Mayor Evelio Leonardia clarified that Grupo Progreso will honor and respect whatever personal relations some GP councilors have with Rep. Greg Gasataya, whom he claimed has abandoned his group to join the rival camp, despite an earlier pronouncement that he will stay neutral during the 2022 polls.
“We will honor and respect personal relationships. It can happen that even if they belong to different political groups, they can still remain friends,” said Leonardia in a press release from the Bacolod City Public Information Center Monday, November 29.
The mayor, at the same time, issued an assurance that in the light of Gasataya’s departure from the GP, the proposed establishment of the Bacolod General Hospital, which is identified with the solon, will go unhampered as Grupo Progreso had adopted it in its platform and was part of their campaign promise during the 2019 elections.
Gasataya authored the bill for the creation of the Bacolod General Hospital that was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte this year. He has also followed up on its funding, proposed site donations and design to ensure that its construction will start in 2022, the congressman earlier announced.
Leonardia, in his press release Monday, said that his office had been working silently on the Bacolod General Hospital and as of late, the Department of Health has been in touch with the local government regarding details of the project.
He also disclosed that City Legal Officer Joselito Bayatan has been working on a possible locale that should be big enough not only to accommodate the new hospital but also the Bacolod City Health Office because the present CHO is already small for the city.
“We want to see a medical complex. You have the hospital and the CHO that needs to be transferred,” he said.*