3 Eastern Visayan towns bid for cityhood

TACLOBAN CITY — Partylist Rep. Florencio "Bembem" Noel and Leyte Rep. Remedios "Matin" Petilla confirmed recently that three towns in the Eastern Visayas will become cities soon.

The House of Representatives recently approved the conversion of the municipalities of Baybay (Leyte), Catbalogan (Samar) and Borongan (Eastern Samar) into component cities along with 18 cityhood bills and were immediately endorsed to the Senate this month for discussions and deliberations.

"The three towns were among the more than 20 towns in the country seeking cityhood," Noel said in a telephone interview.

"That’s good news because it will somehow attract people from Region 8 and those living in urban places like Metro Manila to come home and take advantage of the economic opportunities here," Noel said.

Leyte Rep. Carmen Cari said 55 bills seeking to convert certain municipalities into cities were filed during the 11th Congress. Of this number, 32 were enacted into law, one was rejected in a plebiscite and 21 were not acted upon because of the impeachment proceedings against former President Joseph Estrada in 2000.

The 21 municipalities are: Carcar, Cebu; Baybay, Leyte; Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro; Bogo, Cebu; San Francisco, Agusan del Sur; Bayugan, Agusan del Sur; Pontevedra, Negros Occidental; Lamitan, Basilan; San Juan, Metro Manila; Tandag, Surigao del Sur; Tabuk, Kalinga; Batac, Ilocos Norte; Naga, Cebu; Borongan, Eastern Samar; Claveria, Misamis Oriental; El Salvador, Misamis Oriental; Opol, Misamis Oriental; Catbalogan, Samar; Pototan, Iloilo; South Davao, Davao City; and Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte.

Meanwhile, Petilla said she is optimistic that the long-time dream of the people of Baybay, Leyte to become a city will soon become a reality.

"We will see the process during the Senate deliberations but I’m hopeful these towns will become cities," she said.

In a related development, a proposal to convert financially capable capital towns in provinces without cities yet into cities to hasten economic development was filed in Congress.

The proposal, embodied in House Bill 5737, was already passed by the House committee on local government,chaired by Negros Oriental Rep. Emilio Macias II, but still the subject of plenary deliberations.

But the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) had previously opposed the measure claiming that the conversion of the 32 capital towns of provinces without cities yet will drain by tens of millions the existing Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of each of the 117 existing cities.

The League distributed to each of the 117 city mayors and their respective representatives to Congress a matrix showing that some existing cities will lose by as much as P100 million of their IRA should the measure be enacted into a law.

Republic Act 9009, enacted in 2001, requires a municipality to have at least P100 million in local income before it can qualify to become a city.