BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – To Greg Gelvosa Gasataya, a two-term representative of the lone district here, his legislative centerpiece on his second term (2019 to 2022) is one that made him decide to be neutral as to whom to support as mayor of this urban provincial center of more than half a million people.
Gasataya, a former broadcaster who started his career with dyWB, the local affiliate of the Florete-owned Bombo Radyo Philippines, shifted to politics in 2001 when he ran under the ticket of former congressman and later mayor Monico O Puentevella who he later ran against as congressman and defeated in the 2016 polls.
Now known as Republic Act 11564, the law creating the Bacolod City General Hospital started as House Bill 6731 that he filed in 2020.
Prior to this measure, Gasataya also authored HB 8835 that provided for the expansion of the main government health facility in the province, the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital (CLMMRH) from 400 to 1,000 beds.
RA 11564, a check by DNX showed, is one of the 207 bills and resolutions Gasataya has authored as a principal, as of this month, according to records of the 18th Congress of the House of Representatives as published on its website www.congress.gov.ph.
He also co-authored 40 others.
His social media sites describe his lawmaking philosophy as “legislation with vision,” an undercurrent, Gasataya says, for all his legislative measures since he became a councilor here.
KEY BILLS
Aside from the Bacolod District Hospital bill, Gasataya’s measures in the 18th Congress or in his second term are 10 bills he has filed simultaneously.
These are:
- HB 00566 that provides for the creation of the first and second districts here
- HB 00567 that creates the Bacolod City Ports Authority
- HB 00568 that seeks to grant scholarships to Persons With Disabilities and their children
- HB 00569 that seeks to regulate the commencement of class hours in public and private schools
- HB 00571 for the putting up of an office of the Commission on Higher Education here
- HB 00572 that seeks to create two additional branches of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities in Bacolod
- HB 00573 that seeks to recruit, hire, and train additional university-based mental health personnel
- HB 00574 seeking to regulate the manufacture, use and import of single-use plastic products
- HB 00575 that seeks to put up a Bacolod office of the Professional Regulation Commission
- HB 02688 that seeks to create the Metropolitan Bacolod Development Authority
Gasataya filed HB 02688 amid the continuing construction started during his term of the Bacolod Economic Highway that is seen to be a new growth area here.
The P6 billion four-lane road spans 21.8 kilometers that includes three bridges and a two-way bike lane, according to the Department of Public Works and Highways.
This will serve as an alternate circumferential road bypassing the busy Bacolod Central Business District.
NEXT: Gasataya’s stand on controversial issues, bills
