Chinatown goes to Bacolod

Negros Occidental is set to have its very own Chinatown after Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia signed City Ordinance No. 576 to redevelop Bacolod’s former prime commercial district, Capitol Shopping Center, into the Bacolod City Chinatown Center.

 

Leonardia signed the ordinance on Jan. 12 in front of members of the city council and the Filipino-Chinese community.

 

The ordinance read “The Bacolod City Chinatown Center will be established at the Capitol Shopping Center…It was once the proud business center of our Tsinoy brothers and would be future tourist destination for the city,” according to a report on the Visayan Daily Star. 

 

Under the ordinance, the city government will appropriate P15 million as initial funding for infrastructure improvement which will involve cleaning, landscaping, and road concreting among others.

   

Leonardia noted that the Chinatown will strengthen the presence of the Chinese Filipino community in Bacolod City, as well as become a new growth center in Bacolod.

 

The Bacolod City Chinatown Development Council—composed of multi-sectoral groups, government department heads, and the police—convened immediately after the ordinance was signed to appoint council chairmen and members.

 

The council also created the Master Plan Committee, the Incentives, Trade and Industry Committee, the Infrastructure Committee, the Security and Traffic Committee, and the Public Relations Committee and agreed to hold regular meetings every second Thursday of the month.

 

According to the report, Councilor Em Ang said 70 percent of the project’s cost will be funded by the city in the form of tax credits to be spread over five years.

 

Meanwhile, those who want to finance the project will be entitled to a refund in the form of a Tax Credit Certificate, as stipulated in the ordinance.

 

The new Chinatown in Bacolod will be the youngest in the country, following the establishment of Mindanao Chinatown in Davao City in 2009. 

 

Binondo, the most famous Chinatown in the country, was established in 1594, the oldest of its kind in the world. –AL/KG, GMA News