Ilagan to renew cityhood bid

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – Almost 13 years after failing in their bid for cityhood, leaders of Ilagan, Isabela’s capital town, are again taking another crack at it. 

Isabela first district Rep. Rodolfo Albano said he would again file a bill calling for the conversion of Ilagan into a city, which could be the fourth in the region after Santiago City and Cauayan City, also both in Isabela, and Tuguegarao City, the capital of Cagayan. 

One of the country’s biggest towns in terms of land area and probably the region’s most booming town, Ilagan is home to what is touted as the world’s biggest armchair, locally known as butaka. It also one of northern Luzon’s leading corn-producing towns. 

“Definitely, I’m for the cityhood of Ilagan. We are just waiting for the town leadership to submit its financial and economic profile before I will file a bill for the conversion of the town into a city,” he said.

It was Albano who authored Ilagan’s first cityhood bid in 1997, but the townsfolk rejected it in a plebiscite. – Charlie Lagasca, Raymund Catindig