Mayors set grassroots campaign vs SC flip-flopping

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s 122 city mayors will launch a grassroots-based information and education campaign throughout the archipelago to drum up public support against the Supreme Court’s (SC) flip-flopping on the cityhood controversy, it was learned today.

The League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) explained that the mayors would also encourage their supporters to voice their sentiments against the SC’s decision to convert into cities 16 municipalities that fail to meet the requirements of the Local Government Code.

LCP president Oscar Rodriguez, who is mayor of San Fernando City, Pampanga, said their group called a special general assembly in Manila to firm up details of the planned grassroots campaign.

“All the mayors are outraged by the SC decision. They demand that we meet as a group so that we can take a unified stand on the issue,” Rodriguez said in a press conference held before the start of the mayors’ general assembly at Century Park hotel.

Rodriguez was referring to the Feb. 15 ruling of the SC, wherein the High Tribunal reversed its original decision declaring the creation of the 16 new cities as unconstitutional.

It was the third time that the SC flip-flopped on the issue.

Rodriguez noted that the flip-flopping issue has prompted a number of city mayors to undertake individual initiatives in their localities to express outrage over the SC’s conflicting rulings on the case.

The city mayors, for one, are encouraging their Sangguniang Panglunsod members and barangay captains to pass resolutions condemning the decision of the SC to back-track from its previous ruling rejecting the creation of 16 new cities.

The resolutions will be forwarded to the SC, along with a torrent of letters from city mayors, vice mayors, councilors, lawyers’ groups, academics, city hall employees and non-government organizations who were outraged by the flip-flopping of the SC on the cityhood issue.

Three LCP officials – Mayors Evelyn Uy of Dipolog City, Allan Celino of Roxas city and Dan Lim of Tagbilaran City – said their respective city councils have finished the deliberation on the resolutions.

“We will bring the resolution to the SC as soon as it is approved,” said Celino, who added he is also convening all legal luminaries in his city and neighboring cities in the province to discuss the issue and voice their sentiments against the Court’s decision.

Lim, LCP vice president for Visayas, maintained that the SC flip-flopping is a blow to its credibility.

“The Supreme Court set a dangerous, perhaps anomalous, precedent when it again reversed itself in the cityhood issue. It is inconsistent with its own position in the Vizconde case that no second motion for reconsideration shall be entertained,” the Tagbilaran Mayor pointed out.

Mayor Peter Miguel of Koronadal, South Cotabato, said he and his councilors would participate in protest actions aimed at convincing the SC to correct the judicial error of converting unqualified municipalities into cities.

“We will hold noise barrage, wear arm bands and t-shirt in protest of the illegal conversion of municipalities into cities,” Miguel said.

“I am not concerned with the reduction of internal revenue allotment of our city as a result of the conversion. My primary reason for protesting is the flip-flop decision of the Supreme Court,” he added.

LCP secretary general Hernani Braganza, mayor of Alaminos City, Pangasinan, said other city mayors were proposing synchronized activities in their respective areas of jurisdiction, including the declaration of a “National Day of Mourning.”

“We will undertake individual actions but we will also attempt to synchronize our activities,” Braganza said.

He noted that the city mayors attending the special general assembly in Manila would march in the streets today on way to the filing of their motion for reconsideration at the SC.

“We have made the decision to file a motion for reconsideration, hoping that the Supreme Court justices would see the light of day and stick to its original decision declaring the creation of 16 new cities as unconstitutional,” Braganza said.