CEBU CITY – Former Cebu City mayor and now South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña revived his call to sell the city-owned hospital following a freak accident that resulted in burn injuries to three newborn infants.

Osmeña said the recent accident “only showed the need to privatize the city hospital as he stressed that there have been a lot of similar incidents in the past that were not made public.

On Sunday morning, three infants suffered burn injuries when a lamp at the pediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) accidentally exploded. (Mars W. Mosqueda Jr.)

P19.6 M set for Iloilo projects
ILOILO CITY (PNA) — Iloilo Provincial Agriculturist Ildefonso Toledo expressed optimism that more projects can be effectively implemented this year with an increased budget of P19.6 million given by the provincial government.

Toledo said Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. has allotted P19.6 million for the Provincial Agriculture Office (PAO) in the 2011 budget.

In previous years, PAO has P13 million budget.

On Wednesday, Toledo and other PAO's officials presented to provincial officials led by Defensor the office's plans and programs this year which include targets and activities on livestock, crops, and fisheries sectors, and support programs such as research and agri-business.

D.E.N.R. assures enough wood
CEBU CITY (PNA) – There is enough supply of raw materials for wood-based industries despite the issuance of a moratorium on timber-cutting and harvesting, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) 7 said.

DENR 7 Regional Director Maximo Dichoso said their office will oversee the inventory of logs to ensure that there will be no shortage of supply.

“The DENR 7 will supervise the conduct of timber inventory of all logs cut and harvested prior to the issuance of EO 23 and transport documents shall be allowed only after proper inventory and upon clearance by the Office of the DENR undersecretary for field operations,” he said.

Cabbies trained as tourist workers
ILOILO CITY(PNA) – The Department of Tourism (DoT) has trained 1,500 out of the city's 3,000 taxi drivers as tourist frontliners.

DoT Assistant Regional Director Helen Catalbas said the taxi drivers recently finished a half-day seminar entitled “Basic Seminar for Taxi Drivers as tourist frontliners.”

The seminar, Catalbas said, is being conducted by the DoT in coordination with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and the Association of Taxi Operators in Panay (ATOP).

Officials warned on power theft
ILOILO CITY (PNA) — Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog has ordered all barangay officials from the 180 villages here to put a stop to alleged electricity pilferage or lose their positions.

Mabilog issued the warning after receiving reports that there are several barangay officials tapping electric power directly from the electric transmission lines of the city government for their personal use.

“This is one way of practicing corruption and theft,” the mayor said, adding that if the city government will tolerate them, others will also do the same.