BACOLOD City – The Senate approved the bill that seeks to change the Bacolod City Charter Day from Oct. 19 to June 18 of every year.
House Bill (HB) 7044 was passed in its third and final reading on Monday.
If signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte, it will amend Republic Act (RA) 7724, which declares Oct. 19 of every year as the Bacolod City Charter Day.
Aside from declaring June 18 as the annual Charter Day, making it a special nonworking holiday in Negros Occidental’s capital city, the bill also recognizes Oct. 19 as Bacolod City’s annual commemoration of its inauguration.
Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on revision of laws, sponsored HB 7044 in February after the House of Representatives approved its version (HB 5875), which Rep. Greg Gasataya authored.
Gasataya filed the bill early this year upon the request of Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
Leonardia said RA 7724 “created the legally unfounded belief that the Bacolod City Charter Day is on Oct. 19.”
He added that then president Manuel Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 326 – which officially turned Bacolod into a city – on June 18, 1938.
Gasataya said RA 7724 “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.”
Councilor Caesar Distrito – chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on laws, ordinances and good government – welcomed Senate’s approval of HB 7044.
“Finally, the rightful celebration had been put in place by the passage of this law that recognizes the correct Charter Day of Bacolod which is June 18,” said Dsitrito.
In 2012, Distrito authored an ordinance that acknowledged June 18 of every year as the Bacolod City Charter Day.
“We appreciate the efforts of Gasataya, being the author of the House version,” said Distrito. “We also recognize our congressmen and senators for finally approving the bill in its third and final reading.”
Former mayor Monico Puentevella and son Councilor Claudio Jesus and Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. have opposed the June 18 Bacolod City Charter Day.
Monico and Gamboa cited records from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines showing that Bacolod came into “corporate existence” when Quezon inaugurated the city on Oct. 19, 1938./PN
