BACOLOD City – Former mayor Monico Puentevella said the bill that seeks to change the Bacolod City Charter Day from Oct. 19 to June 18 of every year must not be passed in Senate.
House Bill (HB) No. 7044 is the Senate counterpart of HB No. 5875 that aims to amend Republic Act (RA) 7724, the law that declares Oct. 19 of every year as the Bacolod City Charter Day.
Rep. Greg Gasataya filed HB No. 5875 earlier this year upon the request of Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia.
According to Leonardia, RA 7724 “created the legally unfounded belief that the Bacolod City Charter Day is on Oct. 19.”
Then President Manuel Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 326 – which officially turned Bacolod into a city – on June 18, 1938, Leonardia said.
Gasataya agreed with this, adding that the law “bears with it the misconception that the city was created on the day of its formal inauguration and the first assembly of the city council on Oct. 19, 1938” thus “causing several problems.”
But Puentevella, who opposed the bill from the onset, has said Bacolod came into “corporate existence” on Oct. 19, 1938 when Quezon inaugurated the city, citing records from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
As Senate deliberated HB No. 7044 in its second reading yesterday (not third reading as previously reported), Puentevella added that no public hearing was conducted in Bacolod.
Though there is a resolution that supports the bill, Puentevella said the city council had not approved it unanimously.
Councilors Claudio Jesus Puentevella and Wilson Gamboa Jr. also oppose HB No. 7044, the former mayor stressed.
Leonardia yesterday said Monico has no “moral and legal right” to say that HB No. 7044 won’t be passed in Senate.
He provided the media with copies of Commonwealth Act No. 326, RA 170 (the law that created the City of Dagupan) and a Supreme Court (SC) decision dated Sept. 16, 1948 (in relation to the case of Flaviano Mejia, et. al. vs. Pedro Balulong, et. al.)
Leonardia said the Senate will find legal basis supporting the June 18 Bacolod City Charter Day in the SC decision.
“It is evident that the City of Dagupan came into existence as a legal entity or a public corporation upon approval of RA 170 on June 20, 1947. A statute is operative from the exact instance upon its approval or becoming a law,” the SC decision said.
Meanwhile, Gamboa has filed an opposition letter to the Senate on Aug. 29, saying that HB No. 7044 has “some legal issues.”
He said “there is no question” that it was on June 18, 1938 when the Commonwealth Act 326 was approved.
“But the question is the corporate existence of the City of Bacolod,” he stressed.
Corporate existence, which is under the transitory provision of the change of government during the Commonwealth period, can only happen upon the “installation and inauguration” of city officials, Gamboa added./PN
