Marcos committee on local government hears cityhood bills
of Imus, Bacoor and Cabuyao

Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on local government, conducted public hearing on the bills seeking to convert the municipalities of Imus, Bacoor in Cavite province and Cabuyao the province of Laguna into component cities.

"We will look at the criteria and the qualification for conversion into city. We will examine in principle what is it that we want our cities to be? What we would like our municipalities and provinces to be because there are a lot of conversion consideration, there are a lot of proposals for conversion of municipalities into cities. We will include all of the insights, suggestion and comments of all those present in the hearing before the finalization of our committee report, Marcos said.

Present at the hearing were Representative Lani Mercado-Revilla of 2nd Districy of Cavite, Rep. Erineo Maliksi of 3rd District of Cavite and Rep. Justin Marc Chipeco of Laguna, 2nd District, Cavite Governor Junvic Remulla, Jr., Bacoor Mayor Strike Revilla, Mayor Homer Saquilayan of Municipality of Imus and Mayor Isidro Hemedes, Jr. of Cabuyao and Atty. Mark Sherwin Lindo, Provincial Attorney, representing the Laguna provincial governor.

Carmelita Delantar of Budget and Management Bureau, Department of Budget and Management (DBM); Consolacion Agcaoili of Local Treasury Operation, Bureau of Local Government Finance (BLGF); Socorro Abejo of Household Statistics department, National Statistic Office (NSO) and Engr. Ariel Reyes of Geodetic Surveys Division, Land Management Bureau- DENR, all served as the resource persons for the various government agencies involved in the cityhood conversion proposal.

Section 450 of the Local Government Code (Republic Act 7160), as amended by RA 9009 states that a municipality may be converted into a component city if it has a locally generated average annual income as certified by the Department of Finance, of at least 100 Million for the last two consecutive years. A population of not less than 150 inhabitants, as certified by the NSO and a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers as certified by the Land management Bureau.

In the above proposal, the committee chairman noted that the basic requirement for municipalities to become cities have all been complied with.