Villar says NP may field
Negros bet for governor
BUT LOCAL ALLIANCES BEING EXPLORED
BY CARLA GOMEZ

Senator Manny Villar, who is eyeing the presidency in 2010, yesterday said the Nacionalista Party could field a gubernatorial candidate and other local bets in Negros Occidental next year.

But Villar, who was in Bacolod as speaker at the joint induction of the Rotary District 3850 governor, club presidents and officers, told the DAILY STAR the NP decision to field candidates will depend on whether it can reach alliances with those already intending to run.

If he gets the support of existing local contenders, then there will be no need for the NP to field more candidates, Villar said..

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III yesterday reported the Philippines’ first fatality linked to Influenza A(H1N1), whom he  identified only as a 49-year-old female from Metro Manila.

A DOH bulletin yesterday said the 49-year-old known to have a pre-existing chronic heart disease, was found to be positive for A(H1N1).

The patient had flu-like symptoms starting on June 17 consisting of dry cough, fever and chills and difficulty of breathing just before death on June 19, Duque said.

Acting Bacolod City Legal Officer Vicente Petierre III yesterday said it is not true that the city is trying to stop or sabotage the Heart, Lung and Kidney Center in Bacolod City by not granting it a building permit, and the truth is that the Office of the Building Official has not received any application for one at all.

He also said he did not write Dr. Domingo Vega of Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital denying the project a building permit. His letter concerned the temporary building permit for the “Payward building”, which was what the doctor had inquired about, and not the HLK center.

Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella had claimed that the city is stifling the construction and completion of the project by requiring it to submit an environmental compliance certificate.