BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—The mayor of Tabuk City in Kalinga said on Wednesday they would file a motion for reconsideration on the Supreme Court decision reverting 16 new cities back into being municipalities, insisting the city has been exempted from Republic Act 9009.

Ruling that laws that converted the new cities in 2007 were unconstitutional, the high court said these cities could not claim to be exempted from RA 9009.

Based on RA 9009, the annual income requirement for conversion of a municipality into a city is raised from P20 million to P100 million. It took effect in June 2001 or six years before the cityhood laws were enacted.

Mayor Camilo Lammawin said the cityhood status of Tabuk, which gained the nod of the residents in a plebiscite in 2007, did not violate the Local Government Code.

Expressing sadness over the decision, he said they hoped the high court would overturn the decision and uphold the contention of Tabuk and 15 other new cities.

After its proclamation on June 24, 2007, Tabuk, with 42 villages, became the second city in the Cordillera.

Two mayors in Isabela -- Amelita Navarro of Santiago City and Caesar Dy of Cauayan City -- said they were optimistic that the tribunal would eventually uphold the cityhood of the 16 with their rightful share of the internal revenue allotment (IRA).

In Ilocos Norte, Batac Mayor Jeffrey Nalupta blamed the League of Cities of the Philippines for the ruling, saying that the league’s opposition against their cityhood had to do with “greed.”

“This is all about greed. They do not want to share their IRA with us,” he said.

He said he expected the lawyers of the affected cities to appeal the decision.

He also said the ruling would create a problem for the new cities which had received and spent their adjusted IRA shares. “What will happen to the amounts we have received? Most cities have already spent them,” he said.

Batac, for example, has either spent or earmarked its IRA share of P175 million for 2008 for various projects such as agricultural development, improvement of dumpsite and other infrastructure programs.

Before its conversion, Batac would have received only P55 million as IRA share for 2008.

“This is disappointing and depressing for our constituents who are expecting additional benefits out of our cityhood,” he said, noting that the city government committed to provide P1 million each to all the 43 villages on a yearly basis for their projects.

He said Batac, like the other newly created cities, spent money to improve its city hall while other mayors have mortgaged their IRA in loan agreements they have entered into.