Compared to the national trending, Bacolod City has a slight difference in the senatorial slate. But, the top 5 senatoriables remain as is with the national trending.

Atty. Milagros Salud Villanueva, Bacolod City COMELEC Officer reports that Grace Poe keeps her lead in the top 12 with 122,388 votes. Followed by Angara - 108,844; Cayetano - 107,679; Escudero - 104,499; Bam Aquino - 100,377; Legarda - 99,836; Pimentel - 97,118; Zubiri - 93,666; Trillanes - 89,294; Villar - 87,182; Magsaysay - 84,545; and Hontiveros - 84,156. Running close for the 13th to 15th slots: Binay - 78,527; Gordon - 78,251; and JV Ejercito - 68,621.

Binay and Ejercito are included in the top 12 national trending. Gordon and Zubiri are below the top 12 senatoriables.

"The kingmaker is the people and they will judge you. Nobody owns the 4th District of Negros Occidental . It;s only the people who owns it," Congressman Jeffrey P. Ferrer said after his proclamation with a new mandate for his third term as Congressman of the 4th District of Negros Occidental in the presence of his wife Mayor Juliet Marie D. Ferrer, son Julius Asistio Ferrer and mother in law-Madam Kitchie Benedicto-Paulino at the Provincial Social Hall yesterday.

"My love, humility and relationship with them, that’s what keep our people in the 4th District of Negros Occidental to have spoken well and have given me another mandate.

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) through ERC Order No. 2011-091 RC issued an order mandating all electric cooperatives, private utilities and National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in the country, including CENECO, to collect a total amount of P53,581,000.00 as portion of Universal Charge-Stranded Contract Cost (UC-SCC) and remit to Power Asset Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM). This will be collected progressively from all consumers nationwide in duration not shorter than fifteen (15) years nor longer than twenty-five (25) years. For compliance, CENECO will start to collect the approved rate in a monthly basis at P0.1938/kWh starting the billing month of May 2013.

It can be recalled that before the advent of Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) in 2001, National Power Corporation (NPC) entered into series of long term Power Supply Agreements (PSA), some are Build Operate Transfer (BOT), to provide for reliable power demand of the country. Such PSA were overtaken by the implementation of EPIRA and were ceded as Transition Supply Contracts (TSC). Such TSCs were not able to fully compensate the NPC’s remainder contractual obligations under competitive Spot Market environment, thus, the term Stranded Contract Cost (SCC).

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Binalbagan Police authorities arrested Oriental Mindoro’s top 3 most wanted men for criminal offenses at about 4:30PM, yesterday.

PSInsp. Albert Sy, Binalbagan Police chief effected the arrest of Jeffrey Peñascosa, 21, of Brgy. Canmoros, Binalbagan who was accused of homicide along with his brother.

Peñascosa also has a standing warrant of arrest for the crime of frustrated murder under criminal case number CR-13-04-6484 at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 83, Tanauan City, Batangas, PRO4A with bail bond set at P200,000. He is also facing murder charges under criminal case number 11-8257 at RTC-Branch 41 of Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro PRO4B with no bail recommended for his temporary release.

The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) in partnership with Suzuki Philippines is holding the 2013 PFF Suzuki National Cup Championship final qualifying and semi-final rounds in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental tomorrow, Friday.

This tournament will choose the top teams among the ten teams that will make it to a home-and-away championship match on May 30.

Listed among the teams are defending champion Negros Occidental Football Association (NOFA); three teams from Luzon; Masbate, Laguna and Baguio - Benguet; Iloilo and Cebu from Visayas; and North Cotabato, Iligan-Lanao del Norte, Davao and Zamboanga Del Norte-Dipolog from Mindanao.

Three-point artist Amit Teruel hit his fifth triple when it is needed most and Panasonic survived upset-conscious Negros Basketball Group, 103-87 for solo lead of Condura Cup/ BUS Group 2nd invitational on Sunday at Po Hang gym of Bacolod Tay Tung High School.

The TV Makers jumpstarted with a 10-0 run before taking the first canto, 19-7. It continued to take the next quarters 36-24, 50-32 and 72-65. NBG came closest at 76-72 behind Gudoy Cepriano’s 36 points and Arthur Braganza’s 14.

It was the last stand for NBG as Teruel hit from the arc and Arnel Tornilla slashed for an 81-72 spread and the rest was a shooting contest for garbage points. Teruel had 19, Garry Garcia added 18 on medium jumper putbacks, Koko Fuentebella chipped in 14 and Biboy Java 11.

In other games, Sharp capitalized on speed and terrific shooting spree to frustrate NHOJs, 121-83 while Deding’s Eatery served a disaster menu too strong for PESO BAYS Club to swallow, 99-93.

Despite losing Game 1 of their best-of-seven conference semis series to the Chicago Bulls, Miami is still on track of tying or even bettering the 12-1 playoff record of the 1982-83 National Basketball Association champion Philadelphia with a Game 5 win today against Nate Robinson and company.

The game will be played at the Heat’s home turf-the American Airlines Arena where the Bulls took Game 1. However, the reigning NBA titlists took the next three outings including two straight at the United Center in Illinois to take a 3-1 edge in their conference semis duel.

Earlier, Miami swept No. 8 Milwaukee in the first round of postseason play while the No. 5 seeded Bulls upset No. 4 Brooklyn in their opening round battle for a spot in the Final Four of the tough Eastern Conference.

In the event LeBron James and company eliminate the Bulls, Miami will be facing the winner of the New York-Indiana series with the Pacers up, 2-1, pending the outcome of yesterday’s Game 4 in Indianapolis.

The funny little yellow buddies of the equally likable super-villain Gru are visiting SM City Bacolod! The movie Despicable Me charmed and tickled animation fans and movie goers the world over and further drew hilarious laughs as the spotlight turned on the little yellow army in the sequel Despicable Me 2.

The "yellows" are Gru’s Minions, those small, pill-shaped creatures with either one or more eyes. Simple-minded beings and chatter-boxes though they are, they are accommodating and their loyalty for Gru never wavers. They choose to express themselves through actions instead of words and they jabber on in incomprehensible talk but every now and then they inject an English word or two, and occasionally, a little Spanish. Despite not being able to understand them most of the time, they understand English perfectly well. They may all be similar in size and shape but each has a unique feature or a combination of features that enables Gru to tell most of them apart – height, perhaps, or the number of eyes, hair, clothing and mannerisms. Their impulsiveness and innocence have endeared them to moviegoers and have made fans out of all who’ve watched the Despicable Me movies.

Come Saturday and Sunday nights, 16-year old Handumanan, Bacolod resident and flairtender Chaeremon Jess G. Basa will need the support of Bacolodnons and Negrosanons.

Mon is among semi-finalists in the TV reality search "Pilipinas Got Talent" (PGT) of ABS-CBN, with his flairtending (bottle juggling) talent.

Sixteen-year-old Chaeremon "Mon" Basa of Handu-manan, Bacolod, who showcased his leveled up flairtending skills during the April 6 first quarterfinal performance night, topped the nationwide votes with 28.09%, thereby securing the first out of 12 semi-finalist slots.*

The best support for Mon is, first, to watch PGT on Saturday night (May 18), and then start texting votes for him after the hosts give the go-signal to do so.

To text your votes, type PGT(space)MON to 231 (for Smart & Talk ‘N Text subscribers at P2.50 per text), to 2331 (for Globe & TM users at P2.50/text), and also to 2331 for Sun users (P2/text).