San Fernando folk vote on cityhood

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Some 85,000 voters here will decide whether this capital town will be converted into a city or not in today’s plebiscite.

Mayor Rey Aquino, prime mover of the cityhood movement, is confident that 90 percent of the voters will vote "yes" for cityhood.

Aquino said more than 200 cluster precincts for the town’s 34 barangays will be open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"The response of the people to the transformation of San Fernando into a city has been positive and overwhelming and we predict a huge majority vote in favor of cityhood," Aquino said.

If this happens, Pampanga will have its second city nearly 40 years after Angeles City was chartered sometime in the 1960s during the term of the late President Diosdado Macapagal.

Lakas-NUCD sources in Pampanga said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo supports this town’s cityhood.

Former President Joseph Estrada signed the cityhood law, Republic Act 8990, shortly before he was ousted from Malacañang.