LA TRINIDAD Mayor Romeo Salda expressed optimism that the valley will soon become a city.
The chief executive stated the conversion of La Trinidad into a component city of the province will pave way for more development and added budget to the developing town.
Representative Eric Go Yap of Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list filed House Bill (HB) 6367 Thursday afternoon, February 20, which seeks to convert the Municipality of La Trinidad to a component city to be known as the City of La Trinidad.
Yap, the current legislative caretaker of Benguet, also filed HB 6366 to automatically convert the capital town of provinces without a component city within its territorial jurisdiction, into a component city.
“Syempre, nasa ating mga kababayan sa Benguet pa rin ang desisyon kung gusto talaga nila maging lungsod ang La Trinidad. Meron pa rin naman tayong plebesito. Ating isinumite lang ang dalawang panukalang ito para bigyan sila ng pagpipilian, bigyan sila ng boses,” said Yap.
The lawmaker remarked that if pushed through, this conversion will venture on the full economic potential of the Municipality of La Trinidad–as it will pave the way for more development and added services to the growing population. Moreover, it will provide the means to properly address issues and concerns of the provincial capital.
“Ang nais lang natin ay magkaroon ng mas mataas na budget para sa La Trinidad, na matutupad lamang pag ito ay naconvert bilang lungsod. Kapag mas maraming budget, mas maraming proyekto at programa pa ang ating maipapaabot, hindi lang para sa mga taga-La Trinidad, pati na rin sa mga karatig-bayan,” he said.
Yap, in filing the new bill added it’s high time that the valley move out of the shadow of the Summer Capital.
“Gusto natin makilala ang La Trinidad bilang La Trinidad City, at hindi lang bilang katabi ng Baguio City. We want a unique identity for La Trinidad, and for Benguet as a whole,” Yap added.
Among the requirements for cityhood are land area, income and population.
The mayor said town officials had been clamoring for cityhood conversion through resolutions requesting to former Representative Ronald Cosalan and the late Nestor Fongwan Sr. to file a bill in the Congress.
He added the clamor was also conveyed in the past meetings with the new Benguet caretaker.
In 2019, law makers in La Trinidad said the Bureau of Local Government finance – Cordillera Administrative Region certified that the town has an annual income of P131,445,297.69 and P143,776,838.28 for 2013 and 2014.
The town’s land area at 8,079.50 hectares and 129,133 population based on August 2016 census where it is expected to ballooned based on a consistent population growth rate of 3.8 percent.