By Artemio Dumlao Updated November 20, 2008 12:00 AM [ philstar.com ]
BAGUIO CITY – The 16 “new” cities around the country declared by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional vowed to fight it out to keep their status.
“We will file a motion for reconsideration (before the SC),” said Batac Mayor Jeffrey Nalupta in a telephone interview, citing several devastating effects on their new status, including several plantilla positions that were already adopted and filled in.
The SC ruled on Tuesday that the so-called “Cityhood Laws” violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
Last March 11, the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) asked the SC to declare unconstitutional the conversion into cities of the 16 municipalities: Baybay, Leyte; Bogo, Cebu; Naga, Cebu; Catbalogan, Samar; Lamitan, Basilan; Mati, Davao Oriental; Bayugan, Agusan del Sur; Borongan, Eastern Samar; Batac, Ilocos Norte; Tabuk, Kalinga; Tandag, Surigao del Sur; El Salvador, Misamis Oriental; Carcar, Cebu; Guihulngan, Negros Oriental; Tayabas, Quezon; and Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte.
The LCP said the laws creating the new cities are void because they violated the provision of Republic Act 7160, the Local Government Code (LGC), requiring the municipalities to have a generated income of at least P100 million each for the last two consecutive years, and to have a population of at least 150,000 and a land area of 100 square kilometers. The petition added that the requirements “were not met when the representatives in Congress of these municipalities pushed for their conversion into cities.”
Nalupta insisted that they met all the requirements and had expected to win the case.
“It would be devastating to the 16 cities to be reverted back (to municipalities). What happens to our city fiscal, our city courts, our schools division?” he said.
The mayor added that “projects funded by the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) allocations as cities will be at the receiving end of this decision by the SC.”
He said they are still hoping for a reversal of the decision and will argue their motion for reconsideration “to substantiate the legality of our claims for cityhood.”
Nalupta said the 16 “cities” will meet in Manila to plan their course of action.
Tabuk City officials, led by Mayor Camilo Lammawin, said this was also the sentiment of other local officials.
“(There’s) nothing unconstitutional (in Tabuk’s conversion) as we went through the legal procedures needed. We passed through all the processes,” said Lammawin, who described the city status as a“fait accompli.”
Should Tabuk City revert to being a town of Kalinga, its present internal revenue allotment as a city, which amounts to more than P300 million, will go back to around P100 million.
Judge Anastacio Anghad of the Tabuk regional trial court said the affected local government units (LGUs) can still file a motion for reconsideration on the matter.
“There are times that the Supreme Court also changes or amends its decision,” Anghad said.
Agusan del Sur lone congressional district Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Plaza, for his part, feared that all three newly created cities in the Caraga region – Bayugan in Agusan del Sur, Cabadbaran in Agusan del Norte and Tandag in Surigao del Sur – will go back to townhood status.
Plaza, who belongs to the Nationalist People’s Coalition, is the principal author of the law creating Bayugan town into a city. Bayugan was the biggest municipality in the Caraga region in terms of land area, income and population before its conversion into a city.
Contrary opinion
But Baguio City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista, who in January dramatized his disapproval of the new cities by raising the Philippine flag in half-mast, said “the league is very happy with the decision.”
“This has been a long and much awaited result,” he added.
The 11th Congress (June 1998 to June 2001) enacted into law 33 bills, which sought to convert 33 municipalities into cities. It did not, however, act on bills converting 24 others.
During the 12th Congress, Congress passed Republic Act 9009, which took effect on June 30, 2001.
RA 9009 amended the Local Government Code (LGC) by increasing the annual income requirement for the conversion of a municipality into a city from P20 million to P100 million.
After RA 9009 took effect, the House (June 2004 to June 2007) adopted Joint Resolution No. 29, which sought to exempt from the P100-million income requirement the 24 municipalities whose cityhood bills were not approved in the 11th Congress.
The 12th Congress ended without the Senate approving Joint Resolution No. 29.
‘As long as they’re qualified’
Meanwhile, LCP president and Mandaluyong City Mayor Benhur Abalos said they brought their case before the Supreme Court years ago because some of the 16 towns and municipalities were only generating a yearly income of P20 to P30 million.
“We would like to reiterate our position that we are not against cityhood per se of the 16 towns and municipalities as long as they are qualified,” stressed Abalos.
“But as long as they are not qualified and they are converted into cities, we will vehemently protest this.”
Earlier, the LCP claimed that its members would lose a big portion of their IRA should the 16 towns and municipalities be converted into cities.
He explained that for every peso of taxes collected from taxpayers, 60 centavos go to the coffers of the national government while the remaining 40 centavos are divided among the province, towns and municipalities, cities and barangays.
Voting 7-5, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution is clear that the creation of the LGUs must strictly follow the local government code.
“And there is only one LGC,” the SC said in its ruling, which was greatly appreciated by the LCP.
In the aftermath of the High Court ruling, Abalos pointed out that there’s more work to be done at the LCP, including pushing a 50-50 sharing of the IRAso that the 10 centavos intended for their members would serve as a buffer in the face of budgetary constraints. – Charlie Lagasca, Ben Serrano, Non Alquitran, Roberto Dejon
