Rep. Gullas to back Carcar cityhood bid

Cebu first district Rep. Eduardo Gullas yesterday expresses his willingness to support the conversion of the municipality of Carcar into a city.

"Ugma damlag kung maoy uyonan sa katilingban andam ko mo-suporta kung unsa'y mando sa Carcaranons (I am ready to support what Carcaranons want)," Gullas said during the formal opening of the Kabkaban Festival.

Carcar Mayor Patrick Barcenas said he wants the municipality be a city so that their present Internal Revenue Allotment, which is P55 million will be increased.

While Vice Mayor Roger Montesclaros also wants the municipality converted into a city, he said there is a problem on one of the requirements to become a city as their annual income is only between P70 million to 75 million.

One of the requirements for a municipality to become a city is an average annual income of P100 million.

Under the requirements for cityhood, a municipality must have "either" a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers as certified by the Lands Management Bureau or a population of not less than one Hundred Fifty thousand (150,000) as certified by the National Statistics Office.

Montesclaros said the municipality has no problem with land area and total population requirements.

But he explained later that this move should be carefully studied because they do not like what happened to Talisay City to happen to them.

Cebu City is currently challenging the cityhood of Talisay with regards to its population requirement. - Garry B. Lao