The Senate unanimously approved on third and final reading the proposed Bacolod City Charter Day bill Monday.
Twenty senators voted in favor of the House Bill (HB) No. 7044 declaring June 18 as Bacolod City’s Charter Day. This also means the city’s inauguration will be commemorated every October 19 while the MassKara Festival will be celebrated every fourth Sunday of October.
There was no opposition and abstention.
Bacolod City officials led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Congressman Greg Gasataya, Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, along with the councilors and other local executives, attended the Senate session.
In a statement, Leonardia said: “we are overwhelmed by the overwhelming votes the senators gave our June 18 Charter Day proposition.”
“Legality, logic and reason prevailed. The senators saw it the way we saw it. We believe we were able to convince the senators with the merits of our arguments,” the mayor said.
“After 80 years, we will now have our history in proper order,” he added.
The mayor said they “owe it to the future generations that we observe and celebrate what actually our officials and forefathers did for our city.”
He reiterated the City Government will “give due recognition to October 19 as the day we inaugurated our city officials. But we must distinguish which day was our city created and which day it was inaugurated.”
“We are also happy that the Senate further institutionalized the 4th Sunday of October as the highlight of the MassKara Festival since we’ve always batted for a specific date for tourism purposes,” the mayor added.
The bill was filed by Gasataya on June 13, 2017.
For Familiaran, the approval of the bill is not only a victory of the city officials, but it’s also the victory of the people of Bacolod because “we are [not] just correcting a mistake, we are correcting a history.”
He said the bill will be effective after it will be signed by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“As soon as it will be signed by the President, the city’s holiday will be on June 18 and we will also commemorate October 19,” Familiaran added.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier encouraged the observance of three distinct celebrations in the city such as the Bacolod City Charter Day as a non-working holiday, inauguration day, and the Masskara Festival.
“Three celebrations instead of just two will give Bacolodnons more opportunities to highlight their cityhood, history, and culture. I propose to amend HB 7044 which sets June 18 of every year as the city’s charter day by providing for two other events: first, commemorating the city’s inauguration every October 19, and, second, adhering to the tradition of holding the Masskara Festival every fourth Sunday of October,” Zubiri said.
Zubiri’s “win-win solution” came following the differing opinions among local officials over the significant events in the city’s history.
Councilor Wilson Gamboa Jr. had earlier asked the Senate to conduct a committee conference before the approval on a third and final reading of the proposed Bacolod City Charter bill.
Gamboa, chairperson of the City Council committee on history, culture and arts, said that since there’s an amendment of the proposed bill, the Senate should also hold a conference with the House of Representatives.
Gamboa, along with former mayor Monico Puentevella, was opposing the move to change the city’s history.
Puentevella had earlier said that the move to change the city’s Charter Day from October 19 to June 18 is a betrayal of public trust.
The proposed legislation amends Republic Act (RA) 7724 that supposedly set a wrong date for the celebration of the Charter Day of Bacolod.
Leonardia had earlier said it is only a betrayal if they will not correct the history since they already know the correct date of the city’s Charter Day.
“It was clear that President Manuel L. Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 326 creating Bacolod as a city on June 18, 1938,” he said.
He added that RA 7724 created the legally unfounded belief that the Charter Day is on October 19 and they gathered a background that October 19 was the inauguration of then mayor Alfredo Montelibano Sr.
Councilor Caesar Distrito, for his part, said that finally, the rightful celebration had been put in place by the passage of the bill that recognized the correct Charter Day which is June 18.
“It is not about what we usually or traditionally do, but what is the correct date that should be celebrated as the birth of Bacolod City. As early as 2012, the City Council had already acknowledged such historical distortion,” he added.