Monday, March 24, 2008 House okays Bacolor rehab bill By Raymond C. Garcia
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The battle is half-won for the full rehabilitation of Bacolor town from the ravages of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.
The House of Representatives has passed on final reading House Bill (HB) 3389 that will create the Bacolor Rehabilitation Council to implement the town's rehabilitation.
Members of the House unanimously passed the bill, known as "Bacolor Rehabilitation Council Act," on third and final reading last February 19. It was sponsored by Representative Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga's third district.
House secretary general Marilyn Barua-Yap forwarded the bill to the Senate last February 21 for its concurrence.
"I have been directed to inform the Senate that on even date the House of Representatives passed HB 3389, entitled 'An Act Creating the Bacolor Rehabilitation Council and appropriating funds therefore' to which it requests the concurrence of the Senate," Yap said in her transmittal letter to Senate President Manuel Villar Jr.
The Bacolor bill was among the priority legislative measures sponsored by Gonzales, who said a minimum P1 billion funding is required to begin the rehabilitation program for Bacolor, which, he said, will have a huge impact on the development and progress of the town and the whole of Pampanga.
"Bacolor is a strategic municipality, and any program of development there will boost growth and progress in the nearby towns as well," he said.
Bacolor, formerly the capital town of Pampanga and even of the Philippines during the brief invasion of the country by the British in the 18th century, was the town most devastated by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and the subsequent lahar inundation that buried all but two of its barangays.
Gonzales' bill, also dubbed his version of United States Marshall Plan for Bacolor, will create the council that will draft the comprehensive rehabilitation plan for Bacolor. The council shall be composed of regional government agencies led by the National Economic Development Authority (Neda), local officials led by the governor and the mayor of Bacolor and other representatives from the private sector.
The US Marshall Plan was implemented after the Second World War to help Europe's recovery from its huge devastation.
Gonzales said he is optimistic that the bill will be approved in the Senate.
"I have discussed the plan with a number of senators, and I have been assured of their full support once the bill is taken up in the Senate," he said.
