NEWSBRIEFS

MAASIN CITY

More health coverage

Health Secretary Enrique Ona on Monday expressed optimism that government hospitals will become self-sustaining as the Aquino administration pushes for more Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) enrollments particularly for the poorest of the poor.

Ona was here as guest speaker at the soft opening of a new hospital. He said he saw no problem in the operations of government hospitals because the government was tapping the PhilHealth through a program called “Pangkalahatang Kalusugan.”

The program, he said, would pay the yearly PhilHealth premium of poor families who were dying without even seeing what hospitals looked like.

“They will leave hospitals without paying a single centavo,” Ona said of beneficiaries of the program.

He said the close coordination between local government units and the health department, however, was key to the success of the program.

The health department, he said, “could not do it alone.”

Jani Arnaiz, Inquirer Visayas

MASBATE

3 held for slays

THREE suspects were arrested for the killings of a Masbate village chief and his mother, according to the Masbate police.

Francisco Tumambac Sr., 54, farm supervisor at the Masbate City agriculture office; his farmer son, Francisco Jr., 24; and their relative, Otic Tumambac, 30, also a farmer, were arrested as suspects in the killings of Barangay Igang Chair Allan Marcos, 36, and his mother Purita, 64.

PO3 Zandro Cabintoy, spokesperson of the Masbate police office, said the suspects were also behind the attempt to kill Marcos’ wife, Alily, during an attack on the Marcoses’ house past 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Cabintoy said the suspects were arrested following a tip from an informant that the three men were in Barangay Biyong in Masbate City.

Another suspect, Fernando Tumambac, a councilor of Barangay Igang, is at large, Cabintoy said.

Shiena M. Barrameda, Inquirer Southern Luzon

BACOLOD CITY

Dance winners

MEMBERS of a team representing the Pintaflores Festival of San Carlos City won first prize in a dance competition of the Panaad sa Negros Festival, which started at Panaad Park and Stadium here on Monday.

Marlin Sanogal, festival executive director, said 21 festivals from the towns and cities of Negros Occidental joined the competition, with MassKara Festival performers of this city as guests.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. declared the festival open, saying the number of visitors drawn by it has grown since it started 21 years ago.

The festival, which will run until Sunday, drew thousands of local and foreign spectators yesterday.

Helen Catalbas, tourism regional director, said tourism in the province of Negros Occidental was growing but only a fourth of the province’s tourist attractions were being tapped.

The opening of the Bacolod Silay Airport to international and chartered flights would help in drawing foreign tourists to the province, she said.

She said that of the total P1.2-billion budget for road projects in Western Visayas in 2012 and 2013, P615 million went to Negros Occidental. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas