• RICHARD T. CABALLERO JR.
To answer the questions raised by protesters regarding the temporary closure of the Provincial Capitol Park and Lagoon on Sunday, which coincided with the “Trillion Peso March” in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson clarified yesterday that the province did not receive any notice that protesters would assemble inside the park.
Lacson said that the information that the province received is that the rally’s assembly place will be outside the capitol lagoon.
“We only got information that there will be a gathering outside the lagoon for the rally,” he stressed, citing that the organizers of the rally did not submit any formal letter informing the province that they will utilize the area.
The governor cited a certain rule or ordinance that the park is implementing, prohibiting the conduct of any religious or political rally within the park.
“I told the person in charge here to do some maintenance work if needed to make use of the temporary closure,” he said, expressing his intent to close the park on the day to avoid a political rally.
Asked why the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) was allowed to hold a peace rally inside the park on January 13 this year, the governor answered, “The recent incident had no notice; we only heard it from the news that there will be a rally,” citing that no formal letter was submitted.
ON RALLY
The governor also gave his statement to the local media yesterday regarding the recent indignation rally dubbed the “Trillion Peso March” conducted in Bacolod City.
In his statement, Lacson called on the officials affiliated with the wide-open government corruption to make themselves accountable and answer the queries of the Filipinos.
“For those who were part of this grand scheme to steal money from the people, you need to be held accountable because people are expecting another Napoles (pork barrel scam)” he expressed.
Moreover, he said that after the rally, Congress must do its part to countercheck the budget and the insertions.
“The message is clear; Filipinos will not stand for corruption. It is now up to the congress to do its part because it all emanated from the 2025 budget, where it was found out that there were insertions,” he added, citing that parts of the budget had been allocated for ‘ghost projects.’*
