Bacolod to remain the capital city

There is no truth to rumors that Bacolod will no longer be the capital city of Negros Occidental once elected Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez will assume his post come June 30.

Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson made the statement amid speculations that the city and the province will become one.

“It’s wild thinking… I don’t think Albee Benitez ran for mayor only to lose Bacolod,” Lacson said.
Both Lacson and Benitez revealed lately that the city and the province will have synergy and harmonious relationship.

Capitol Transfer

Meanwhile, the planned transfer of the Provincial Capitol from its present location in Bacolod to Talisay City is facing uncertainty.

“While we can do that we will have to go through a rebidding and so we informed the contractor that this is the rule that we would like to transfer the location but we will call for a new bidding. I have already signed the letter and now we are waiting for the reply of the contractor if he is willing to go through a rebidding,” Lacson revealed.

“Three years have been wasted already and if the contractor is not willing for a rebidding of the project, most likely we have to stay in the area,” Lacson said.

Dynamic Builders and Construction Corp. won the nearly P1-billion project to build a nine-storey Provincial Administration Building.

Instead of constucting the building at its present site, the Lacson administration planned to transfer the site of the project on a 25-hectare property of the provincial government along the Bacolod-Silay Airport Access Road in Talisay.

Dynamic Builders and Construction Corp. was already paid of the usual 15 percent advance payment for its mobilization fund for the project.*