SP approves Bacolod
revised revenue code
BY CARLA GOMEZ

The Revised Revenue Code of Bacolod City was passed on third and final reading yesterday by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod after a heated exchange between the acting presiding officer and the floor leader.

Acting Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, who acted as presiding officer, ruled the ordinance as a “lost ordinance”, citing a provision of the Local Government Code that its passage needs two-third votes.

However, Councilors Homer Bais, Dindo Ramos and the other SP members, who voted in favor of the Ordinance, contested the ruling, saying that it only needs a majority vote.

The Supreme Court Second Division has denied a petition for review filed by lawyer Magdaleno Peña and affirmed with modification a Court of Appeals’ decision that it said correctly found that the Regional Trial Court of Bago City gravely abused its discretion in awarding unconscionable damages against Urban Bank Inc. and its officers.

Peña, who is the mayor of Pulupandan town in Negros Occidental, had filed a suit against the bank before the Bago Regional Court for payment  of fees for his having seen to  the  removal of several nightclubs for it from a property in Pasay City.

On May 28, 1999, then Bago RTC Judge Henry Trocino ruled in favor of Peña, and found eight directors and officers of Urban Bank solidarily liable with the bank for the payment of agency fees.

The Philippines boxing icon, Manny Pacquiao, is now all set for his much awaited fight with Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas today (tomorrow in the Philippines) and among those who have joined him and his party in Las Vegas is the delegation from Bacolod City led by Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

Leonardia, who has become a fixture at the Pacquiao fights, is expected to be among those who will be in the ring with his “kumpare”, the Pacman, before the start of the fight.

Yesterday, Pacquiao entertained the Bacolod group at his suite at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, and they joined him in a prayer session with his family later.