Gen. Trias cityhood signed

SAN PEDRO CITY – President Benigno Aquino III had signed the bill converting General Trias in Cavite from being a first-class municipality into a component city.

In a text message Wednesday, municipal information officer Rommel Olimpo said President Aquino had signed Republic Act 10675, or the Charter of the City of General Trias, last August 19.

He however said that local officials in General Trias were still looking forward to a “ceremonial signing” with the president sometime next month.

General Trias, with a population of 243,322 as of 2010, has progressed economically from being an agricultural to an industrial and residential town. The municipality has an annual income of P235.5 million and a land area of 9,001 hectares, according to municipal government records.

Once the conversion is approved through a plebiscite, General Trias will become Cavite’s seventh city. The province currently is composed of six cities and 16 municipalities.

The Commission on Elections in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) has yet to announce a date for the plebiscite.

Senate Committee on Local Government chairman Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in an earlier speech posted on the Senate website, said the municipality’s conversion “will not reduce the income of Cavite to less than the minimum annual income requirement of P20 million under the Local Government Code.”