An avalanche of new cities

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Last year, 16 municipalities all over the country were converted into cities. This year, in case a bill filed by a congresswoman from Mindanao is passed, there will be 24 more new cities in the country. This is because the bill would convert all capital towns of our provinces into cities, no matter if they do not meet the qualifications earlier required for those who attained cityhood.

The requirements for a town to be eligible for conversion into a city are that it must have a locally generated income of at least P100 million a year; land area of at least 100 square kilometers; and population of at least 150,000.

Not all the towns aspiring to become cities can meet those qualifications. But the proposed law would exempt them if they happen to be the capital towns of their provinces. And this proposal is now vehemently opposed by the League of Cities of the Philippines , all of whose members will suffer tremendous cuts from their Internal Revenue Allocation that the national treasury should give them as their share of the taxes collected from their government units. This is because the fund will now have to be shared with the new cities, even if they have not themselves remitted their own commensurate collections to the national government.

Last week the LCP trooped to Malacañang to air their concerns to the President and ask her to suspend the conversion of cities which is also suspected to be the plan of politicians who want to increase the share of their units and, in the process, earn credit for themselves.

It is of no moment to them that such existing cities as Kidapawan would be receiving only P5 million instead of the P42 million it had last year. Puerto Princesa will lose some P100 million, and Davao and Zamboanga about P70 million each. These were revealed by Iloilo Mayor Jerry Treñas whose own city stands to lose P36 million, too.

The President should act on this concern if she does not want the existing cities of the country to fail in their delivery of basic services as well as in their operations, and to progress, instead of retrogress.*