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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Tomas assails Talisay status
By Rene H. Martel
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday signed the petition asking the court to nullify the law that declared neighboring Talisay a city five years ago.
The petition identified Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes, and Budget and Finance Secretary Romulo Neri as respondents.
In front of reporters in his regular press conference, Osmeña signed the verification and certification portion of the petition, which he said will be immediately filed before the Court of Appeals.
The petition questions Republic Act (RA) 8979, which made Talisay into a city on Nov. 22, 2000.
Cebu City cited the law’s “fatal defect,” saying it was approved when Talisay did not comply with the required population of 150,000.
It presented as evidence the National Statistics Office (NSO) Census of Population, which showed Talisay just had a population of 148,110 in 2000.
Cebu City also asked the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to reduce Talisay’s Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share to an amount it is entitled to get as a municipality.
Ballooned
Talisay used to receive just P46.57 million in IRA, but its share ballooned to P161.9 million when it became a component city.
The increase prejudiced against Cebu City’s IRA share, the petition said.
In convincing Congress that Talisay fulfilled the population requirement, Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district), who authored the bill, had presented the result of a 10-day special census of the Municipality of Talisay undertaken with the technical assistance of an NSO representative on April 18-19, 1999.
But the committee on local governments of the House of Representatives asked for an NSO certification that Talisay complied with the requirement. Gullas was House majority leader that time.
NSO Administrator Tomas Africa, in a January 2000 letter to Gullas, wrote that using data on “housing and some projections of the population,” his office estimated Talisay’s population to be 150,238 by Feb. 1, 2000.
In the petition, Cebu City quoted the Local Government Code that stated conversion of a local government unit from one level to another “shall be based on verifiable indicators,” which it reasoned was not complied with since what was presented was a mere NSO projection of Talisay’s population.
Sun.Star Cebu tried reaching Fernandez but he was not available for comment yesterday. Talisay City Administrator Aurora Econg, in a telephone interview, however, said they will just wait for a copy of the petition to reach Talisay.
She said Talisay is ready to answer the petition, adding that the signing of House Bill 8979 was “aboveboard.” She decline to comment further.
Sharing
Cebu City also asked the DBM, through a writ of prohibition, to refrain from releasing Talisay’s IRA share as a component city, and instead release an amount Talisay is entitled to as a municipality.
Cebu City also asked that Talisay be ordered to return to the National Government the difference in the amount of IRA it received since 2001.
“Under the Local Government Code, the national internal revenue taxes are allocated among the LGUs on an annual basis, pro-rated on the basis of population, land area and an equal sharing scheme. The fewer the number of cities (that) participate and stake a share, the larger the allocation of the participating cities,” the petition read.
“The illegal participation of Talisay in the rank of qualified cities, to a large extent, prejudices the income of the City of Cebu as it effectively decreases its internal revenue share,” it said.
The City Council authorized Osmeña to act as petitioner in behalf of the City by virtue of a resolution members approved last May 25.
Ermita and Reyes were charged “in their capacity as head of department units of the executive department of the government which exercise supervision over local governments”.
Planning
Neri was included in his capacity as secretary of DBM, “which takes charge in the release and disbursement of funds to local governments, among other agencies.”
In its official website (www.talisaycitycebu.gov.ph), Talisay acknowledged that NSO indeed recorded that its population in 2000 was just 148,110.
But it explained NSO made a special census in May 2000 (contrary to the petition, which stated the special census was on April 2000) specifically for Talisay’s application for cityhood.
And based “on the number of residents working and studying in other component cities and residential subdivisions of the City (Talisay),” the census showed a population of 150,238.
“For the purpose of planning and drafting the CLUP (Comprehensive Land Use Plan) 2001-2010, however, and considering the availability of socio-economic date, the NSO population 2000 was used as basis,” Talisay stated in the website.
The City government will file the petitions for declaration of nullity of RA 8979, prohibition, and mandamus at the Court of Appeals in Cebu City.
(August 24, 2005 issue)
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