Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez said on Thursday, April 18, that he is prepared to run mayor of Bacolod City in 2025.
“I will decide based on what is good for Bacolod City,” he said.
“To say that he (Benitez) is not inclined to seek re-election is not correct. It is still part of his consideration. It is in fact his main consideration being the incumbent mayor”, his spokesman Caesar Distrito also said in a press statement on Thursday.
Distrito noted that the mayor aside from seeking reelection has said that he has the option to switch with Rep. Greg Gasataya and run for congressman, run for senator, accept a Cabinet position or stay away from politics.
But Benitez, on Thursday, also stressed that “these are the options available but have nothing to do with what I will do”.
Meanwhile, Distrito said the mayor’s priority for now is to deliver the projects he promised the people of Bacolod during the last election before his term ends, and not politics, as the filing of the Certificates of Candidacy will be in October yet.
The mayor is also focusing on solving the water crisis, addressing the El Niño effects, and preparing for the coming La Niña, Distrito added.
The mayor said it is frustrating that the implementation of projects in Bacolod are not moving fast enough as they are being delayed by government bureaucracy.
“We are so scared of abuse, corruption that we have saddled our bureaucracy with checks and balance that create inefficiency because we don‘t have a term that’s too long. We only have a three-year term and then you have all of these steps that you have to comply with just to ensure that there is no abuse so it creates inefficiency in government,” Benitez said.
But the mayor also noted that everybody in the city government are now moving faster than before.*