Conversion of Metro Manila
towns into cities proposed
THE Metro Manila Deve-lopment Authority has asked Congress to ap-prove the conversion of Metro Manila towns Na-votas, Pateros, Taguig and San Juan into cities.
The MMDA made the request after the agency’s governing council, the Metro Manila Council, unanimously passed a resolution calling for Congress to upgrade the remaining four towns in the metropolis.
MMDA Vice Chair Cesar Lacuna said it was necessary to convert the four remaining towns into cities to speed up the delivery of basic services. Cities, he added, give better benefits to residents through increased revenue collection and improved services.
The move to work for the conversion of Navotas, Pateros, San Juan and Taguig into cities, which started two years ago, was finalized on Wednesday at a meeting between MMDA Chair Bayani Fernando and mayors and representatives of the four towns.
Under the Local Government Code, a town must have a minimum population of 200,000, an annual income of P50 million and a land area of at least 100 square kilometers.
Pateros has a population of 57,407, an average yearly income of between P67 million and P75 million and a land area of 2.10 square kilometers.
San Juan has 117,680 residents, a 5.94-square kilometer territory but has an income of P335 million based on the 2002 records.
Navotas has an income of P246.75 million and a population of 230,403. However, it has only 10.77 square kilometers of land area.
Lacuna said although these issues need to be resolved, the MMDA was confident that Congress would act on the request favorably for the improvement of Metro Manila.
Taguig’s conversion into a city is still mired in a case pending before the Commission on Elections. The result of the 1999 plebiscite on Taguig’s cityhood was being opposed in the case.