Mayor Evelio Leonardia last night said he had suspended classes and work at offices in Bacolod yesterday afternoon following the earthquake that hit Negros Island but things will be back to normal today.

However, he called on school officials and office managers to remain on alert and to use their sound judgment, because of possible aftershocks.

Leonardia issued an executive order suspending classes and work in both public and private institutions when an earthquake hit Bacolod City at 11:49 a.m. yesterday.

Leonardia, who was holding a press conference at the Pag-Ibig Fund office when the earthquake struck, also directed the chiefs of the Bacolod City Police Office and the Bureau of Fire Protection to go all over the city to check on possible damages and/or injuries.

The press conference with the City Hall Press Corps had to be transferred to another venue since it was interrupted by an aftershock that took place after noon yesterday.

Bacolod police director Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz informed the mayor that no casualties or injuries had been reported yesterday in Bacolod City.

Leonardia said he believes it was necessary to suspend classes and offices yesterday since aftershocks were to be expected. It is better to be safe than sorry, he said.

The mayor also convened an urgent meeting of city officials and technical staff from the City Mayor’s Office, City Legal Office, City Engineer’s Office, the Office of the Building Official, and the Department of Public Service yesterday.

During the meeting, Leonardia tasked the group to mobilize the CEO, OBO, BFP, Central Negros Electric Cooperative and telecommunication companies to conduct immediately an inspection of bridges, poles and buildings for structural integrity, and to report the results of their inspection tomorrow.

Leonardia made a call to Bacolod District Engineer Rey Venturina who committed to also conduct their own inspection of bridges and buildings under their jurisdiction.

“I am comforted that while the earthquake was felt strongly by Bacoleños, no life was lost and no harm done to persons and structures. However, we have to immediately check the structural integrity of our bridges, poles and buildings since we need to reassure the public that our structures were able to absorb the stress of the earthquake,” he said.

Jomarie Vargas, City Disaster Risk reduction Management Office head, said their team monitored the shorelines of Bacolod yesterday. He appealed to the public not to panic and not believe any text messages that may be circulated, but should wait for the statement coming from his office.

Bacolod Rep. Anthony Golez Jr. said that after instructing the Bacolod District Engineer to conduct rapid assessment of roads and bridges within Bacolod, he was informed that all roads and bridges suffered no damages after the earthquake.

“I also enjoin the Department of Public Works and Highways, as well as the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers and the different structural engineers associations to assist the city in whatever way on order to keep our people safe from harm,” Golez said.

He said he will again make his rounds to all the barangays giving lectures at the family level teaching people what to do before, during and after disasters.

Meanwhile, Leonardia said “We cannot prevent natural disasters from happening so I believe the Disaster Summit planned by Senator Aquilino ‘Koko’ Pimentel is very valid and timely.”

It was Pimentel who volunteered to have the summit for Western Visayas held in Bacolod City, he said.

Leonardia said that, in his long years of experience in government, he has realized that there is always room for improvement. There is no stop to the learning process since there are always new ideas to learn so he believes they will learn many things from the summit, he added.*CGS

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