Senate approves bill setting June 18 as Bacolod Charter Day 

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – The Senate has approved on third and final reading the bill that seeks to change the date of the Bacolod City’s Charter Day. 

House Bill 7044 seeks to declare June 18 of every year a special non-working holiday in Negros Occidental’s capital city. It was authored by Bacolod Representative Greg Gasataya. 

The measure seeks to commemorate the day former president Manuel Quezon signed Commonwealth Act No. 326 creating the city of Bacolod, which was on June 18, 1938.

The first mayor of this city, Alfredo Montelibano Sr, was inaugurated on October 19, 1938. Since then, the city had been celebrating its charter day every October.

Changing history 

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia was ecstatic over the Senate approval of the proposed House bill. “After 80 years, we will now have our history in proper order,” he said.

Leonardia, along with other local officials, attended the Senate session on Monday. They said they were “overwhelmed by the overwhelming votes the senators gave our June 18 Charter Day proposition.”

“Legality, logic, and reason prevailed. The senators saw it the way we saw it. We believe we were able to convince the senators with the merits of our arguments,” the mayor said.

“We owe it to the future generations that we observe and celebrate what actually our officials and forefathers did for our city,” he added.

He said city government will “give due recognition to October 19 as the day we inaugurated our city officials but we must distinguish which day was our city created and which day it was inaugurated.”

Meanwhile, Leonardia also said the Senate institutionalized the 4th Sunday of October as the highlight of the MassKara Festival “since we’ve always batted for a specific date for tourism purposes.”  – Rappler.com