NAGA CITY --- National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario says he sees bright future for the Bikolano artists, given their esteemed recognition, which should not go the way of their counterpart in the national search for artists that regretfully has been haunted by selection controversy marred by selfish agenda and political patronage and pressure.

NAGA CITY - TWO LOCAL RESIDENTS, a couple engaged in trading were divested of cash amounting to P 300,000 pesos during a lightning robbery-hold up at M. Castro St., near the Tinago National High School at 3:15 P.M. last October 7.

LEGAZPI CITY (8 October) - WITH THE REPORTS concluded yesterday (Oct.7) on the clearing of landslides in Catanduanes province as a result of heavy rains brought by typhoon "Pepeng" in Bikol, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional office here has summed damages to infrastructures in the three affected provinces in Bikol at an estimated P 56- Million Pesos.

Jose Rizal can now sleep in peace--at least in Naga City--after the Supreme Court (SC) decided on which between Naga City and Camarines Sur province can rightfully administer and supervise the plaza named after him. Plaza Rizal, located within the old central business district of Naga City, has been the subject of a heated and long-standing dispute between the city and the province, which has controlled the Plaza even after Naga became an independent component city in 1948 through Republic Act 305.

There is something absurd and even narcissistic about Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte’s TV ad which has been airing for awhile in local television. The TV ad shows numerous public school elementary students milling and crowding around the youthful governor, with some of them even shrieking as if the said public official was a movie celebrity. The ad then focuses on a young female student who expresses her thanks for the scholarship supposedly given by Governor Villafuerte, as well as for the bags she and other students have been given. It ends with the same girl blurting out the governor looks like her crush.

NAGA CITY (30 September) - ONE OF THE EARLIEST RELIEF DRIVE for the victims of tropical storm "Ondoy" in Metro Manila, dubbed as "Tabang kan Bicol," started in this city where some 4,000 members of the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCI) and 10 other adjacent towns have started to appeal for food donations, clothing, other basic necessities for typhoon-victims since September 27.

IRIGA CITY ---- Students of the high school department of the University of Northeastern Philippines (UNEP) have dominated the 2009 Student Technologists and Entrepreneur of the Philippines (STEP) division competitions held Sept. 16-17 at the Zeferino Arroyo High School here.

MANILA, October 2, 2009-Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales has announced that a special collection will be gathered at all the Sunday masses throughout the Archdiocese of Manila this weekend in parishes, chapels and malls to help the victims of typhoon Ondoy.

A disaster-prone country like the Philippines should by now be a nation of experts on calamities and how to deal with them. But, as Ondoy has shown, Filipinos are almost always caught unawares. And often, the high cost of these calamities are caused not so much by lack of knowledge or resources as by poor governance.

MANILA, October 1, 2009-The Vatican announced at 6:00 PM Thursday (Manila Time) the appointment of Masbate Bishop Joel Baylon as new bishop of the Diocese of Legazpi in Albay province.