LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Indigenous People’s representative and municipal councilor Marcelo Abela is pushing to renew his bid for the Valley to become a city.
Abela reintroduced to his fellow aldermen the motion asking Benguet governor Ronnie Cosalan to sponsor a bill for the capital town to become a component city.
“We will work this resolution to be passed as much as possible, the need to convert the Valley into a component city is already needed and action needs to be served,” he said.
Abela told Sun.Star Baguio the Provincial Government and the Municipal Government should work together for the proposed resolution before the national administration settles for the approval a federal system of government.
“We proposed this before but with the new administration looking to convert into federalism this should already be fast tracked. It will take years processing our request so as early as now we should already formally file it in the congress,” Abela said.
“As much as possible we need to build up on this identity, if federalism will be soon adopted it might again be a secondary priority,” he added.
Congress dictates that cityhood requires a locally generated income of at least P100 million for the last two consecutive years, as certified by the Department of Finance and second a population of 150,000 or more, as certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority or a continuous territory of 100 square kilometers, as certified by the Land Management Bureau, with continuity not being a requisite for areas that are on two or more islands.
During his previous term, Cosalan pronounced moves are being made to establish the province’s capital as a full-fledged city considering it has all requirements except for land area.
The congressman said there may be a way to make an exception for the lack of land area, as the town serves as the capital of the province as well as the hub for the trading, education and institutional center for the province.
During the previous administration, a dialog was sought with neighboring municipalities like Tublay, Sablan and Itogon to settle boundary disputes with the valley and possibly add to the needed area needed for cityhood.
La Trinidad, with a total land area of 7,004 hectares, statistically has a 5.5 percent growth rate as population may soon hit 150,000.
Records show in 2007, there was a 97,000 population that swelled to more than 100,000 today.