• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Fifteen mayors in Negros Occidental have joined the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) in supporting moves to amend the country’s 1987 Constitution.
Victorias City Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez said Wednesday, Jan. 17, that he personally asked members of the Negros Association of Chief Executives, which he heads, if they are in favor of the Charter change.
There are 31 component cities and municipalities in Negros Occidental, excluding the highly-urbanized Bacolod City.
Pulupandan Mayor Miguel Peña, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines-Negros Occidental, said that he supports the Charter change with economic and political amendments, but not foreigners owning land, Benitez said.
Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, national chairperson of the LCP, earlier said the league “fully backs charter change initiatives”.
In a resolution issued by the LCP National Executive Board, it said that LCP advocates for progressive, sustainable and smart cities, stressing that the country needs to introduce amendments to the Constitution to achieve genuinely progressive and self-sufficient society.
It is the firm determination of the LCP that the global environment, the regional alignments and the national socio-economic, and political realities in the Philippines, since 1987, or 38 years ago have all been radically altered.
These were also disrupted and totally revolutionalized by the dizzying pace of rapid technological advances and by massive geopolitical and environmental upheavals in the last five years, which shall continue unceasingly for the next decades in our journey as a nation, it added.
It further said that the LCP supports the initiative to propose amendments to the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, as these will bring the necessary growth and development needed by the nation’s economy.
Cadiz City Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr. said on Tuesday that a private organization has started the “people’s initiative” signature campaign in their city.
Escalante said that he and Second District Rep. Alfredo Marañon III are in favor of amending the economic provisions of the Constitution.
Board Member Richard Julius Sablan, president of the Liga ng mga Barangay in Negros Occidental, said he has received reports of some groups going around asking people to sign a petition for Charter change.
Sablan said though that the Liga ng mga Barangay is not involved in it.
While he favors amendments to the Constitution’s economic provisions, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said that he would not get involved in the “people’s initiative” signature drive. | GB
