Bacolod-Iloilo sisterhood pushed

BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said he is looking forward to accelerate the sisterhood between Bacolod and Iloilo City under the leadership of Mayor Jose Espinosa III.

Leonardia, who attended the Dinayang Festival over the weekend, said Monday he is thankful to Espinosa for inviting him.

“I congratulate Mayor Espinosa and the people of Iloilo for the celebration and successful staging of the 50th Dinagyang Festival.

There’s a big crowd and the business is in action. I have seen how vibrant the city is,” he said.

“I personally thanked Mayor Espinosa, he has been a friend way back when we were still not in the politics,” he added.

The mayor noted that in previous years, Bacolod officials signed a sisterhood agreement with former Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog.

“One of the reasons why I went there is that I am looking forward to this leadership of Mayor Espinosa that we can accelerate the sisterhood between Bacolod and Iloilo,” Leonardia said.

“We need each other, we can benefit from each other so we should live together after all we are blood brothers. Most of us come from Iloilo so we need to strengthen our ties with Iloilo," he said.

Leonardia lauded the development and improvement of Iloilo like its airport, but he said Iloilo’s circumstance is not the same as Bacolod.

“In spite of all this, Bacolod has now surpassed the budget of Iloilo. It means, we are catching up and there is nothing to fear except that we have made Iloilo a some kind of benchmark to determine our growth," he said.

This year, Bacolod has a total of P2.25-billion annual budget, surpassing the budget of Iloilo by P37 million.