THE municipality of Consolacion will seek a recount of its population after the latest tally failed to meet the 150,000-inhabitant threshold required to help the town achieve its dreams of cityhood.
In a post on the town’s Facebook page Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021, Consolacion Vice Mayor Teresa “Nene” Alegado expressed disbelief that the town had a population of just 148,012 based on the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2020 survey, when the population of the thriving town in Metro Cebu had already reached 135,000 in 2015.
Under Republic Act 9009, which amended Section 450 of the Local Government Code of 1991, a municipality or a cluster of barangays may be converted into a component city if it has a locally generated average annual income of at least P100 million for the last two consecutive years based on 2000 constant prices, and either a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers or a population of at least 150,000 inhabitants.
According to the local government unit (LGU), Consolacion can meet the income requirement, but it does not meet the land area requirement, which is why it hopes to become a city by meeting the population requirement.
It is unclear why Consolacion does not meet the land requirement when a 2015 report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) indicates that Consolacion’s estimated land area as of December 2013 was 147.20 square kilometers. The PSA report, however, did not indicate if this land was contiguous.
The town is petitioning the PSA to conduct a resurvey of seven barangays, whose population decreased based on the PSA Census of Population “kung ikumparar sa (compared to the) Registered Barangay Inhabitants (RBI).”
“We are not satisfied nga ang among pito ka barangay gipa-ososan kuno kay migamay ang population (that the population count was lowered in the seven barangays because the population reportedly declined). That is very impossible, and there is something wrong,” the LGU quoted Vice Mayor Alegado as saying.
The seven barangays are Cabangahan, Cansaga, Nangka, Pitogo, Poblacion Occidental, Tugbongan and Tolotolo. Consolacion has a total of 21 barangays.
The Sangguninag Bayan has crafted a resolution and Consolacion Mayor Joannes “Joyjoy” Alegado has also written to the PSA on this resurvey, which the PSA said would cost the local government. The LGU is willing to fund the resurvey, the town said.
A first class municipality, Consolacion describes itself as the gateway of the north with a robust residential urban economy providing a place to live for people working in neighboring local government units.
As early as 2015, Alegado, who was then the town’s mayor, had submitted an application for Consolacion’s cityhood, but the town did not meet the requirements, the town said.