Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. wants the 1st class Municipality of Mexico in the province of Pampanga to be converted into a component city.
Thus, he filed House Bill (HB) 1683 seeking cityhood for Mexico. “This legislation is a reward for the collective hard work, perseverance, and self-reliance of the citizenry of Mexico, with the able leadership of its officials, led by Mayor Teddy Tumang,” Gonzales said on Tuesday, July 12.
He said that the 1st class municipality fits all of the requirements to be considered a component city, without disqualifications, as per Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991.
Gonzales cited Chapter 1, Section 450 of RA 7160, which details the requisites for the creation of a city or for the conversion of a municipality or barangay cluster:
“A municipality or a cluster of barangays may be converted into a component city if it has an average annual income, as certified by the Department of Finance (DOF), of at least P20,000,000.00 for the last two consecutive years based on 1991 constant prices, and if it has either of the following requisites: a contiguous territory of at least one hundred (100) square kilometers, as certified by the Lands Management Bureau; or a population of not less than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) inhabitants, as certified by the National Statistics Office,” read RA 7160.
“The territorial jurisdiction of a newly-created city shall be properly identified by metes and bounds. The requirement on land area shall not apply where the city proposed to be created is composed of one or more islands. The territory need not be contiguous if it comprises two or more islands…The average annual income shall include the income accruing to the general fund, exclusive of specific funds, transfers, and non-recurring income,” the law added.
As per information provided by Gonzalez, Mexico itself consists of 43 barangays. It has a land area of 117.41 square kilometers, or about 5.87 percent of the land area of Pampanga. In 2018 and 2021, it generated an annual income of P105,518,000 and P193,427,992 as per the Department of Finance (DOF).
According to a 2020 census by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Mexico has a population of 173,403 citizens.