Bid for upgrade of city status opens door to bets

CABANATUAN CITY—The campaign for the change in status of this city to a highly urbanized one has all the trimmings of a campaign for elective positions.

Candidates for mayor, vice mayor and councilors have become highly visible as the city prepares for a plebiscite on Dec. 1 to decide the fate of the city’s proposed change in status, embodied in a proclamation issued by President Aquino, to highly urbanized.

There seem to be no complaints against the early campaigning, though.

In fact, many are amused at the intensity of the campaign strategies being used by camps in favor of and opposed to the change in status. No one appears to mind the perks and goodies offered by the candidates.

Candidates are also seizing the chance to promote themselves although the coming exercise is not about them, but about the city.

Many residents believe that the outcome of the plebiscite would be a gauge of their choice for mayor next year.

The campaign perks come in the form of medical missions, free haircuts, manicure and pedicure services, free noodle soup, materials for parking sheds for tricycles and sports equipment.

Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara and Board Member Anthony Umali, the main candidates for mayor next year, are leading separate campaigns for and against the HUC status for Cabanatuan.

Vergara supports it while Umali, younger brother of Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali, is against it.

The Commission on Elections scheduled the plebiscite on Dec. 1.

President Aquino, on July 4, signed Proclamation No. 418 declaring Cabanatuan City as a HUC.

The city council had appealed to the President to declare this city as a HUC since it had met the minimum requirements for such a status prescribed by the Local Government Code.

Cabanatuan has 259,267 residents based on the 2007 census and an annual regular income of P235 million, which are beyond the 200,000 population and P50 million income requirements for a city to be declared as a HUC.

But Governor Umali, former ally of Vergara, opposes Cabanatuan’s HUC status.