BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The Bacolod City government decided to postpone the holding of activities for its 83rd Charter Day celebration on June 18 amid the present Covid situation, Mayor Evelio Leonardia announced yesterday.
“Our Bacolod Inter-Agency Task Force, headed by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, and Emergency Operations Center, under City Administrator Em Ang, recommended that it is best that we postpone the event until better times come,” Leonardia said.
“The postponement of our celebration is indefinite until better times come. We hope for the understanding of our people as this is a move to contain Covid-19,” he added.
Bacolod City logged 72 new cases, 96 recoveries, and two deaths on June 15, the Department of Health Region 6 said.
All 72 new infections were local transmissions, and brought the active cases to 1,920, as of Tuesday, the DOH added.
Leonardia added the City had made early planning and preparations for the public celebration of its Charter Day under City Ordinance 616, or “Mga Adlaw Sang Paghanduraw”.
PANELO INVITED
He said that they already invited Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo to be the guest of honor and speaker. “However, because of our present Covid-19 figures, we made another assessment of the situation…We thank Secretary Panelo for also graciously accepting our decision to postpone the event,” Leonardia said.
He said the City will continue to give due honor and respect to the observance of the historic day of June 18, 1938 when President Manuel L. Quezon signed Commonwealth Act 326 that created the City of Bacolod.
“We believe that singular event was a major factor that catapulted Bacolod to where it is today,” Leonardia added in a press release from the city.
This would have been the third year that the City will celebrate its Charter Day on June 18, after marking the occasion every October 19 in the past 80 years.
Bacolod held its first June 18 Charter Day anniversary in 2019, after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act 11146, or the new Bacolod City Charter Day Act, that also declared June 18 of every year as a special non-working holiday in the City.
VACCINE ROLLOUT
Meanwhile, the Bacolod City government was able to use 45,494 vaccines, as of June 15, EOC records show.
Of the number, 24,262 were China-made Sinovac vaccines while the rest were British-Swedish AstraZeneca jabs.
EOC records also show that 35,835 Bacolodnons already got their first dose while 9,659 have completed their second jabs.
The city’s barangay vaccination rollout also resumed Monday and will run until Wednesday next week in 26 vaccination centers in select barangays and clustered areas.
VACCINATION SITES
Vaccination sites in barangays 38, 39, Alijis, Bata, Punta Taytay, Singcang-Airport, Sum-ag, Villamonte, Vista Alegre, and Taculing will be opened today while inoculation in Brgy. Cabug will be held Wednesday next week.
A vaccination rollout will also be held at the Education and Training Center School and Villa Esperanza clusters today and tomorrow, respectively.
Vaccination activities at the SMX Convention Center in SM City and at the Ayala Malls Capitol Central are ongoing daily, from Mondays to Fridays.
Covered by the rollout are residents belonging to the A1 to A3 priority groups, like frontline healthcare workers, senior citizens, and adults with co-morbidities.
Ang, who is also the EOC executive director and CoVaC coordinator, said walk-ins are discouraged at the vaccination centers to control the crowd.
Bacolod residents should register online through tinyurl.com/bcdceironline, or at their respective barangay halls to avail of the free vaccination.*
