The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. eyes a 100-percent coverage of Western Visayas as it reaches out to the un-enrolled self-employed working class, a government press release said.

PhilHealth regional head Dennis Mas, said the agency, so far, has been able to cover 80.97 percent of the population in the region.

Mas is encouraging the self-employed to organize themselves so as to avail of PhilHealth benefits, the press release said.

Japanese investors eying  dev’t
in agri equipment for Neg. Occ.

Japanese experts introduced ways to improve the capacity of sugar mills to conserve energy and at the same time produce much needed power for Negros Occidental at a forum held yesterday at the L’Fisher Chalet in Bacolod City.

Representatives of sugar mills in Negros Occidental were very interested in what the Japanese experts were offering because everybody wants to be efficient and to have an additional source of income by 2015, when tariffs on imported sugar entering the country are lifted, Frank Carbon, president of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.

400,000 bags of rice to
help feed province

The bulk for the supply of rice in Negros Occidental will come from Panay Island with 400,000 bags targeted for 2012, Cynthia Luz Chua, senior grains operation officer of National Food Authority, said yesterday.

Chua said the thrust of President Benigno Aquino III is to reduce rice importation and purchase rice produced by local farmers.

The province will get its supply from the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Iloilo, and Capiz but the commercial sector gets its supply from other provinces like Negros Oriental, Metro Manila, and Mindoro, Chua said.