Gullas: 3 towns in district not yet ready to be cities

CEBU, Philippines -  First district Representative Gerald Anthony “Samsam” Gullas is not yet pushing for the three remaining towns in his district to become cities.

 “It really depends if they meet the requirements (land area, population and income). Naay uban di gyud kaabot sa income like Minglanilla. But kung maabot ang requirement to be a city, why not?” said Samsam.

 Under the Local Government Code, a town to be converted into a city must have an annual local income of at least P100 million and a population of at least 150,000 or a total land area of 100 square kilometers. Samsam said Sibonga, Minglanilla and San Fernando do not meet the income and population requirements yet.

 Samsam said it may take years before they will be qualified and by then, if he is still the congressman, he will push for them to become cities. Once a city, a town’s internal revenue allotment will increase by at least 200 percent.

 The cities of Talisay (charted in 2000), Naga and Carcar (in 2007) became cities through bills filed by Samsam’s grandfather and former first district representative Eduardo Gullas. The income requirement then was only P20 million. It was in 2007 when then Senator Aquilino Pimentel amended the income requirement from P20 million to P100 million after several conversions of towns to cities.

It can be recalled that League of Cities of Philippines opposed the conversion of the 16 cities (including Carcar and Naga) saying it depletes their share of the IRA, hence it petitioned the new cities’ charter at the Supreme Court in 2008. The High Court in Nov. 2008 granted the petition and reverted the 16 cities into towns saying their conversion was unconstitutional since they don’t meet the P100-million requirement. But in 2011, after a series of flip-flopped decisions, the said court honored with finality the charter laws of these cities.  (FREEMAN)