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[av_heading heading=’BACOLOD CITY CHARTER DAY | Will Bing defy law, historical commish?’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Monday, May 29, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Mayor Evelio “Bing” Leonardia was insisting that the Charter Day of this city should be celebrated every June 18, not Oct. 19.
He was asking Rep. Greg Gasataya, a political ally, to help “rectify the error.”
Leonardia believed June 18 of every year was the proper day of celebration because then President Manuel Quezon signed Commonwealth Act No. 326, or the Charter of Bacolod, on June 18, 1938.
In 2011 Leonardia — also the mayor at the time — issued an executive order moving the date of the Charter Day to June 18. He has carried this position until now.
This year, unlike in the previous years, the Charter Day celebration will be on June 18. The mayor said the city government was already preparing, with Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran as celebration chairman.
Familiaran said the awarding of the most outstanding taxpayers and the outstanding citizen (Banwahanon Award) will highlight the annual event.
But Leonardia’s stand was contrary to that of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and a law.
The NHCP holds that the city started its “corporate existence” on Oct. 19, 1938, so it should celebrate its Charter Day every Oct. 19, a news report published in February 2013 quoted then commission chairwoman Dr. Maria Serena Diokno as saying in a letter to then representative Anthony Golez.
For 72 years, the city’s celebration of its Charter Day every Oct. 19 have “already acquired the character of custom and tradition,” which the NHCP finds no compelling reason to set aside, Diokno said.
Leonardia claimed he was unable to push for a bill “correcting” the Charter Day during his first term of office as congressman in 2013 due to the “political climate” in the city at the time, citing his differences with then mayor Monico Puentevella.
But the NHCP said Congress resolved the issue when it approved on May 19, 1994 Republic Act No. 7724, which declared Oct. 19 of every year as Bacolod City Charter Day and made that day a special nonworking public holiday in the city.
“Oct. 19 is the lawful Charter Day, that being the date when President Manuel Quezon went to Bacolod City for its formal inauguration as a chartered city, highlighted by the assumption to office of Alfredo Montelibano Sr. as the first appointed mayor,” the NHCP said.
Gasataya said his office was currently researching for a bill that he may file related to the issue./PN
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