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BY MAE SINGUAY
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Thursday, October 19, 2017
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BACOLOD City – Today is a special nonworking public holiday in the city.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced on Wednesday that the local government is complying with Republic Act (RA) 7724, which declared Oct. 19 of every year a holiday as the city celebrates its Charter Day.
Leonardia believes June 18 of every year was the proper day of Charter Day celebration because, he said, then President Manuel Quezon signed Commonwealth Act No. 326, or the Charter of Bacolod, on June 18, 1938.
But he said the law providing for the Oct. 19 celebration must be followed since it has not been amended or repealed.
City hall has not lined up any activity related to the Charter Day even as Bacolod celebrates the MassKara Festival, whose highlights will be this weekend.
City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan released also on Wednesday a legal opinion saying RA 7724 is “clearly self-executory.”
The law was approved on May 19, 1994 and, henceforth, “every Oct. 19 of the subsequent years are observed as a nonworking public holiday in the City of Bacolod,” Bayatan said.
Leonardia believes “we should straighten the record” and celebrate the Bacolod City Charter Day every June 18.
He stressed that what happened on Oct. 19, 1938 was the inauguration of the first city officials, for which Quezon came to the city.
On June 13, Rep. Greg Gasataya – upon the request of Leonardia, a political ally – filed House Bill No. 5875 seeking to amend RA 7724.
Recently the Sangguniang Panlungsod passed a resolution supporting the argument that the Charter Day should be celebrated every June 18.
Gasataya had said Leonardia told him the 1994 law “created the legally unfounded belief that the Bacolod Charter Day is on Oct. 19.”
“We hope that you will expedite the filing of the bill to amend RA 7724 and clearly declare that June 18 is the Bacolod Charter Day and that this day is a legal holiday in consonance with the clear and unmistakable letter and intent of CA (Commonwealth Act) 326,” Leonardia wrote the congressman.
Gasataya agreed with Leonardia. According to the lawmaker, RA 7724 was enacted on May 19, 1994 “for the purpose of having the Charter Day coincide with the festivities of MassKara Festival.”/PN
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