- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The state of Bacolod City is strong, and it will be stronger; the best of Bacolod is yet to come, Mayor Alfredo Benitez said in his first State of the City Address (SOCA) in front of the Government Center, Wednesday, July 5.
Benitez enumerated projects and programs to transform Bacolod into a super-city, even as he stressed “a golden age of construction”, with several big-ticket developments underway.
Applications for locational clearance from July 2022 to June 2023 covered a total of 94 hectares, with an estimated aggregate cost of P2.7 billion, the mayor said, adding that 80 hectares of these developments are for the Megaworld Upper East, Rockwell, and SM at the Bredco area. There is also a plan to develop the old Bacolod Airport.
“These will be growth centers, mga bag-o nga business districts that will catalyze job creation and open up new streams of income for the City. Makapa-revitalize man sa Banago Port area ang ginaduso nga Bacolod-Victorias Coastal Road ni Cong. Greg, which will start in Banago Port and stretch for 41.44 kilometers up to Victorias City,” Benitez said, adding this will decongest the Bacolod North Road and mitigate flooding in coastal barangays.
He said the many reforms and innovations he has instituted are gaining the interest of investors to locate their business or expand their existing operations in Bacolod.
“We are making it easy, and more profitable, to do business here,” Benitez said as he disclosed that local revenues for the first quarter of 2023 already reached P1.08 billion as per data of the City Treasurer’s Office, or a 24 percent increase in tax collection compared to the same period last year.
Gross reported sales of registered businesses in Bacolod likewise increased by 35.31 percent, or at P118.78 billion from July 2022 to June 2023, from a pre-pandemic figure of P87.78 billion in July 2018 to June 2019.
Business renewal increased by 6.41 percent and business expansion by 57.38 percent since Benitez assumed as mayor.
“The road to change is not without obstruction, resistance, or challenge. But we remain steadfast in our commitment to change behavior and the culture of governance in Bacolod,” Benitez said in his one-hour SOCA as he stressed that every Bacolodnon should play their part.
“We do not need supermen to become a Super City. Ordinary people coming together can achieve extraordinary things. The key to our success is unity in purpose, unity in action,” the mayor said as he thanked the Sangguniang Panlungsod members and Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran for their support and cooperation./CGC
