FORMER mayor Rodrigo “Digos” Canlas, who is seeking the top post in San Simon again, has a bigger dream for his hometown - to convert it into the first component city in the province’s fourth district in the near future.
With the trajectory of development of San Simon in the past decade, Canlas said he is seeing the strong potential of this municipality to meet the requirements and be converted as the next component city.
For a municipality to be converted into a city, it needs to have a land area of at least 100 square kilometers, a population of at least 250,000 and a minimum of P200 million local annual income for two consecutive years.
According to Canlas, the local income of San Simon surged from P20 million in 2001, when he first assumed the post as local chief executive, to P220 million today as outgoing Mayor Leonora Wong is about to step down.
“Since the programs and projects for development were sustained for the past 17 years through my leadership and Mayor Wong, the progress of San Simon is undeniable and the huge increase in the local income from P20 million to P220 million is big testament to that,” he said.
While the municipality has met the requirement for local income, San Simon has yet to meet the needed population and land area as it only has a population of 53,198 people, and land area of 57.37 square kilometers, before it can be converted into a component city.
Canlas is still optimistic that cityhood is within reach given San Simon’s bustling economy brought about by the influx of local and foreign investors.
“Local and foreign investors have been choosing San Simon, particularly areas along Quezon Road which was constructed during my term, as a place for business and their entry did not only spur economic growth in San Simon, but also provided and continues to provide thousands of jobs to Simonians,” he said.
If given another chance to lead his hometown, Canlas said he will be implementing programs that would strengthen the economic activity of this town, and eventually uplift the lives of Simonians.
“My administration will invest in education through scholarship programs and construction of facilities, livelihood programs for youth and women, and health to ensure that every Simonian can maximize their lives,” he said.