GOVERNORS ASSURE
Panay has enough rice
to feed entire Visayas
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The governors of Panay Island yesterday said their provinces have a rice production surplus that will be enough to meet the needs of Negros Occidental and the rest of the Visayas this year.

Antique Gov. Sally Perez, chairman of the Western Visayas Regional Development Council, said there is supposed to be a meeting called by the Department of Agriculture in Cebu today to discuss rice concerns of the Visayas to which the governors will send their representatives.

That is because the governors have been called to Manila today for a meeting with Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and with President Gloria Arroyo, presumably also on the rice situation, she said.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia yesterday said the suggestion of the Department of Health regional director for the city to take over the management of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital has to be studied very well.

During an Executive Briefing at the Provincial Capitol yesterday, DOH regional director Lydia Depra Ramos said that it will be easier for Bacolod to take over the management of the CLMMRH than to construct its own city hospital since it would be hard for the city to get a “certificate of need” from Congress for the construction of a new one.

The Negros Cultural Foundation and the governors of Western Visayas paid tribute to Gov. Joseph Marañon at the awarding of the first Pagdayaw Award for Culture and Arts to him at rites at the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City yesterday.

The award was posthumously given to the governor through his wife, Aida, by Lyn Gamboa, and Antique Gov. Sally Perez, chairman of the Regional Development Council of Western Visayas.

Perez said another award will be given by the RDC to the governor on Friday.