Palace denies holiday
but charter rites still on
BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO

The Office of the President yesterday denied the request of the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod for a Presidential declaration of June 18, 2012 as a special non-working holiday for the celebration of the signing of the Charter of Bacolod City.

In a letter dated June 14, 2012 (also yesterday), Michael Aguinaldo, Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs,  noted  that the Charter creating Bacolod City (Commonwealth Act No. 326) was signed on June 18, 1938,  but  Republic ActNo. 7724 passed on May 19, 1994,  states that the celebration for the Charter Anniversary of Bacolod City must be every October 19.

He said a contrary Proclamation by the President might be construed as a violation of the legal precept that laws can only be repealed or modified by another law.

The registration of voters in Negros Occidental for the May 2013 polls will be suspended from June 25 to July 31, as the entire Commission on Elections staff of the province is being sent to Sulu, Provincial Elections Supervisor Jessie Suarez said yesterday.

The 53 COMELEC personnel of Negros Occidental, including Suarez, and their 133 counterparts from the rest of Western Visayas and Region IV have been assigned to conduct a general registration of voters in Sulu from July 9 to 18.

The COMELEC, which has purged the entire list of voters in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, is conducting the general registration of voters, not only in Sulu, but in the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, Suarez said.

The Negros Occidental provincial government stands to earn P3,504,924,197.25 from the sale and lease of its 7.7-hectare property in Bacolod City to AyalaLand Inc., Assistant Provincial Legal Officer Mary Ann Manayon-Lamis said yesterday.

She said the provincial government that is going ahead with the lease of 40,481 square meters of the property, which does not require Commission on Audit approval, to ALI that will enable the province to earn P2.75 billion in 50 years.

The property up for lease is located behind the provincial Capitol building and at the fountain area of the Philippine National Bank at Lacson Street, she said.