RESOUNDING CHOICE Carmona Mayor Dahlia Loyola casts her vote for the conversion of the municipality into a city during the plebiscite on July 8. Carmona was proclaimed a city after over 30,000 voted “yes” for its conversion. —PHOTO FROM MAYOR DAHLIA LOYOLA FACEBOOK
LUCENA CITY — The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has proclaimed Carmona in Cavite province as a city after over 30,000 of its residents voted for its cityhood in a plebiscite on Saturday.
Lawyer Mitzele Veron Morales-Castro, Cavite provincial election supervisor, said in a statement posted on the Comelec-Calabarzon (Region 4A) Facebook page shortly before midnight on Saturday that 30,363 local residents voted “yes” for cityhood while only 1,016 voted “no.”
Morales-Castro officially proclaimed Carmona’s conversion into a city at 9:33 p.m. after the counting of votes conducted by the Municipal Plebiscite Board of Canvassers.
“Carmona, the richest municipality in the Philippines, just became the 149th City after its constituents resoundingly voted ‘YES’ on 8 July 2023 to ratify the conversion of their municipality into a component city,” Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco said in a statement.
According to the Comelec, 53.9 percent of the 58,691 registered voters cast their votes in 10 voting centers from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
“We are beyond pleased to note once more the increased interest and more active participation of the electorate in recent electoral exercises,” Laudiangco said.
Carmona is now the eighth city in Cavite, joining Bacoor, Dasmariñas, General Trias, Imus, Tagaytay, Trece Martires, and Cavite.
The first plebiscite return was received at 4:45 p.m., and by 6:00 p.m., the local Board of Canvassers convened.
The plebiscite was needed to affirm or reject Republic Act No. 119381, which converted Carmona into a city, that was signed by President Marcos on Feb. 23 this year. The measure was authored by Cavite fifth district Rep. Roy Loyola, who has long been pushing for Carmona’s cityhood for 12 years.
‘Shared purpose’
No untoward incident was reported during the plebiscite, according to Police Col. Christopher Olazo, Cavite police chief, in a statement on Facebook on Sunday.
He said 266 policemen and nine Army soldiers were deployed to ensure that the conduct of the plebiscite was orderly and peaceful.
The police enforced the mandatory two-day liquor ban on Friday until Saturday and have also been implementing a gun ban since June 8 that will end on July 15.
Law enforcers have put up security checkpoints in strategic parts of the locality.
Carmona is the first municipality to be converted into a city under RA 11683, which amended the Local Government Code of 1991 (RA 7160) and made it easier for towns to apply for cityhood.
Under RA 11683, which amended Section 450 of RA 7160, a municipality or cluster of barangays with a locally generated general annual income of at least P400 million for the last two consecutive years and has a population of not less than 100,000 inhabitants may be converted into a component city.
Richest municipality
Based on the annual financial report of the Commission on Audit in 2021, Carmona was tagged as the richest municipality in the country with total assets of P6.212 billion.
The former first-class municipality has 14 barangays with a population of 106,256, as of the 2020 census.
The Comelec will also conduct another plebiscite in Bacoor City, also in Cavite, on July 29 for the proposed merging of 49 barangays into 18 barangays. Five other barangays are also set to be renamed as a consequence of the merging. Bacoor is presently divided into 73 barangays. INQ