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Sunday, November 23, 2008
Cities' sponsor upbeat
CEBU - Representative Eduardo Gullas (1st district, Cebu) is confident that both Naga and Carcar will remain cities, just as Talisay's status has been upheld with finality by the Supreme Court (SC).
"I never had any doubt regarding the outcome of Talisay. And the same goes for Naga and Carcar," Gullas told Sun.Star Cebu Saturday.
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The former Talisay City mayor drafted the charters of all three cities in Cebu Province's first congressional district. Talisay became a city in 2001, followed by Carcar and Naga last year.
Due to a technicality, the Supreme Court recently dismissed with finality the petition of Cebu City Mayor-on-leave Tomas Osmeña questioning the legality of Republic Act 8979, or the Talisay City Charter.
Osmeña's petition sought to reverse a Court of Appeals ruling that the law converting the former coastal town into a city is constitutional.
Cebu City has argued that Talisay failed to meet the population requirement of 150,000, as it reportedly had only 148,110 in 2000 based on the National Statistics Office census.
As to lawyer Joseph Bernaldez's opinion that a city taxpayer can still file a similar case and use the SC ruling on the 16 new cities, Gullas gave this terse reply: "There's no limit to foolishness and arrogance."
The SC, in its latest ruling, voided the creation of 16 new cities, including Naga and Carcar, for failing to meet requirements set in the Local Government Code, particularly on income.
The SC decision said the 16 towns that were made cities through their cityhood laws cannot claim exemptions from Republic Act (RA) 9009 that took effect in 2001.
RA 9009, drafted by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., amended Section 450 of the Local Government Code by increasing the annual local income requirement for conversion into a city from P20 million to P100 million.
But Gullas said the original bills seeking the conversion of Naga and Carcar were filed in the 11th Congress yet, way ahead of RA 9009's effectivity.
Unfortunately, the bills were shelved because of the impeachment proceedings that eventually ousted former president Joseph Estrada, he said.
The creation of the cities of Carcar and Naga was finally approved during the 13th Congress, paving the way for their plebiscites in July and September last year.
Apart from undergoing the long and tedious processes in Congress, the people of Naga and Carcar have already spoken through the plebiscites, Gullas pointed out.
He shared the view of Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong that greed is the primary reason behind the League of Cities of the Philippines' petition questioning the 16 new cities.
A change in status will hurt each new city's pockets.
Before Naga became a city last year, it received an Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share of P66 million. This year, its first as a city, the IRA share rose to P186 million.
From P75 million, Carcar's IRA share also rose to over P200 million this year.
Both Chiong and Carcar City Mayor Patrick Barcenas said reclassifying their cities as municipalities would derail, if not suspend, the implementation of major infrastructure projects and diminish the salaries of government workers. (GC of Sun.Star Cebu)
(November 23, 2008 issue)
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