Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Situational Analysis

Urbanization is inevitable. Designing more compact, higher-density cities is a key

to improving the well-being of the world's burgeoning urban population (UN, 2014). Half

of the world’s population now lives in cities and projections are that this figure will increase

to two thirds by 2030. The shift to urban dominance is irreversible (Cities Alliance, 2014).

The growing number of cities in the world can be attributed to many reasons.

According to Lakeside City Alliances (2014), the benefits of cityhood are: first,

government closer to people and more responsive to their needs; second, more control over

land use (zoning) and development to decide on things like new subdivisions, teardowns,

construction, apartments, strips malls and other uses; third, mechanism to revitalize

residential and commercial area; fourth, tax equity; fifth, improved community identity;

and sixth, improved quality of life. Moreover, Goldfield (2013) opined that economic

progress is the engine of cityhood. Without railroads, factories, and steamers the other

measures of cityhood could not evolve.

 Cloas (2014) affirmed that too many cities are characterized by urban sprawl that

make it harder for people to get around and get access to basic services, especially in vast

slums where the poor live far away from their jobs, medical services and food stores. A

municipality, city, or community starts the process of becoming healthy when its political

leadership, its local organizations, and its citizens commit continuously and progressively

in working towards improving quality of life. This endeavour strengthens an alliance

between local authorities, grassroots organizations, public institutions, and the private

sector (Organización Panamericana de Salud, 2005 as cited by Arteaga, et. al., 2008). It

becomes healthier if municipalities are merged, consolidated or amalgamated. (Kanclerz,

J., 2011).

According to Kersting and Vetter (2003) as cited by De Ceuninck, et. al., (2010),

all reforms like municipal merging come down to two fundamental principles: an

improvement in local democracy and an improvement in local efficiency. Local political

or administrative reforms are not placed on the political agenda out of the blue. They arise

in certain political, economic, and social contexts.

Cityhood is a sign of progress. It signifies advancement from a mere municipality

to a booming political subdivision of the State. Pacoy and Balais (2005) opined that cities

are said to be the driving force in social and economic development. This is tantamount to

saying that the achievement of the desired level of development eventually follows after

one has gained the cityhood status. In the pursuit of achieving development objectives in

the area of local governance, various changes in local government structure has been
applied. Among these changes in local government structure have been pursued include

the merging of towns to constitute a city, the division of a big metropolis into smaller cities,

and the conversion of towns and municipalities into cities.

In the Philippines, some of the first towns which sought the conversion to cityhood

are the municipalities in Metro Manila. Among these towns are Mandaluyong, Pasig,

Marikina, Parañaque, and Makati. As stipulated in Republic Act 7160 or the Local

Government Code of 1991 popularly known as the Code, the power of creating and

converting Local Government Units (LGU) is bestowed in the Congress of the Philippines.

An LGU unit may be created, divided, merged, and abolished by law enacted by Congress

in the case of a province, city, municipality, or any other political subdivision.

Along with barangay, municipality and province, city is an LGU in the Philippines.

All Philippine cities are chartered cities, whose existence as corporate and administrative

entities is governed by their own specific municipal charters in addition to the Code, which

specifies their administrative structure and powers. As of September 2012, there are 143

cities (National Statistical Coordinating Board, 2013).

In more particular cases, there are however bills filed in 2013 which are nearing to

be junked. First is the case of the proposed cityhood of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur which still

has to fulfil the income requirement. At present, the town is classified as second class

municipality (Flores, 2014). Likewise, the city charter bill of Baler, Aurora is expected to
be junked because of income requirement. However, Senator Juan Eduardo Angara is

optimistic that such lacking will be remedied by a pending bill giving automatic cityhood

to capitals of provinces without cities by freeing the capital towns of provinces from the

income needs of the cityhood (Gonzales, 2014). Lastly, the bill for the conversion of

municipality of Kalibo, Aklan to city maybe dropped due to lacking in the required

standards for cityhood in terms of population and land area even if it has more than

qualified in terms of annual income (Indelible, 2014).

Motivation to most legislators in filing a bill seeking for conversion of a

municipality into a component city is the empowerment of cities to deal with local issues.

Regular municipalities now share many of the same powers and responsibilities as

chartered cities, but its citizens and/or leaders may feel that it might be to their best interest

to get a larger share of Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) and acquire additional powers

by becoming a city, especially if the population and local economy has grown enough. On

the other hand, due to the higher property taxes that would be imposed after cityhood, many

citizens have become wary of their town's conversion into a city, even if the municipality

had already achieved a high degree of urbanization and has an annual income that already

exceeds that of many lower-income cities (Guttierez, 2013).

Municipalities aspire for cityhood mainly for the effectual changes in their fiscal

status. According to Capuno (2013),1 there seems to be an inequity in the distribution of

the IRA, the country’s most important fiscal transfer program, vis-à-vis to the burden of

the devolved functions of LGUs.

 Aside from the fiscal factor, political payoffs have also motivated the creation of

new cities. Because recent court decisions have defined a city that converted from a

municipality to be essentially a different LGU from the latter, municipalities with mayors

facing term limit appear to be more likely to convert to cities. Moreover, mayors who

oversaw the city conversion are likely to be succeeded by another member of the same

political clan, which is why they spend their time, effort and political capital to advocate

for cityhood (Capuno, 2013).

Concerns have been raised that with the continuous increase in the number of city

conversions, the country will eventually be full of cities and without municipalities. This

will make the delivery of essential services less efficient given the number of functions

devolved to municipalities that will be left to the care of only the barangays. There is also

an apprehension that if the conversion was politically-motivated, it is likely entrenched

with vested interests and will encourage more rent-seeking.

The Code classifies cities into three categories: the highly urbanized cities, the

independent component cities and the component cities. In the case of the Province of La

Union, there is only one component city, the City of San Fernando known as the “City of

Health and Wellness of Northern Luzon” and once called as the “Botanical Garden City of

the North”. It was chartered into a component city by virtue Republic Act No. 8509, signed

into law on February 13, 1998 by Fidel V. Ramos and ratified on March 20, 1998 through

plebiscite.
 "Tattan Naguilian", "Tattan" an Ilocano (dialect) word denotes "Now", in English

translation "Now Naguilian" and now is the time for all Naguilianons to act for true

prosperity, unity, peace & order, environmental awareness and among other aspect towards

a progressive town and eventually into cityhood. The local chief executive is confident that

the conversion of Municipality of Naguilian into a city will be realized because of the

positive economic and infrastructure developments in the town. The mayor’s priority

programs are focused on the creation of a new business district, infrastructure, tourism,

agriculture, health, disaster preparedness, environment and sanitation. Additional school

buildings are expected to rise in different areas including the construction of Don Mariano

Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU) East-La Union Campus.

The total population of Naguilian as of the 2015 Philippine Statistics Authority

survey is 54,221. Although the municipality of Naguilian did not reach the minimum

requirement of number of inhabitants, the municipality of Naguilian reached the minimum

requirement of Annual income. Naguilian is currently classified as a First Class

Municipality with a 2016 actual annual income of Php 198,308,345.50 and Php

175,483,104.21 as of 2018. Given this scenario, the mayor concluded that more business

investors are coming in to generate employment. “We are now ready to become a city,” he

said. In terms of Land area, 104.60 sq. km2 is the total land area of the Municipality.

The Municipality of Naguilian reached the minimum requirements of application

for the cityhood. Therefore, the current administration is eyeing for a cityhood.
 Timeliness of the issue stirred the researchers to conduct this case study. Aside from

the fact that these are the well-timed themes wanting to explore in the study of local

government, it is hoped to generate findings that would in turn become instrument by

policymakers or other entities as basis for future reference.

Framework of the Study

The researchers used various theories, concepts and legal anchors that gave

foundation for the elaboration of the variables of the study.

This study is anchored on theory of governance by Stoker (1998) which draws

propositions to frame understanding about governing governance. He mentioned that

governance is an institutions and actors from within and beyond government. It identifies the

blurring of boundaries and responsibilities for tackling social and economic issues. It identifies

the power dependence involved in the relationships between institutions involved in collective

action. It is about autonomous self-governing networks of actors and recognizes the capacity

to get things done which does not rest on the power of government to command or use its

authority.
 This supports the study of O’Toole (2000) as cited by Ewalt (2001) that governance

theory highlights the multivariate character of policy, considers the design and operation of

policy structures and actions, and focuses on the “multi-layered structural context of rule-

governed understandings, along with the role of multiple social actors in arrays of negotiation,

implementation, and service delivery. Addressing governance requires attending to social

partners and ideas about how to concert action among them.

Likewise, the transposition of neoclassical economic theory of humans as rational

utility maximizing individuals to governments implies that self-interests actuate economic

expansion. Governments possess monopoly of legitimate coercive power or the institutional

capacity to make decisions and enforce them within a geographical territory (Hamilton et al.,

2004; Norris, 2001; Stoker, 1998). As such, due to this political and institutional capacity,

administrations are able to facilitate capital accumulation through urban policy; and city-

county consolidation implies agreeing to a set of urban economic policies (cited by Odogba,

2009).

Legal framework also supports the capacity to convert municipalities into a component

city through the Code which states that the creation of a component city serves primarily as a

general purpose for the government through coordination and delivery of basic, regular and

direct services and effective governance of the inhabitants within its territorial jurisdiction. It

may be created, divided, merged or abolished, or its boundary substantially altered only by an

act of Congress subject to the criteria provided in the Code. A municipal corporation can only

exist if it has legal creation or incorporation, corporate name, inhabitants and territory.
Moreover, RA 9009 or the Cityhood Law increases the income requirement for cityhood from

P20 million to P100 million in Section 450 of the Code.

Statement of the Problem

The goal of this research is to determine the status of the application for cityhood of

the Municipality of Naguilian, La Union