Lacson: Municipalities can now easily become cities with law easing reqt's for cityhood
Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said he is upbeat that prosperous municipalities can now easily apply for cityhood with the new law that eases requirements converting municipalities to component cities.
Lacson said Republic Act 11683, which lapsed into law on April 10, 2022, is based on Senate Bill 255 which he filed in July 2019. It's counterpart bill is House Bill No. 8207.
"By opening the doors to cityhood for qualified municipalities, the new law allows the local governments to fully operationalize their functions," Lacson said.
"As such, we address the inequity in national resources, we provide a greater number of our people the effectual impact of being a city--better delivery of public services and a fair share of our progress," added Lacson.
He said some municipalities, despite their small land area or population, have shown they can provide essential government facilities and social services to their inhabitants that are comparable and even above par with existing cities.
As such, the new law amends Section 450 of RA 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991, exempting a municipality from the land and population requirements if it generates at least P100-million for two consecutive years.
Lacson said it would be unfair to residents of municipalities to be denied cityhood just because their town is smaller than 100 square kilometers or has a population of less than 150,000.