Lawyers join outcry vs SC ruling on cities

MANILA, Philippines—Lawyers and academics have joined city mayors in clamor for the Supreme Court justices to explain their decision allowing the conversion into cities of towns that failed to meet requirements set by the Local Government Code.

“Is the Local Government Code still valid?” asked Prof. Edmund Tayao, executive director of the Local Government Development Foundation (Logodef) in a round-table forum on cityhood held in Quezon City recently.

Tayao said members of the academe and experts on governance were astonished when the Supreme Court flip-flopped, for the third time, on its earlier decision rejecting the creation of 16 new cities due to violation of the Constitution and the Local Government Code.

“We are wondering if the Local Government Code still functions as the enabling law that governs the creation of cities and other geo-political units,” he said.

Tayao said that the Constitution provides that “no province, city, municipality, or barangay may be created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundary substantially altered, except in accordance with the criteria established in the local government code.

Under the Local Government Code, as amended by Republic Act No. 9009, a municipality may be converted into a component city only if it meets two of three requirements: locally generated average annual income of P100 million for the last two consecutive years and contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers or a population of at least 150,000.

Alex Brillantes, former dean of the UP-National College on Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), said the P100-million income requirement is a “must” for a town to meet the qualifications of a city under the Local Government Code.

“Not only is the P100-million income required, a municipality must also meet the other requirement to become a city: a 100 square-kilometer area or a population of at least 150,000.

San Fernando City, Pampanga Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, president of the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), said all the 16 towns allowed by the Supreme Court to become cities failed to meet the P100-million income requirement.