boracay, which was closed for six months in 2018 for environmental rehabilitation. 

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CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City government will hold on December 31 its first New Year’s Eve Countdown Ball Drop and Crown Rise at the South Road Properties (SRP), fronting The Cube of SM Seaside.

Cebu City Councilors Joel Garganera and Joy Pesquera said at a press conference on Wednesday, December 28 that the celebration is a tribute to the Cebuanos’ “perseverance and victory” throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event is free for all residents and will start at 6 pm on December 31, and end at around 2 am, on January 1.

Buses will be deployed in Fuente Osmeña and Plaza Independencia to help bring residents to the event venue for free.

There are parking spaces at SM Seaside and the Bagsakan Area near the Carbon Market, Pesquera added.

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CEBU, Philippines – The Regional Trial Court (RTC) – Branch 10 in Cebu City has ordered the city government and its representatives to halt any and all construction works at the Compaña Maritima area.

The December 23 court order came a week after the city government “gift-wrapped” the heritage structure on December 17. 

The order called the city’s use, development, and conversion of the Compaña Maritima without the consent of the Cebu Port Authority as “a clear invasion of right.”

The property is the subject of a pending legal case between the city government and the Republic of the Philippines, represented by the CPA.

City Legal Officer Eugene Orbita said that the city government would file a motion for reconsideration.

The outcome of the case could affect the Carbon Market Redevelopment Project, a joint venture between the city government and Megawide Construction Corporation.

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