President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will confer the 2005 Apolinario Mabini Award for the Local Government Unit of the Year on Bacolod City tomorrow.

The awarding ceremony will be held at the Malacañang Palace and will be hosted by the Philippine Foundation for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled, Inc, a press release from City Hall said.

The President will be the guest of honor and speaker during the affair.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia will receive the award on behalf of the city. Leonardia, who is expected to arrive in Manila also tomorrow from the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico, will motor straight to Malacañang from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for the ceremony. The Mayor was in Mexico in his capacity as Deputy Secretary General for the Visayas of the League of Cities of the Philippines. He was a member of a 4-man delegation of the country to the global convention along with mayors Abraham Tolentino of Tagaytay City, Julian Resuello of San Carlos, Pangasinan and Mario Rogelio Antalan from the Island Garden City of Samal in Davao.

With the Mayor to receive the award will be Councilor Ana Marie Palermo, Sangguniang Panlungsod chairman of the Social Services and Family and Child Care Development Committees, Persons with Disability leader Jose Johann Mañoso, 2004 Apolinario Mabini awardee Melchor Tumbos, and Lowell Raner, president of the Association of Disabled Persons for Negros. Raner was the nominator of the city for the Apolinario Mabini Award 2005.

The awarding ceremony will coincide with the anniversary celebration of the Magna Carta for Disabled Persons, or Republic Act 7277, which provides for the rehabilitation, self-development and self-reliance of disabled persons and their integration into the society's mainstream, the press release said.

Earlier this year, on February 14, Bacolod was adjudged as one of the top 5 mid-sized cities in the Philippine Cities Competitiveness Ranking Project 2005 conducted by the Asian Institute of Management. Bacolod was number one in the areas of quality of life and infrastructure.

The other four cities were Batangas, Iligan, Iloilo and San Fernando in Pampanga, the press release added.*

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