By Ryan Mostar DAET, Camarines Norte — What started as a modest kitchen experiment decades ago has blossomed into one of Bicol’s most cherished bakeries. In the early 1970s, Arlene A. Vergara crafted simple sugar cookies using just six eggs, a pinch of flour, and the few ingredients her family could spare. Selling them in small batches from their apartment, she could hardly have imagined that these tiny creations would become the seed of a business legacy spanning generations

The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) on Monday opened a 3-day Basic Incident Command System (ICS) Course and 1-day Emergency Operations Center Executive Training Course (EOC-EC) with 40 participants from the city government and the city’s 27 barangays. CDRRMO head Raynor Rodriguez said the training aims to equip barangay volunteers and LGU personnel with a clear understanding of how the Incident Management Team (IMT) and the Emergency Operations Cen

By Rhaydz Barcia LEGAZPI CITY --- To help ease the burden of Bicolanos affected by a series of calamities, particularly Typhoons Tino and Uwan, the Pag-IBIG Fund has allocated ₱1,774,571,000 for emergency and calamity loans targeting more than 60,000 members across the Bicol Region. Nelson Ibarra, acting branch head of the Pag-IBIG Legazpi Branch, said qualified members may borrow up to 90 percent of their total savings. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier placed the entir

By Benilda Recebido SORSOGON CITY --- At least 160 members of the New People’s Army (NPA) took an oath of allegiance to the government in Sorsogon City. Sorsogon Provincial Administrator Franco Eric Ravanilla announced on Thursday (Nov. 21) that these former communist rebels, who have surrendered, came from various towns in Sorsogon. Police Major Irvin Bellen of the Provincial Intelligence Unit of the Sorsogon Police Provincial Office (SorPPO) said that those who took the oat

By Keren Anne Bernadas LEGAZPI CITY --- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), along with the Climate Change Commission and Local Climate Change Adaptation for Development, Inc., will be hosting the National Climate and Disaster Investments Summit in Legazpi City from November 26 to 27, 2025. Organizers said the summit will bring together various groups—such as national and local governments, universities, and community members—to work together more effec

By Ernie Delgado LEGAZPI CITY --- House of Representatives lawmakers from the Bicol region plan to file a bill to establish a Bicol River Basin Management Office to address the severe flooding threats in mainland Bicol. The Special Committee on Bicol Affairs and Economic Development, by lawmakers from the provinces of Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, and Sorsogon, agreed on a new agency during their meeting with officials of the Department of Econo

Mayor Leni Robredo is calling for a meeting among the LGU’s Public Safety Office, the Naga City Police Office, the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Naga, and the office of City Councilor Ramon Melvin Buenafe, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Transport, to address issues on e-trike registration and designated routes in the city. The proposed meeting aims to enable the LGU and national agencies to craft a unified policy on the operation and movement of e-trik

By Sally Atento-Altea LEGAZPI CITY--- President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to ensure that post-disaster repairs focus on long-term resilience rather than short-term, temporary fixes. During his recent visit to Albay province, where he led a briefing on the impact of Super Typhoon Uwan, Marcos emphasized that reconstruction efforts must be durable and adhere to proper standards. The President noted that previous disasters have h

By Ernie Delgado LEGAZPI CITY --- The November 30 protests against corruption in the Bicol region concluded peacefully, with the police reporting no incidents of unrest. “Our personnel were deployed in key areas, and no untoward incidents occurred,” Brigadier General Nestor Babagay Jr., director of the Police Regional Office, told the Philippine Information Agency. To maintain order and ensure the safety of all participants and the general public, the police implemented “proa

By Rhaydz Barcia LEGAZPI CITY --- A day after the Sandiganbayan issued arrest warrants against former Ako Bicol Party-list representative and founder Elizaldy “Zaldy” S. Co and executives of Sunwest Inc. for their alleged involvement in anomalous flood control projects in Mindoro, police units in Albay immediately moved to implement the orders. On Saturday, personnel of the Legazpi City Police Station attempted to serve the warrant of arrest on Co at the Sunwest Inc. office a

By Manuel T. Ugalde LEGAZPI CITY --- Three incumbent public works officials who previously held key positions in Bicol have been indicted by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) for their alleged involvement in the large-scale corruption scandal involving ghost flood-control projects. The officials were identified as Engr. Danilo Villa, Engr. Gene Ryan Altea, and Engr. Gerald Pacanan. Villa and Altea earlier served as district engineer and assistant district en

AS Funeraria Imperial prepares to mark its 100th founding anniversary in 2026, the Imperial family highlights one of its most significant milestones in recent years: the establishment of the Naga Imperial Crematory and Columbary (NICC), an evidence to the company’s continued growth and perseverance in the local funeral industry based in Naga City. Benigno Angelo T. Imperial—fondly called Benjie—the fifth of ten siblings in the third generation of the Imperial family, is one o

By Rhaydz Barcia LEGAZPI CITY --- Twelve people were killed after a speeding 14-wheeler truck traversing a bypass road toward the Maharlika Highway junction in Camalig, Albay collided head-on with an approaching UV Express van from Nabua, Camarines Sur bound for Legazpi City at around 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Roderick Mendoza, chief of the Albay Public Safety Emergency Management Office, said seven bodies had been recovered, while five more — including two children — remained

By Ernie Delgado LEGAZPI CITY --- The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will launch a cash-for-work program to help nearly 24,000 farmers restore their abaca crops, destroyed by Super Typhoon Uwan in the Bicol region, the Department of Agriculture (DA) announced on Wednesday. According to the DA, the program will be implemented after the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFIDA) reported that more than 55,000 hectares of abaca farms were damaged in Ca

By Benilda Recebido SORSOGON CITY, Sorsogon --- Over 300 information officers from various barangays in Sorsogon province gathered to learn skills in combating information pollution during the Barangay Information and Outreach Network (BION) Summit held on November 18 at the Sorsogon Provincial Gymnasium. The summit equipped frontline communicators with essential skills to address misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation—issues that have increasingly impacted commun