BACOLOD Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez has issued an executive order adopting the historically accurate depiction of the city’s official government seal.

Issued on July 19, the order stated that upon review and research of the historical events preceding to the adoption of the coat-of-arms, it was found out that the then City Council of Bacolod in 1950 sponsored a contest looking for a winning entry in order to be adopted as the coat-of-arms.

Benitez said that the city council at that time upon motion of then-acting mayor Mario Villanueva and seconded by Councilor Anecito Parreño approved through a resolution the use of the winning design made by Cornelio Cornell.

Based on research, he said that the torch in the coat-of-arms spells progress in all of the city’s benevolent ramifications from its humble beginnings.

As to the symbol of a modern sugar central and an old muscovado mill, the mayor said they represent the stages in the development of the sugar industry in the province where Bacolod is the seat of the capital.

Other symbols in the coat-of-arms include the crude ways of bringing canes to the mill pictured by the muscovado mill with a man carrying the pieces of sugarcane ready for milling.

"Meanwhile, because of the progress reached and attained by way of machinery and science in sugar technology, there is the locomotive on the railroad track bringing the said canes to the central," Benitez said.

"The difference in speed and quantity of work done and accomplished within a period of time would stagger the imagination of man," he added.