Thursday, November 20, 2008 Editorials: Voiding acquisition of City status
LEGAL counsels of the affected local government units (LGUs) can still look for possible remedies to a recent Supreme Court ruling shooting down their city-hood.
But for officials and residents of the new cities in Cebu—Bogo, Carcar and Naga—the decision is not only a big letdown but also brings about complications.
Reverting back to the status of municipality is not as simple as taking out the word “city” from the names of the affected LGUs.
IRA share
One of the usual reasons for the push for city-hood is for a municipality to be able to avail of higher share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) that cities get.
The IRA is also the main reason for the opposition of old cities to Congress’ seemingly wholesale and lenient approval of applications of some towns for city-hood.
The bigger IRA share that the new cities get is at the expense of old cities, whose IRA share also gets smaller with every new entrant to their fold.
Adjustment
What happens to the excess in IRA share already received and re-adjusting to a smaller IRA as a municipality could be a major problem for some of the affected LGUs.
This would be more difficult to do especially for those new cities that may have entered into loan agreements based on their capability to pay using the IRA share.
The affected cities have also set up new bureaucratic divisions and appointed officials to newly created posts, a requirement for their having acquired city status.
Undoing these could also be messy.
Lessons
But while officials of the affected cities still hope that the Supreme Court may eventually change tack, the ruling should be warning enough for municipalities aspiring to become cities and to their congressmen to consider the seriousness of a city-hood push.
Becoming a city should be a product of a municipality’s growth, especially in the economic sphere, and should not be resorted to only as revenue-generating measure.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court ruling should not result in old cities being blinded by the IRA issue to the extent that it blocks even legitimate applications by some municipalities for city-hood.
