BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – “It’s more of a necessity.”
This was how Mayor Salvador Escalante of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental described the proposed transfer of the provincial government to Talisay City from here.
He expressed support for the plan to relocate the capitol to the provincial government’s 25-hectare property in Talisay’s Barangay E. Lizares.
Salvador, secretary general of the United Negros Alliance, revealed the province’s development plan on constructing a hotel and a commercial building at the site of the current Provincial Administration Center.
“Imagine the traffic these infrastructures would cause in the area,” the mayor said.
He also admitted that in the past, there were differences between the provincial government and city government of Bacolod on how to manage the traffic in the area.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson first floated the possibility of relocating the capitol to Talisay City – a fourth-class component city of Negros Occidental with a population of 102,214 people.
Bacolod , on the other hand,is an independent city.
Negros Occidental 3rd District congressman Alfredo Benitez earlier said it is difficult for the seat of the provincial government to be in a jurisdiction it does not control./PN
