TWO TOWNS in Negros Occidental were named after a legend of one snake. When Mt. Kanlaon erupted, a large snake came out of its crater and swam down the river to the sea.

TWO towns in Iloilo are named after sand – Igbaras and Balasan. Igbaras was named by the Atis even before the Spaniards came. They prefix “ig” means “there is.” Hence, Igbaras means “there is sand” or baras.
Igbaras is on the bank of the Tangyan river which is abundant in sand.

WE MET A concerned citizen who told us that “squatters also shape the city”, maybe paraphrasing the title of our column last week, Zoning Shapes the City.
The remark sounds a bit sarcastic but it is true. Do we have a definite and active program now for the resettlement of residents that occupy properties along road right-of-ways and [...]

ONCE AGAIN, on February 2, thousands of pilgrims from all over the land will troop to Jaro Cathedral for the feast of Our Lady of the Candles, the Patroness of West Visayas.
The Cathedral which is undergoing restoration at present was constructed starting 1869 almost immediately after the erection of the Diocese of Jaro on May [...]

THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture’s Information Caravan can be considered highly successful. It should be another feather in the cap of Ms. Jovy Gaton, Head of the Info Division of the Regional Field Unit 6. The DA personnel came in full force, so did the other allied agencies and cooperating agencies. The commercial companies whose products are [...]

By Antonio Figueroa 
WHEN a senator calls for the closure of a government agency on mere hunch, such careless and irresponsible statement should not be dignified. Instead, it should be reason enough for him to be booted out.
Only recently, obviously wanting a publicity that he urgently needs to prop up his sagging political career, Sen. Jose [...]

WITH THE coming of the Americans and their new political doctrine of separation of Church and State, there was no more state church like during the Spanish time. The first Protestant sect to arrive in Western Visayas was the Baptists.
In 1900, Dr. Eric Lunda and Braulio Manikan of the American Baptist Missionary Union arrived in Iloilo [...]

WE HAVE THE ambition for Iloilo to become a PREMIER CITY BY 2015. That’s great! However, to achieve the desired status, we believe that the most important factor to look into is our zoning program. How do we want our city to look like by 2015 or seven years from now?
We recommend that our Sangguniang [...]

DURING A FORUM on the proposed first coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City, somebody raised his objection on the notion that the so-called clean-coal technology is no deterrent to coal’s health hazards, which would be felt “thirty years later.”
Obviously, the objector was trying to explain why no cases of toxicity from any of the existing 14 coal-fired [...]

A LOT OF PEOPLE have asked this columnist where the Lopezes (Albertito, Inday Emily and their two children Albertito III and Celine) are. For answers, I would often call Siony, their long-time secretary for the Taos-Puso Foundation. The answers I get are either they are in Manila, abroad or she just does not know.
Just lately, [...]