Bacolod City Councilor Wilson Gamboa, Jr. responded to a statement by City Councilors Caesar Distrito, Dindo Ramos, Em Ang, and Cindy Rojas, who called his request for public hearings on the recent endorsement by the Bacolod City Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) of a bill before the House of Representatives requesting Bacolod City’s Charter Day be changed from October 19 to June 18 a “blatant display of disrespect to the policy-making body.”

“How can I be disrespectful when I sent official notices to all concerned – including all the councilors – regarding the committee hearing?” the councilor asked. “Why did they complain only after the conduct of the public hearing?”

In response to claims Gamboa has never conducted a committee hearing on subject matters not included in the SP agenda, he noted recent examples, including one surrounding fees for cockfighting establishments and another regarding consultations with the local Muslim community concerning burials.

“How come I wasn’t questioned on these?” the councilor pressed.

The situation came about earlier this month, after Distrito replied to Gamboa’s request for hearings on the charter day issue, saying, “The [SP] had already approved the resolution.”

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

In their joint statement, they also suggested Gamboa read the text of City Ordinance No. 588, series of 2012, noting they did not refer to June 18 as “Charter Day” but as the day Commonwealth Act No. 326 was signed, which established the “Charter of the City of Bacolod.”/JSG, WDJ