FOLLOWING Mabalacat City's ascent to the League of Cities of the Philippines is Mexico, a neighbor of another city, San Fernando on the east and a bill therefor has been filed by third district representative Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales, Jr., as House Bill No. 1683.
This bill aims to convert t6he first-class municipality as a component city, like the city of Mabalacat but some cities already listed in the League frown on this development as it will lessen their shares in the IRA pie.
Truly, this once bucolic town has completed the mandatory requirements for conversion into a component city: average annual income of P100 million for the last two consecutive years as certified by the Department of Finance; area of at least 100 square kilometers and a population of not less than 150,000 inhabitants.
The honorable Congressman Gonzales asserted that Mexico's income has reached a total of over P100 million and its population registered 173,403 inhabitants as of January 18, 2020, this, as certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Indeed, the work toward cityhood of Mexico has started in earnest and just like Mabalacat City, a dedicated Technical Working Group led by Mayor Teddy Tumang and other town officials should have been created to focus and coordinate closely all the documents and processes needed for the conversion.
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Earlier, I've heard that the town of Capas in Tarlac has been eyeing a slot for cityhood. I've yet to hear from the town officials about their plans. A big boost to the plan is the existence of world-class New Clark City.
There are other areas in Pampanga which may be ripe for cityhood like Guagua and Lubao. All that they need is to complete the requirements: income, area and population, in conformity with the provisions of the Local Government Code to make them eligible for cityhood. And, of course, their representatives must file the bills in Congress to formally seek the conversion of the municipalities into component cities.
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I wish to state here that I was a part of the efforts of the Technical Working Group, including Rosan S. Paquia, EnP who shepherded the work for the conversion of then municipality of Mabalacat into a component city in 2012.
It will observe its tenth year as a component city this 2022.