Cebu will soon have two more cities

Bogo and Carcar towns in Cebu will soon be added as the 7th and 8th cities of the province as the Senate local government committee approved recently the conversion of twelve (12) towns in the various part of the country into cities.

Senator Alfredo Lim, chairman of the senate committee on local government said, if the senate plenary approves the committee’s endorsements, Lim expects the towns of Baybay in Leyte; Tayabas in Quezon; Catbalogan in Samar; Lamitan in Basilan; Tandag in Surigao del Sur; Tabuk in Kalinga; Batac in Ilocos Norte; Bayugan in Agusan del Sur; Cabadbaran in Agusan del Norte; Borongan in Eastern Samar; Bogo and Carcar in Cebu will soon celebrate their new status. Lim added that the approval of the endorsements would mean that the “soon-to-be-cities” would get bigger share of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

Cebu Provincial Treasurer, Roy Salubre in a media interview commented that once these towns become component cities of the province, “all taxes and revenues these cities collect will go directly to their own coffers and the province would no longer receive a share in their property taxes.”

Salubre said, this early the province is fast tracking its collection of delinquent taxes from Bogo and Carcar as the present scenario looks favorable for the approval of the conversion. “We need to double our efforts otherwise the new cities would fully get the proceeds in the auction of delinquent properties. We will collect what is due to the province,” Salubre added.

He said, “The cities have an advantage because then they do not need to share their taxes to the province although the province will still assist them because they are considered component cities like Lapu-lapu and Mandaue and they can still vote for our local officials.”

According to the Provincial Treasurer’s records, in 2006 alone, Bogo and Carcar had real property collection of P10.78-Million and P8.45-Million respectively and P8.18-Million (P4.59M from Bogo and P3.59M from Carcar) went to the coffers of the province.

The conversion of towns to city-hood means an increase in their IRA share and the cities can also raise the real property tax rates from one to two percent.

Meantime, League of Cities president, Iloilo Mayor Jerry Trenas was disappointed with these developments. He said, the League of Cities in the Philippines (LCP) will not support those senators that voted for the conversion of the 12 towns into cities saying that “these cities must first meet the requirements—that towns applying for city-hood should have an income of at least P100-Million plus, other requirements on population and territorial boundaries.”

Bogo and Carcar and the other cities are exempted from the new law on the P100M income IRA requirements because according to senator Lim when the bills were filed, the income requirement was still on the P20-Million bracket. (PIA)