THE settlement called "bakolod," a native word to describe a hilly place recorded to be founded 250 years ago or in 1770. Eventually, by order of Spanish powers, the town of Bacolod only became the capital of the Negros Island in 1894 or 124 years after the settlement was founded.
However, the speed at which Bacolod progressed since was quite significant because it only took 40 years for Bacolod to be elevated into cityhood in 1938 to become one of the first few cities established after our independence from Spain.
Speaking of growth, a community certainly needs a builder to shape its future. And in that period of time from Bacolod being simply a town to becoming a city, there stood a builder. Recognized by historical accounts of his deeds as the "Builder of Bacolod," Fray Mauricio Ferrero was ordained as a priest in Spain under the Order of Augustinian in 1868. Immediately on the same year, he set sail for the Philippines with 20 friars. Three years later, he was assigned as parish priest of Bacolod and then after another three years, Fray Ferrero initiated the building of the now San Sebastian Cathedral's original edifice made of coral stone. As chronicled in "A Brief History of the Church in Negros Occidental by Modesto P. Sa-onoy (1976), Bishop Mariano Cuartero, O.P. blessed the church on January 19, 1882, the eve of the feast of San Sebastian.
Local religious historians recognize the strong influence of Augustinian Recollects in shaping the Negros Island. Sa-onoy records that Fray Ferrero was also the builder of the Bacolod Public Plaza, the old Provincial Jail (Puerto San Juan), the Bacolod Public Cemetery, aside from the San Sebastian Cathedral. Local historians also believe that Bacolod City was home to the first Recollect school in the Philippines -- The Colegio de San Jose, which opened in June 1896 but was closed down at the onset of the Negros Revolution in September 1898.
In 1984, Bacolod was elevated as one of highly urbanized cities in the country. It has been 36 years since. Is Bacolod moving at a pace we all want it to move? As a highly urbanized city in these modern times, there are certainly a lot of things missing. Bacolod today is very hungry for innovation.
I believe every Bacolodnon's dream is to see a stronger, smarter and inclusive city of the future where every citizen is a partner towards creating clear, relevant and effective solutions to directly address the challenges of modern times.
In the Information Age, every citizen, every sector is a partner towards creating clear, relevant and effective solutions to directly address the challenges of modern times in order to reach the vision.
Our city badly needs innovation just like how Fray Ferrero introduced foresight more than a hundred years ago. Bacolod needs to show the world that it is front of the pack in addressing the challenges of the modern times such as climate change (flooding, drought), urbanization (traffic, waste, pollution), labor mismatch and lack of jobs, rising costs and low supply of utilities, globalization leading to stiff competition and disruption caused by new technologies among other things.
It needs to strongly and seriously research, explore, design and harness information and communications technologies (ICT) and new technologies to address growing problems ahead of other local governments units (LGU).
Bacolod City need public officials who will inspire, ignite, provide direction, encourage, generate and utilize private sector support in developing strategies to address the problems in a more sustainable and holistic way. The city needs to develop an over-all vision, which is target-driven, citizen-centric and possessing high standards of local governance and public service. Every citizen should ask himself or herself -- where will Bacolod be 10, 20, or 30 years from now -- and should have started working for it yesterday.
There needs to be clear strategies on major areas such as economic, health and social services, environment, and peace and order, among other areas. Under economic strategies, there should be full compliance with Ease of Doing Business Law, establishment of a Bacolod Digital Governance Team for full automation of LGU transactions and procedures, 24/7 emergency and rescue system using free data and SMS platforms, research-driven policies and programs using data analytics and big data integrating all barangay data to city, smart traffic, health and education systems and comprehensive support for local startups solutions and systems.
The social programs must include calibrated, sustainable and responsive training programs catering to all talent requirement across all industries, scholarship and training vouchers program to directly support job generation targets, building a city hospital with integrated primary health care services program for the poor and needy sectors with e-health card component, interactive citizens ideas and feedback mechanisms, LGU 24/7 command center and citizen's response and support center connecting all departments. I will share my strategies for the other areas in future columns.