IN answer to the July 30 State of the City Report of Mayor Jesse M. Robredo for a more vibrant culture and arts in the city, Councilor Bernadette F. Roco delivered a privilege speech explaining her two proposed legislative measures on culture and other concerns during the regular session of the Sanggunian Panlungsod of Naga, Monday, August 6, 2007.

        One is a resolution instituting a working force to recast the commemoration of the Colgante Tragedy from one of anguish to one of enrichment of local culture. The other is an ordinance renaming Balatas Street to Fr. Miguel Robles de Covarrubias Street.

        Roco said following the thrust of “making the best of our fresh mandate” enunciated by Mayor Robredo, she filed the resolution inasmuch as the Colgante Tragedy is one that has touched the city for the past 35 years yet no proper commemoration of the event has ever been undertaken, other than the settlement of the damages and death claims filed against the city. She said “constructive activities have to be instituted to make the most of what the Colgante Tragedy offers and turn them into opportunities that will develop and enrich the culture of the city”.

        She said a Task Force Colgante shall be organized to study and plan out how the mandate for the enrichment and development of this “tragedy” could be attained. She also invited the Association of Publishers and Editors of Canmrines Sur (APECS) in the organization and planning of the various activities of the Task Force Colgante. One of these activities in memory of the 108 victims in the tragedy is the setting up of a historical marker at the foot of the Colgante Bridge on September 16,2007.

        The ordinance changing the name of Balatas Street to Fr. Miguel Robles de Covarrubias is just as timely as the city is about to commemorate the week-long festivities in honor of the Virgin of Penafrancia. Fr. Miguel Robles de Covarrubias was the priest who initiated the devotion to the Virgin of Penafrancia some three hundred years ago and nothing has been done by the city to establish his memory, despite the fact that the city has become a beneficiary of the flocks of devotees that come to the city every year. The revenue that enters the city’s coffers runs to millions during the week-long Penafrancia activities.

        Roco said the hands of the sanggunian committees she chairs and of the Naga City Beauty Pageant Council are getting their full capacity, “but the challenge relayed to us by Hon. Jesse M. Robredo is most welcome”. She said that in answer to the call for the greening of the city and for the establishment of greenbelt spaces planted to some 15,000 to 20,000 trees, she has engaged the initiatives of the Ladies in Green Foundation, the Rotary Club of Naga, the association of medical practitioners and the Metro Naga Water District in the launching of mini-forest parks in two school campuses. She said other school campuses are being worked out as mini forest parks. She also said that the twenty official candidates for the Miss Bicolandia Beauty Pageant this year and in the forthcoming years and their sponsors will plant trees in a site that will be named Miss Bicolandia Mini Forest Park.

        She said “our service commitments with the help of the Sanggunian Panlungsod coupled with the initiatives from the private sector of which we have much will make our pledges the work of many hands, the work of many people who shall truly make this city a Maogmang Lugar”.