OCTOBER 19 is still a special non-working public holiday in Bacolod City.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the City Government takes cognizance of Republic Act (RA) No. 7724 otherwise known as Bacolod City Charter Day.
City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan, in his Legal Opinion No. LO-17-176 released Wednesday, October 18, said that Section 2 of RA No. 7724 is clearly self-executory in declaring that “October 19 of every year is declared 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, Bayatan added.
Leonardia said that although he wants to correct this with the recent discovery that the City’s Charter was actually signed on June 18, the holiday remains in force until the law is amended.
The mayor had earlier said it is their position that 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 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.
The mayor said there is also a photograph of the event dated June 18, 1938 which he believes is very authentic, valid and shows that it is the legal date of the Charter Day.
Last June 13, Leonardia had written Representative Greg Gasataya to request him to file a bill that would amend RA No. 7724 that erroneously set a wrong date for the celebration of the Charter Day of Bacolod City.
“We hope that Your Honor will expedite the filing of the bill to amend RA 7724 and clearly declare that June 18 is the Bacolod City Charter Day and that this day is a legal holiday in consonance with the clear and unmistakable letter and intent of Commonwealth Act No. 326,” the mayor wrote.
RA 7724 created the unfounded belief that the Bacolod Charter Day is on October 19,” he added.
“I would like to thank and congratulate Congressman Greg Gasataya for sponsoring the bill that will finally correct this historical inaccuracy. I’m confident that he will pursue this to its final passage and together with Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran and majority of the councilors, we assure him of our full support," Leonardia said.
The mayor said he feels the urgency of this amendment considering that in 2018, Bacolod will commemorate its 80th year of existence as a city and so the time is appropriate to correct a “historical error.”