BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
Bacolod Rep. Greg Gasataya announced yesterday that he is running solo as the official congressional candidate of the Nationalist People’s Coalition despite his affiliation with Mayor Evelio Leonardia, who is also a member of the NPC.
Gasataya, however, declared that he will remain neutral between Leonardia and the mayor’s possible challenger, former Neg. Occ., 3rd District congressman Albee Benitez.
“I am not taking sides so I will run as neutral (in the local election in Bacolod),” Gasataya made the announcement yesterday at the Barangay Montevista gymnasium, a day before the start of the filing of Certificate of Candidacy (COC) before the Commission on Elections. He has not yet chosen a certain date to file his COC, he said.
Gasataya, who is running for his last term as congressman of Bacolod, pointed out that both Leonardia and Benitez are his godfathers during his wedding and that both are significant to his personal and political journey.
The decision was difficult to make but it was done with the most important and sacred consideration in mind: the lives of the people of Bacolod City, he said.
“My decision is ultimately premised on the realization of the Bacolod City General Hospital which will start construction next year in the midst of the election season, and in the midst of a pandemic,” the solon said, adding that he wants to ensure its smooth and successful implementation next year.
Gasataya said he had consulted political and barangay leaders, his supporters, family and friends and also sought God’s wisdom before making this very difficult decision. He thanked them for their continued support as he went through what he considered a “very emotional journey” for the past couple of months.
He had also informed Leonardia and Benitez about his political decision about two weeks ago, he said.
Gasataya recalled that since he served as congressman of Bacolod from 2016 up to the present, he made decisions and rendered service to the people of Bacolod without boundaries or political colors.
The solon was in Barangay Montevista yesterday to oversee an ongoing program of the congressional office in providing medical and burial assistance from the national government.
Meanwhile, Gasataya said that his platform of government will focus on education and health.
He has prioritized the giving of scholarship program to the youth of Bacolod, he said and that in the area of health, he had authored a bill which increased the bed capacity of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital during his first term as congressman, long before the pandemic. As a result, the CLMMRH can now hire an additional 547 new health workers.
Gasataya said the establishment of the Bacolod City General Hospital is the realization of a bill he filed in 2019, also before the pandemic. He considers this the biggest and the most important project he has delivered for the people of Bacolod which will already be implemented by next year.
He committed to continue to deliver to the people services that will focus on medical services, burial and medical assistance, cash assistance, and scholarship programs, as well as addressing other needs of his constituents in the different barangays of the city, he said.
Gasataya thanked the people of Bacolod for the trust and confidence they have given him since he ran as councilor in 2001 until he had completed his three terms, then as vice mayor in 2013, when he served as mayor for three months (during the Puentevella administration), and when he was elected congressman from 2016 up to present. He guaranteed the people that he will provide the same quality of service he has rendered because of the trust they have given him.*
