Citihood plebiscite in Bacoor today, Imus on June 30

The provincial government of Cavite threw its full support behind two of the province’s biggest municipalities as they prepare for a plebiscite that would ratify the municipalities’ conversion into cities.

Cavite Gov. Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla Jr., in a phone interview on Friday, expressed his “hundred percent support” to the conversion of Bacoor and Imus into cities even if this would mean less income for the provincial government.

The plebiscite in Bacoor is scheduled today while that in Imus is set on June 30.

Remulla projects that in the next 10 years eight more municipalities in Cavite would become cities.

“They are even more qualified to become cities (than the other municipalities that vied for a cityhood status),” Remulla said, referring to the towns of Kawit, Tanza, Naic, General Trias, General Mariano Alvarez (GMA), Carmona, Silang and Alfonso. Cavite is composed of 19 municipalities and four cities.

According to the Local Government Code, a municipality is required to meet at least two of the three minimum requirements to become a city: An annual income of P100 million, a population of 150,000 and a contiguous territory of 100 square kilometers.

President Aquino in April signed Republic Act No. 10160 and RA 10161 for the conversion of Bacoor and Imus into cities. Bacoor has an annual income of P474 million, population of 441,197 and a land area of 52.40 sq km while Imus has an income of P535 million, population of 253,000 and land area of 171 sq km.

With the anticipated conversion of Bacoor and Imus, Remulla said the provincial government would lose around P200 million of the combined annual revenue share from the two municipalities.

He said the provincial government would lose P100 million but the newly created city would gain P300 million more from its internal revenue allotment, citing, for instance, that the present P500 million income of Imus may increase to around P800 million if it becomes a city.

Hence, “there will be more (fund for government) programs and it will be more beneficial to our constituents,” Remulla said. He said the projects of the provincial government would not suffer since it has enough budget for these.

Bacoor Mayor Strike Revilla said the municipal government has had a series of information drives to gain support for its cityhood which it has been pushing for over a decade now.

Except for heavy traffic on Saturday, “we don’t see any ‘plebiscite-related’ incident. I think most people here understood the benefits of becoming a city,” said town police chief Supt. Romano Cardiño.

Cardiño said that as prescribed by the Commission on Elections, the police would be stationed 50 meters away from each of the 35 polling centers and they would set up a quick count center throughout the plebiscite from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In Imus, Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi said they were getting ready for the plebiscite. “Even opposing (political) parties here are supportive (of Imus’ conversion),” he said.

Maliksi said they have been vying for a cityhood status for over 15 years to give way to government programs such as subsidized health benefits for senior citizens, a public hospital and state-subsidized day care centers.

Remulla said that around 70,000 were expected to participate in the plebiscite in

Bacoor and around 30,000 in Imus.

Around 36,000 cast their votes during the plebiscite when Dasmariñas became a city in 2009.