Bacoor a step closer to cityhood

Malacañang has flashed the green light for the conversion of Bacoor municipality into a city.

“Last night, I asked our President if I could give a promise that Bacoor would become a city. He told me to expedite (the processes) today and he would sign (the cityhood measure),” Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa Jr. said during Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony for a P500-million government center in the town.

Ochoa, who was invited as guest speaker, said that “for a municipality to become a city requires hard work and perseverance.”

“This is not about granting favors as there are rules to comply (with),” he said.

Bacoor is one of the thriving urban municipalities and a lone congressional district in the province. According to the National Statistical Coordination Board, Bacoor’s population in 2007 was 441,197 with an annual income of P474 million and a land area of 52.40 square kilometers, surpassing the requirements set by the Local Government Code for cities.

Mayor Strike Revilla expressed his elation at Ochoa’s announcement as the municipal government had been vying for cityhood for over 10 years.

“The final say will still have to come from the people through a plebiscite. But by the looks of it, with all our community leaders here, the people of Bacoor want us to become a city,” Revilla said.

Among Bacoor’s ongoing projects is the 100-bed district hospital in Barangay Habay.

The government center to be erected on a two-hectare lot donated by Sen. Manny Villar and businessman Narcimiano Gawaran of Addas Development Corp. in Barangay San Nicolas 2 will house the municipal government offices presently located in Barangay Tabing Dagat.

Construction of the facility will begin this year.

Revilla, who is also president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, said national government agencies were also invited to put up satellite offices in the building.

He said Bacoor’s cityhood bid also had the support of the League of Cities. The group, in past statements, had opposed the cityhood bids of at least 16 municipalities nationwide, saying their inclusion would cut their internal revenue allotments from the national government.

FAST FACTS

BACOOR

Land area: 52.4 sq km

Population: 441,197 (as of 2007 census)

Registered voters: 245,316 (as of 2010)

Barangays: 73

Income classification: 1st class

Source: NSCB, cavite.gov.ph