The Bacolod City Government Center is the symbol of the dedication and care for the common good that the good people in the Bacolod City government render to the inhabitants of this city, Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, who blessed the facility, yesterday said.

It is a happy coincidence that the Bacolod Government Center has been formally blessed on the very eve of the consecration of Bacolod’s native son, Bishop-elect Gerardo Alminaza, Adams said.

He said they thank Alminaza for accepting the Holy Father’s appointment for him to be auxillary bishop for Jaro.

“In blessing this center, we have also invoked the Lord’s favor on all those who will come here and especially on all those who will work here in order to serve the people and city of Bacolod,” Adams also said.

He said public servants contribute to the tempo of progress of their communities and to building a peaceful and more humane society, something that is beautifully in keeping with the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To this end they work together extending a friendly hand to their fellow citizens, he added.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the government center would not have been possible without the guidance and inspiration of the people of Bacolod, who inspired them and re-assured them during the May 2007 election that, indeed, they wanted the facility.

“We are very pleased that no less than the Apostolic Nuncio has come to bless this new facility which we now call our new home,” he said.

The mayor cited Psalm 127:1 that says “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”

Leonardia said this is a historic moment for Bacolod City because this is the very first time they have an official function in the facility which the city has dreamed of for 40 years. “Inspite of the rough seas, the tornadoes and hurricanes, we have survived and that dream of 40 years ago is now a reality,” he said.

Leonardia said there would not have been a government center without the civic consciousness and the pure generosity of the family of the late Don Fernando Gonzaga, whose death anniversary was also yesterday.

He thanked the Sangguniang Panlungsod in the previous administration led by former Bacolod Vice Mayor Renecito Novero and the present SP led by Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson because they believed in the vision of having a new government center to call the new home of the Bacolodnon, Leonardia said. He also thanked all those who made the project possible especially the contractor, he added.

Leonardia also said that last year was unprecedented in Bacolod’s physical and financial growth as a city – the call centers came in, also the malls and big businesses. He said the city’s budget also increased by 32 percent between 2007 to 2008. “In a single year we registered a P245 million increase and we are now the only billionaire city in Western Visayas,” he added.

Also present were Alminaza, Secretary to the Papal Nuncio Gerogio Cheaza, Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra, former Bacolod Bishop Camilo Gregorio, Archbishop Onesimo Gordoncillo and Negros Occidental Gov. Isidro Zayco, several mayors of Negros Occidental, Land Transportation Office director for NCR, Ricardo Tan, the donors of the lot, the Gonzaga family, the business community and city officials.

Meanwhile, a black propaganda sheet obviously timed for the blessing, was distributed to media outlets yesterday using a reproduced letter head of the Office of the City Mayor with a request to give an attached “state of the corrupt administration” ticket to the pope.

The attached ticket or leaflet listed issues like the traffic problem, the unpaid CENECO account, closure of F-Channel.

The black propaganda sheet said the “sham ceremonial opening of the new government center” and SOCA are geared towards deceiving the people that the mayor has the support and blessing of the church by inviting His Eminence Pope Benedict when the pope only committed to bless the food.

Meanwhile, observers commented that the new government center was indeed, blessed because even the weather cooperated. The rains that had been falling intermittently in the past two days, suddenly stopped last night, enabling the visitors to get a good view of the grounds without any inconvenience.*CGS

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