Mabalacat sets aside P14M for cityhood plebiscite

MABALACAT, Pampanga—The town government has set aside P14 million to fund the plebiscite for the cityhood of this Pampanga town after President Benigno Aquino III signed the law converting Mabalacat into a component city.

Mayor Marino Morales said Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10164 on May 15. The cityhood bill was passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on March 6 and March 7, respectively.

“We have set aside P14 million for the plebiscite and we are confident that the people of Mabalacat will vote for cityhood,” Morales said.

He said within a month, the Commission on Elections would conduct a plebiscite to allow residents here to vote whether they wanted to convert this town, one of the major commercial districts of Pampanga, into a component city.

Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin, principal author of the cityhood bill, said the P100 million in additional Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) that Mabalacat would receive once it becomes a city, would enable the local government to spend more on social services.

Morales promised to use a large sum of the additional IRA to support the education of high school and college students in Mabalacat.

“We already have more than 2,000 students at Mabalacat National High School. With bigger IRA, we will increase the number of classrooms to accommodate more students,” said Morales, who has been lobbying for the conversion of this town into a component city since 2000.

To appease the fears of those opposed to Mabalacat’s cityhood, Morales promised that local taxes would not be increased.

He cited Section 56 of RA 10164, which states: “No increase in the rates of local taxes shall be imposed by the city within the period of five years from its acquisition of corporate existence.”

On the sixth year, it will be up to the city council to review the rates and decide whether to increase taxes, he said. Jun Malig, Inquirer Central Luzon