BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Tiempo suerte comes early this year even before the start of the a Yuletide season, way before Negrense singer Jose Mari Chan’s “Christmas In Our Hearts” get extensive airplay on radio and in the malls.
“Kon gaaso ang simboryo sang Vicmico maayo ang kabuhi sang tawo (when smoke can be seen from the chimneys of Vicmico, the people’s lives are good),” an old saying goes in the city from which Victorias Milling Company got its name.
Scholars say milling season is so important in this province of more than a million people as it comes on the end of an economic slowdown also known as a tiempo muerto, the dead season, during which the canes are allowed to grow leading to a slowdown or stopping of work in the canefields.
A lack of supply in the market has led to an early opening of mills this year amid calls from officials.
Two sugar mills here, Victorias Milling Company in Victorias City and URC in La Carlota City will both resume operations on 15 August 2022.
BISCOM in the town of Binalbagan has yet to announce when their milling operations will start.
As this developed, Camp Montelibano said policemen will do check on quarters of sugar plantations and haciendas with high crime rates.
Provincial police chief, Lieutenant Judesses Catalogo said the inspection will involve “checking the identity of plantation workers coming from other provinces” because they recently learned that some of the workers have problems and cases in their hometowns who are trying to escape from the law.
The initiative is part of Oplan Bakal Sita that seeks to reduce crime in the province.
