- A 9-year-old boy drowns off the public beach in Ocaña
- Grid operator warns Cebu's power could stay tight until 2027 or 2028
- Diesel drops ₱7.57 a litre this week as the PISTON strike ends
- Capitol forms a team to study Naga's plan for the Balili property
- A year since the magnitude 6.9 Bogo earthquake
A 9-year-old boy drowns off the public beach in Ocaña
A 9-year-old boy from Sitio Baha-baha in Barangay Liburon drowned at the public beach in Sitio Bonbon, Barangay Ocaña, at about 4:30 p.m. on 28 September. Police say he had gone swimming with other children with his aunt's permission. At low tide he and four other children waded out about 200 meters, and a strong current pulled them into deeper water. A companion brought him up, but he was declared dead on arrival at Cebu Provincial Hospital in Carcar. The Coast Guard and the city's disaster office helped bring him in.
Low tide can pull children far from shore, and the current off Ocaña is strong once the water deepens. If children are swimming, keep an adult in the water with them, and keep them in their depth.
Source: Banat (Philstar)
Grid operator warns Cebu's power could stay tight until 2027 or 2028
The grid operator says the Visayas supply has improved this week and no alert was raised on 29 September, but the region stays exposed to rotational brownouts. Two plants were still down: the 103-megawatt KSPC Unit 2 in the City of Naga, expected back that day, and the 150-megawatt PEDC Unit 3 in Iloilo, expected back on 9 November. Cebu uses close to half the region's power, no new base-load plant has come online since 2016, and an official said shortages could last into 2027 or 2028 unless new capacity is built. The Department of Energy is looking at a power barge of more than 200 megawatts.
This is not a brownout notice, but evening alerts and short rotational brownouts are likely to come back from time to time. Keep a charged power bank and a flashlight ready, and watch CEBECO I, which serves most of Carcar, for interruption schedules.
Sources: SunStar, BusinessMirror
Diesel drops ₱7.57 a litre this week as the PISTON strike ends
Pump prices came down on 29 September after three weeks of increases. For the week to 5 October, diesel is down ₱7.57 a litre, kerosene ₱5.85 and gasoline ₱0.24. The PISTON-Cebu strike went ahead the same day but stayed a half-day action. Most jeepneys in Cebu City kept running, the eight city buses on standby were pulled back once regular trips resumed, and the group did not extend the strike to 30 September.
If you drive a diesel vehicle, filling up is noticeably cheaper until 5 October; gasoline barely moved. The routes reported as disrupted were all in Metro Cebu, from Talamban and Consolacion into the city, and none of the reports named south Cebu routes.
Sources: Top Gear Philippines, Philstar, The Freeman
Capitol forms a team to study Naga's plan for the Balili property
Governor Pamela Baricuatro signed Executive Order No. 52 on 23 September, creating a technical working group to study the City of Naga's request to use part of the province-owned Balili property in Barangay Tinaan for an economic zone. The group, led by Provincial Administrator Ace Durano, will check the land's title, boundaries and value and has 60 days to report. The province plans its own government, sports and food security complex around the site, and the Cebu Mega Food Hub stays in Naga.
An economic zone in Naga would be a short commute from Carcar and could mean factory and warehouse jobs close to home, but nothing is approved yet. The team's report is due in late November.
Sources: The Freeman, SunStar Superbalita
A year since the magnitude 6.9 Bogo earthquake
Today marks one year since the magnitude 6.9 earthquake of 30 September 2025 in northern Cebu. It came from the Bogo Bay Fault, which had not been mapped before, and killed at least 79 people. More than 186,000 houses in 17 towns and cities were damaged and about 500 classrooms destroyed. Phivolcs now recommends keeping a 5-meter no-build zone on both sides of a fault trace, and Bogo City has adopted it. Hospitals have since lined up volunteer surgeons and private partners for the next big quake.
A strong quake can hit any part of the island. Know where your barangay's evacuation area is, keep a go-bag with water, medicine and copies of IDs, and agree on a meeting place with your family.
Source: SunStar
