THRIVING CITY. Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez sees the “age of golden infrastructure” in Bacolod City with multibillion investments from the country’s top property developers as well as the construction of major road projects in the succeeding years. “These will be growth centers, new business districts that will catalyze job creation and open up new streams of income for the city,” Benitez said during his maiden State of the City Address at the Bacolod Government Center grounds Wednesday night (July 5, 2023). (Screenshot from Albee Benitez Facebook Live video)
BACOLOD CITY – Multibillion investments from the country’s top property developers as well as the construction of major road projects are seen to usher in the “golden age of infrastructure” in this city on its way to full recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
These developments were highlighted by Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez as he delivered his State of the City Address to mark his first year in office at the Bacolod Government Center grounds Wednesday night.
“We may be seeing a golden age of construction in Bacolod City,” Benitez said before the members of the City Council headed by Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, local chief executives of Negros Occidental led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson, and representatives from various sectors.
He noted that from July 2022 to June 2023 alone, applications for locational clearance covered a total of 94 hectares, with an estimated aggregate cost of PHP2.7 billion.
Of which, 80 hectares comprise the Megaworld’s The Upper East, Rockwell Center Bacolod, and SM Development Corp. along the Bredco port at the Reclamation Area.
Benitez said the city government is also planning the development of the old Bacolod Airport, after it has been authorized by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines to utilize the government portion of the property and has received a proposal for a joint development program from property giant SM Prime Holdings Inc.
“These will be growth centers, new business districts that will catalyze job creation and open up new streams of income for the city,” he added.
Benitez said the old Airport Access Road will soon be opened to benefit not only the residents of Barangays Singcang-Airport and Tangub and also the rest of the people of Bacolod.
He added they are also looking at revitalizing the Banago Port area in the north through the Bacolod-Victorias Coastal Road.
“It will start in Banago Port and stretch for 41.44 kilometers up to Victorias City. This will decongest the Bacolod North Road and mitigate flooding in our coastal barangays,” the mayor said.
Emphasizing that infrastructure is crucial to the development of Bacolod, Benitez said the city government is processing a PHP4.4-billion loan from the Development Bank of the Philippines to finance the “golden age of infrastructure” in Bacolod and pump-prime the local economy.
“This includes the construction, improvement or rehabilitation of roads. We will also improve our public markets, build super health centers, establish a recycling center and solar power generation facility, and construct government buildings,” he said, adding that all these projects are “calibrated, calculated and approved by national regulatory agencies and within our borrowing capacity”, the mayor added.
Under the public-private partnership program, the city government has received an initial proposal of PHP4.5 billion for the rehabilitation of Manokan Country to promote food tourism, and for an underground cabling project with an initial cost of PHP200 million.
As the first local government unit in the country to implement the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Housing, Bacolod has entered into a joint venture agreement with Scheirman Construction to build 10,000 housing units in two sites across the city. (PNA)
