LEGAZPI CITY, Oct. 15- The Bikol Region has 311 election "hot spots" that are under tight watch by the Philippine Army, the Philippine National Police, the Commission on Elections and the respective local government units, an army officer said Friday.

The Army's 9th Infantry Division spokesman Maj. Harold Cabunoc said that based on records, the Bikol Region has 70 villages placed as Category 1 and 241 villages as Category 2 of the Comelec's tally of election watch list of areas (EWAS) or "hot spots."

LEGAZPI CITY, Oct. 15- The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council of Albay has advised all disaster managers down to the villages to be very vigilant against lahar flash floods, mudflows, storm surges and landslides as rains brought by tropical storm Juan started to pour Friday noon.

Albay Governor Joey Salceda said "since the disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies and the respective rescue and response teams are in place, all we have to do is to pray the Oratio Imperata, a very powerful prayer, so that 'Juan' would spare the province as well as the country."

LEGAZPI City, Sept. 26, 2010-Multi-stakeholders of the power cooperative here have approved a resolution mandating the Board of Directors (BOD) of the Albay Electric Cooperative (ALECO) to facilitate a special meeting of member-consumers on October 16 to come up with solutions that will bail out the ailing power facility

ALECO consumers asserted their right to call for a special assembly under Article 3, Section 2 of the cooperative by-laws to find a way out of the problems hounding the power cooperative.

Naga City (14 Sept) -- The highest political power in the land has declared during the Peñafrancia Novena Week Naga City and the province of Camarines Sur as 'pilgrimage capitals' of the Bikol region.

In his Executive Order (EO) #33 dated September 10, President Benigno Aquino III, took cognizance of the annual celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Peñafrancia as an "epic historical event that [had] become part of our cultural heritage," and that Naga City "where the 300-year old image is enshrined, has long been recognized and considered as the pilgrimage capital of the Bikol region."

The President's EO stated that programs and activities held as part of the Peñafrancia Fiesta "must be assisted and maintained by the government, and that the solemnity and sensitivity to the nature and character of the festivities must be preserved."

Moreover, the EO stipulated that government must ensure that aside from respecting the essential activities of the feast, "commercial exploitation during the pilgrimage period such as street parties that may become rambunctious, drinking sprees in plazas, street vending that obstruct passages towards the pilgrimage sites, and other similar activities, shall be discouraged."

NAGA CITY (4 Sept)-MORE THAN 400 policemen who are mostly rookies and have newly graduated from the Public Safety Basic Recruitment Training at Camp Simeon Ola in Legazpi City will augment the current Naga Police force of some 200-man strong for the 20-day Tercentenary celebration of the Peñafrancia devotion this year.

Spokesman of the Camarines Sur Police Office, SPO4 Romulo Pabiano, said that with the scheduled big religious rites of the "Peñafrancia Tercentenary," Catholic bishops, clerics from all over the country, and Pope's emissaries from the Vatican are expected to come to this year's Peñafrancia festivities.

Pabiano said that Camarine Sur Police Director Sr. Supt. Jonathan Ablang has directed a separate force of a 42-man police team from the Provincial Police Office (PPO) to secure visiting Church dignitaries and ranking government officials.

CABUSAO, CAMARINES SUR (16 Aug) -MANGROVE TREES planted in some 162 hectares of the 180-hectare shoreline of this smallest coastal town along San Miguel Bay in this province, as well as the sprawling marshlands in Barangay Biong which serve as a sanctuary for migratory birds are now being threatened by a proposed mining exploitation for "iron sand" in the area.

Cabusao Mayor Nebb Paglinawan Santiago bared that his locality has only nine barangays, seven of which are coastal villages where nearly 3,000 families depend on fishing at San Miguel Bay as their main source of livelihood.

Santiago said that a recent notice reaching the local government stated that BO GO Resources Mining Corporation, a Korean-American mining firm, has included in its exploration permit the extraction of Magnetite sand and other related minerals at the coastal villages of Barcelonita, Biong, Pandan, and Castillo.

Naga City Fire Marshall, Chief Insp. Achilles M. Santiago, told VOX BIKOL that the two women victims, an elderly woman identified as Aida Canuto Ausen, 68, a native of Pili Camarines Sur and Cristina Reis, 19, a midwifery student of Camarines Sur Community College were trapped in their rooms at the second floor of the house during the height of the blaze.

CAMP SIMEON OLA, Legazpi City (23 July) -THE KILLING of two elementary school teachers in Masbate Province, the slaying of two village officials and the attempted killings of a radioman in Nabua , Cam. Sur, all occurring in July this year have become high-priority cases of the PNP in Bikol.

PNP regional office spokesman, Sr. Supt. Eliciar Bron, disclosed on Thurs. (July 22) that newly installed Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec.  Jesse M. Robredo had personally intervened in the probe of the murder cases with a reported directive from President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III on the immediate arrest of the suspects and subsequent filing of cases in court.

LEGAZPI CITY (8 July) -AN EARLIER directive from President Benigno Aquino III requiring the installation of Career Executive Service Officers (CESO) to assume major positions in national government agencies nationwide has actually worried chiefs-of-offices in this region.