THE Diamond Jubilee Memorial Tower at the Bacolod public plaza will be lit up 6 p.m. on October 19.
At 10 p.m., the 1st Mayor Evelio Leonardia Invitational Fireworks Display Competition will begin, with the first two entries firing at the Bacolod Government Center.
These twin MassKara Festival activities will celebrate October 19, a special non-working holiday in Bacolod.
City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan in his Legal Opinion No. 16-131 issued October 12, 2016 said they take cognizance of Republic Act No. 7724 otherwise known as “Bacolod City Charter Day.”
Although there are moves to correct this with recent discovery that the City’s Charter was actually signed on June 18, the holiday remains in force until the law is amended.
Bayatan said Section 2 of RA No. 7724 is clearly self-executory in declaring that “October 19 of every year as a special nonworking holiday in the City of Bacolod.”
RA 7724 was approved on May 19, 1994 and henceforth, every October 19 of the subsequent years are observed as non-working public holiday in the City of Bacolod, he added.
Leonardia earlier said the Charter Day of Bacolod should be held on June 18 instead of October 19 after they discovered the correct date in the documents signed by President Manuel L. Quezon.
“This makes June 18 the actual Charter Day of Bacolod and we should straighten the record,” Leonardia said.
What happened on October 19 was the inauguration of the first city officials for which Quezon came to Bacolod, local historian Modesto Sa-onoy said.