Taguig mayor welcomes ruling on cityhood

Taguig Mayor Freddie Tinga welcomed yesterday a recent ruling by Supreme Court, describing it as a step closer to realizing their goal of making Taguig a premier city by year 2020.

In an interview, Tinga said the SC’s decision to uphold the cityhood of Taguig puts a period on the issues hounding its conversion into a highly urbanized city.

"However, this doesn’t mean we have to sit on our laurels. This is a hint for us to get to work, and work harder," he said.

The mayor said they have been working to draw more local and foreign investments into the city.

The City Council has recently passed a new Taguig Revenue Code, which lowers annual business taxes paid by banks and other financial institutions, auto dealers, hotels and information technology-related services to attract such investments.

He said the city is slowly but surely getting an international stamp of approval because apart from foreign embassies, companies like HSBC and Fujitsu as well as call centers are also beginning to relocate to Taguig.

Taguig assumed cityhood in 2004 after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued a resolution declaring and confirming the ratification and approval of the conversion based on the results of a plebiscite.

In 1998, the Comelec held a plebiscite for the proposed conversion, but the canvass of returns showed the "no" votes had prevailed.

However, concerned Taguig residents, citing fraud and irregularities in the casting and counting of votes, filed with the Comelec a petition seeking to annul the results of the plebiscite with a prayer to revise and recount the ballots.

Following a recount in 2004, the Comelec issued a resolution declaring the approval of the conversion of Taguig into a highly urbanized city.