NAGA CITY-The Naga City council has passed a resolution in strongly opposing a House bill seeking to amend the Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act 7160) to allow several municipalities to become cities by exempting them from income requirement.
In the resolution, the city council said it was joining the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) in opposing the Hose bill that "discriminates on other local government units and favors the 16 municipalities that recently lost in the case LCP versus the Commission on Election."
In the case, the 16 municipalities reverted from being newly-created cities argued that they (municipalities) should be exempted from the minimum income requirement to be a city because their charters had been approved by the Congress before the Supreme Court nullified their creation November last year.
The city council said that the proposed amendment would violate the "equal protection clause under the 1987 Constitution" and would be a retroactive implementation of a law, "which is in violation of Section 450 of Republic Act 7160.
"The opposition of the League of Cities of the Philippines [is] in order and meritorious."
It (city council) also noted in the resolution that the 16 municipalities must comply first with the requirements provided under Section 450 of Republic act 7160. In the provision, it is stated that to be a city, a municipality should have an annual income of P100 million.
"The proposed amendment to Republic Act 7160 should be opposed not only by [Naga City] but also by other cities because the passage of it will again deprive them of large portions of the cities' share in the internal revenue allotment (IRA)."
It said that when the decision of the Supreme Court in the LCP versus COMELEC case became final, Naga City, for instance, was notified that it was going to receive IRA adjustment amounting to P42 million.
The cities that reverted to being municipalities and which call themselves the League of 16 include Baybay (Leyte province), Bogo, Naga and Carcar (Cebu), Catbalogan and Borongan (Samar), Tandag (Surigao del Sur), Lamitan (Basilan), Tayabas (Quezon), Tabuk (Kalinga), Bayugan (Agusan del Sur), Batac (Ilocos Norte), Guihulngan (Negros Oriental), Cabadbaran (Agusan del Norte), El Salvador (Misamis Oriental), and Mati (Davao Oriental).
The "League of 16" had filed motion for reconsideration before the Supreme Court.