• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Benitez said July 22 that “a modern City Hall, with bigger and newer offices to better serve the Bacolodnons, will rise in its historic location” in downtown Bacolod.
The renovation project is expected to be completed by next year, the city said.
The rehabilitation/improvement of the 61-year-old City Hall has been allotted around P223 million, from the P4.4 billion loan secured by the Benitez administration from the Development Bank of the Philippines in April last year.
The city Public Information Office posted on Facebook Monday the perspective design for the New Bacolod City Hall at Luzuriaga Street, adding it will feature “a modern look and feel after its redevelopment.”
“The new four-storey building will have a 55-space parking lot, which will soon be turned into a multi-level parking, and will house numerous government” agencies that also used to hold office at City Hall, the PIO said.
These offices include the City Veterinary Office, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Commission on Audit Bacolod, General Services Office, Persons with Disabilities Office, Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Bacolod.
The city said that pending the renovation completion, the GSO, COA, and DILG temporarily transferred to the Negros First CyberCentre.
The city government is leasing three units at the CyberCentre, owned by the provincial government of Negros Occidental, for seven months, at P202,000 per month.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod earlier authorized Benitez to sign the lease contract with Capitol, after City Budget Officer Maria Imelda Williams certified that the City Mayor’s Office has available funds of P2.2 million, under its rent expense account for 2024.
Meanwhile, the City Vet is holding office at the BAYS Center, the PWD and OSCA are at the Sectoral Office at the public plaza, while the DRRMO Bacolod relocated at the city’s evacuation center in Barangay Taculing, the PIO said.
Benitez, in his State of the City Address July 3, said he expects the renovated City Hall to become another landmark symbolic of Bacolod. | CGC
