HUC status for Cabanatuan

This is a, reaction to the news item “Feud looms over Ecija city’s highly urbanized status,” (Philippine STAR, Nov. 10).

It’s a déjà vu!

In 1997, under then Mayor Manolette Liwag, Cabanatuan, a 47-year-old progressive component city of Nueva Ecija, made its first attempt to become a highly-urbanized city (HUC). Its bid, however, did not prosper because then Nueva Ecija Governor Tommy Joson opposed and campaigned intensely against it. Today, the plan for a dream HUC status has surfaced anew under Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara’s administration with resistance from incumbent Nueva Ecija Governor Aurelio Umali.

Under the Local Government Code, with a population of more than 200,000 and an annual income of around P700 million, Cabanatuan is more than qualified to graduate from a component city to HUC.

A local Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) official explained that once Cabanatuan become an HUC, the bustling metropolis will be out of the provincial domain. As a result, he said, its constituents will no longer vote for officials of the provincial government, and the city will have its own police director. More importantly, the city’s internal revenue allotment (IRA) will double. With more funds available, efficient and fast delivery of basic services and inflow of infrastructure-driven investments is expected to follow and, consequently increased revenues for the city and job opportunities for its bulging population.

Given these benefits galore that would make Cabanatuan more progressive and developed, why do provincial governors oppose the move toward an HUC status?

Maybe it’s because Cabanatuan being such a vote-rich city, they would not want to let it go. Besides, they would not want to lose the provincial government’s share in the income from the city’s mineral deposits, much less relinquish its power to tax the practicing professionals and operating cinema-houses in the city.

But those are pretty shallow and flimsy reasons!