Distrito: If Gamboa was absent or outside the hall, that’s his problem

By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

In response to a call by Bacolod City Councilor Wilson Gamboa, Jr. for more public hearings on the recent endorsement by the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of a bill, earlier submitted by Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Greg Gasataya before the House of Representatives, requesting Bacolod City’s Charter Day be changed from October 19 to June 18, City Councilor Caesar Distrito stated, “There is no need for another hearing on the matter.”

“The [SP] had already approved the resolution,” he added. “If [Gamboa] was absent or went out of the session hall when the subject matter was discussed, then it is his problem,”

The resolution, authored by Distrito, and co-authored by his Grupo Progreso (GP) party mates, along with Bacolod City-Liga ng mga Barangay (Liga) President and Barangay Tangub Captain Noli Villarosa, was passed before the chamber last month.

The House Bill was filed back in June of this year after Gasataya received a letter from Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia asking him to request the change.

“[RA 7724] created the legally unfounded belief that the Bacolod Charter Day is on October 19,” the mayor explained earlier this year.

He cited June 18 as the day former President Manuel Quezon signed Commonwealth Act No. 326, which established Bacolod as a city.

However, according to the Negros Occidental Historical Council, it was only on October 19, 1938 when Quezon visited Bacolod City and organized the new city government by appointing the city’s first mayor, Alfredo Montelibano, Sr.

Meanwhile, back in May of this year, the SP approved an ordinance formalizing the schedule of the annual MassKara Festival, which commemorates the city’s Charter Day every year.

The ordinance, authored by City Councilor Em Ang, also a co-author on the endorsement resolution, set the fourth Sunday of October as the permanent schedule for the MassKara Festival highlights./DGB, WDJ