Malabon now MM’s newest city

Flood-prone Malabon is now officially Metro Manila’s 13th chartered city.

According to Armando Mallorca, Malabon Commission on Elections (Comelec) officer, a total of 9,917 "yes" votes were tallied in the town’s 29 polling centers as opposed to the 7,216 "no" votes in a plebiscite held Saturday.

Of the 158,570 total registered voters in Malabon, only about10-percent trooped to the precincts for the plebiscite that was held from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Comelec started the canvassing of votes an hour later and finished it at around 1 a.m. yesterday.

In an earlier interview with The STAR, Mallorca had predicted a low voter turnout, saying that residents as well as candidates for elective posts in Malabon seem to be more focused on the local elections on May 14 than the plebiscite.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed last March 5, Republic Act 9019 or the "Act Converting the Municipality of Malabon into a Highly-Urbanized City."

The bill converting Malabon into a city was authored by Malabon-Navotas Rep. Ricky Sandoval.

Malabon is one of the several towns in northern Metro Manila which go underwater during the rainy season because of low elevation, and poor drainage.

Flood waters in one of Malabon’s barangays, Panghulo, has yet to subside after nearly a year.

In a statement, Malabon Mayor Amado Vicencio said that the yes votes would pave the way for Malabon City’s progress.

With cityhood, Malabon’s internal revenue allotment increases by 150 percent or to P400 million from the current P167 million.

Vicencio also assured residents that there would be no increase in taxes in the next five years as stated in the City Charter.

He likewise added that 2.5 percent of the IRA would be allotted for the education and health funds of the city – P2 million would be allotted for the livelihood fund and P3.5 million for the scholarship fund.

Now that Malabon is a city, Vicencio said, residents could expect the full implementation of the P3.5-billion Camanava (Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela) Mega-Flood Control project of the national government.

Aside from the aforementioned benefits, Vicencio said that Malabon City would work for a housing project, the building of a general hospital, and the conversion of the Malabon Community College into a university. – With Pete Laude