Mayor Sarmiento is guest speaker on Maasin’s 7th charter day

By BONG PEDALINO (PIA Southern Leyte)
August 9, 2007

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte  –  This city marks the 7th Charter Day celebration of its creation on August 10 with the theme  “Maasin City…the Action continues.”

And to grace the occasion, Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento of Calbayog City, Samar, was the one invited as the keynote speaker for the anniversary program at the city gym.

Mayor Maloney Samaco told PIA that Mayor Sarmiento had confirmed his presence, adding that the Calbayog city dad is currently the Secretary-General of the League of Cities of the Philippines.

This will be Mayor Samaco’s first charter day celebration as top leader of the city following Gov. Damian Mercado who served as Chief Executive for the past nine years, in which during this period Samaco was the Vice-Mayor.

The capital town Maasin became a component city of Southern Leyte province on August 10, 2000 when the people overwhelmingly ratified in a plebiscite a law now serving as the city’s charter.

Meanwhile, Samaco said an ABS-CBN show “Trip na Trip”, its hosts and camera crew, is coming on Thursday, August 9, to feature the activities of the day, such as the Boy Scout Kabs Olympics, the “Pabulhon Festival” Agri-Fair opening, and the selection of Miss Maasin 2007 in the evening.

The “Trip na Trip” coverage continues on Charter Day proper, to shoot footages of cheer-dancing competition and the traditional, much-awaited “pabulhon games”, the highlights of the day, after the anniversary program.

The date for the airing of the segment on the show will be announced later, Mayor Samaco said.

Also on August 10 and 11, there will be a two-day, one-stop shop processing of clearances from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), Security Paper (Secpa) authentication of the National Statistics Office (NSO), and passport processing of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) at Abgao gym.

According to Mayor Samaco, the processing transaction is a public service activity sponsored by the provincial government through Gov. Mercado as their contribution for this year’s charter day observance.

Sports activities in relation to the charter day celebration began on Friday, August 3 with a Mayor’s Cup open volleyball tournament, invitational tennis tourney, triathlon, and billiards.