Caloocan folk approve 6 new villages in plebiscite

MANILA, Philippines — Majority of the voters of Barangay 176, Caloocan City’s Bagong Silang district, approved the move to divide the most populous village in the country into six separate and independent barangays.

Out of the 86,153 voters of the barangay, 29.4 percent or 25,345 casted their vote during a plebiscite conducted on Saturday.

Of those who voted, 90.1 percent or a total of 22,854 voted “yes,” while the remaining 2,584 voters were not in favor of the division of the barangay.

The move ratified and approved the division of Barangay 176 into the six new villages of Barangays 176-A, 176-B, 176-C, 176-D, 176-E and 176-F.

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Bagong Silang is the most populous barangay in the Philippines, with a population of 261,729 according to the 2020 census. It is the northernmost barangay of Metro Manila located in the northern section of the city bordering the province of Bulacan.

The plebiscite to ratify the partitioning of Bagong Silang was pursuant to Republic Act No. 11993, which President Marcos signed on April 3, 2024.

Peaceful plebiscite

In a statement, the Comelec said the voting opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 3 p.m., except for the emergency accessible polling places and person deprived of liberty special polling place, where voting ended an hour earlier at 2 p.m.

No untoward incidents were reported and the plebiscite concluded “peacefully.”