Dumaguete Mayor Agustin Perdices reiterated that the League of Cities is not against the creation of additional cities, but is opposing moves to reduce the income requirement for cityhood under House Bill 24.

The Department of Budget and Management has said that for every city created, P2 million is taken from existing cities.

Perdices said exempting local government units from the P100 million income requirement will be giving a bad precedence.

He said legislators should amend the law by lowering the income requirement to P50 million rather than by exempting them.

If not for the newly created cities, Bayawan City would have gotten an increase of over P54 million compared to last year's IRA, Bais City was expecting an increase of P36 million and Dumaguete P26 million.

But with the 16 additional cities, Bais stands to lose P33 million and Dumaguete P6 million, Perdices said.

He also said Dumaguete has to raise 40 percent of its financial requirements from local income and is depending for 60 percent only on the IRA, he said.

Other cities are 90 percent dependent on their IRA share, he pointed out. He said he was hoping that it will not reach a situation where they will be forced to terminate some of their employees.*JG

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