- Live hogs may enter Cebu again, but only if they go straight to a slaughterhouse for lechon
- Police, free buses and an LTO road operation line up for Kalag-Kalag
- Habal-habal driver shot dead in Barili, gunman still at large
- ₱4.7 million in smuggled cigarettes seized in a Talisay subdivision
- No disconnection for November and December bills if you use 200 kWh or less
- Diesel up ₱1.20 a litre from 27 October, gasoline down ₱0.30
- Visayas grid back on red alert on Tuesday evening
Live hogs may enter Cebu again, but only if they go straight to a slaughterhouse for lechon
Governor Pamela Baricuatro's Executive Order 55 lets live hogs into Cebu Province again, but only if they go directly to a slaughterhouse accredited by the National Meat Inspection Service to be made into lechon. They cannot be kept for breeding or resold. Each shipment needs a BAI shipping permit, a veterinary health certificate, a negative ASF test and a named slaughterhouse, and must land at an official port with quarantine officers. Shipments with missing papers can be seized or sent back. SunStar reported the order on Monday, 26 October; Banat dates the signing to 24 October.
Cebu's lechon makers prefer the smaller native hogs from Negros, and the ban in force since July cut that supply. This reopens it, but only through the port, paperwork and slaughterhouse route: a hog cannot be brought to a pen in Carcar. If you raise pigs here, the rules on meat carried home from ASF areas have not changed, and the Ginatilan outbreak was traced to exactly that.
Police, free buses and an LTO road operation line up for Kalag-Kalag
Police Regional Office 7 will put 2,914 police officers on 363 cemeteries across Central Visayas for 1 and 2 November, backed by 1,702 personnel from other agencies and 5,491 tanods and volunteers. The Provincial Government is running free bus rides for senior citizens, persons with disabilities, pregnant women and parents with small children, with eight buses set aside, and terminal fees at the south and north bus terminals stay waived. LTO-7 has put its whole workforce on Oplan Biyaheng Ayos from 25 October to 4 November, and the Coast Guard is deployed from 29 October to 3 November.
If you are coming home to Carcar by bus, expect the South Bus Terminal to be far busier than its usual 7,000 to 11,000 passengers a day; the terminals expect more than 20,000 over the long weekend. Travel on Thursday or Friday morning if you can, keep an eye on your bags, and ask at the terminal about the free rides if you qualify.
Sources: SunStar, The Freeman, SunStar
Habal-habal driver shot dead in Barili, gunman still at large
A 36-year-old motorcycle taxi driver was shot dead on Sunday afternoon, 25 October, in Purok Buongon, Barangay Malolos, Barili. Police say he was shot while riding his motorcycle, got away, and was chased and shot again. The suspect, known to police only by a first name and said to live in Barangay Tuyokon, Aloguinsan, fled on a scooter towards Aloguinsan and has not been caught. According to the victim's partner, the suspect held a grudge after the driver's motorcycle nearly hit his mother. Barili police are reviewing CCTV footage. We are not naming the victim.
This is the second fatal shooting in Barili this month, after the Carcar native killed in Mantalongon on 10 October. If you were on the Malolos road that Sunday afternoon or recognise the description, report it to the Barili Municipal Police Station rather than posting online.
₱4.7 million in smuggled cigarettes seized in a Talisay subdivision
Police intelligence officers from the Cebu Police Provincial Office and Bureau of Customs agents seized 47 large boxes of cigarettes worth about ₱4.7 million in a buy-bust in a subdivision in Barangay Dumlog, Talisay City, that began at 2:55 a.m. on Tuesday, 27 October. An officer posing as a buyer paid ₱10,000 for one box; the packs carried no graphic health warnings, which marked them as smuggled, and more of the same were found in the house. A 42-year-old resident was arrested and is in police custody while charges are prepared.
Cheap cigarettes sold by the box from a house or a sari-sari store, with no health warning printed on the pack, are smuggled stock. Selling them is a Customs offence, not just a tax matter, and the operations have now reached the south side of Metro Cebu.
No disconnection for November and December bills if you use 200 kWh or less
The Energy Regulatory Commission has extended its no-disconnection order to November and December 2026 bills, but only for homes using 200 kilowatt-hours a month or less, who may also pay those bills in instalments over at least three months. The order covers distribution utilities and electric cooperatives nationwide. Protection depends on paying older arrears: unpaid May to July bills must be settled by 26 November, and August to October bills by 26 December, or disconnection can follow after notice. Visayan Electric announced its schedule on Tuesday, 27 October. The bills are not cancelled.
Carcar is served by CEBECO I, which falls under the same ERC order, though we have not seen CEBECO I's own notice. Check the kWh on your last bill: at 200 or below, you are covered for November and December, but only if any May to July balance is paid by 26 November. Above 200 kWh, pay on the usual due date.
Sources: SunStar, The Philippine Star, The Chronicle
Diesel up ₱1.20 a litre from 27 October, gasoline down ₱0.30
Fuel prices moved again on Tuesday, 27 October: diesel rose by ₱1.20 a litre, kerosene by ₱0.50, and gasoline fell by ₱0.30. That puts diesel up ₱3.80 over two weeks while gasoline has come down ₱4.60 over the same period. Oil companies blamed renewed tension in the Middle East for pushing world crude prices higher. Actual pump prices vary by company and station.
Jeepney, bus, truck and habal-habal operators on diesel are paying more going into the Kalag-Kalag rush, so expect fare and delivery costs to stay firm. Gasoline users get a small cut. The next adjustment normally lands on Tuesday, 3 November.
Sources: Daily Tribune, PhilNews
Visayas grid back on red alert on Tuesday evening
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines put the Visayas grid on red alert from 5 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 27 October, with yellow alerts from 4 to 5 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. Available capacity was 2,452 MW against an expected peak of 2,482 MW, with 861.2 MW unavailable because 30 plants were on forced outage and 16 were running below capacity. NGCP named the Therma Visayas 1 and 2 and KEPCO SPC unit 1 coal plants as down, plus limited imports from Mindanao during planned outages there. No advisory for Wednesday, 28 October, had been published when we checked.
A red alert means CEBECO I can be told to cut load, so short rotating outages in Carcar are possible on these evenings. Charge phones and power banks by late afternoon, and keep heavy appliance use outside 4 to 9 p.m. until the coal plants are back.
Sources: GMA Regional TV, The Manila Times
