SC strips 16 cities of status

Sixteen Cities will Revert Back to being municipalities as the Supreme Court has ruled that the laws that converted them into cities last year were unconstitutional.

Voting 7 to 5 with two abstentions, the high court said the laws that gave city hood to 16 municipalities violated the Local Government Code.

The 16 cities that will revert back to towns are Baybay, Leyte; Bogo, Carcar and Naga in Cebu; Borongan, Eastern Samar; catbalogan, Samar; Tandag, Surigao del Sur; Tayabas, Quezon; Lamitan, Basilan; Tabuk, Kalinga; Bayugan, Agusan dek Sur; Batac, Ilocos Norte; Mati, Davao Oriental; Guihulngan, Negros Oriental; Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte; and El Salvador, Misamis Oriental.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the high court said the laws that created the cities could not claim to be exempted from Republic Act 9009.

RA 9009, which took effect in June 2001, or six years before the city hood laws were passed, amended Section 450 of the Local Government Code to increase the annual income requirement for converting a municipality into a city from P20 million to P100 million.

“The Constitution is clear. The creation of local government units must follow the criteria established in the Local Government Code and not in any other law,” the ruling said.

Because President Macapagal-Arroyo did not sign the individual bills that elevated the 16 towns into cities, these lapsed into law between March and July 2007.

The Supreme Court upheld the petition of the League of Cities of the Philippines which argued that the “wholesale conversion” of municipalities into cities will reduce the share of existing cities in the Internal Revenue Allotment, since there would be more of them sharing the same amount of IRA set aside for all cities.

Associate Justice Dange Tinga, a former Taguig congressman, and Associate Justice Antonio Nachura, a former Western Samar congressman, took no part in the decision.

--By. Dona Pazzibugan – Philippine Daily Inquirer