San Fernando now a component city

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — This 300-year-old capital town was finally declared a city at 1:15 a.m. yesterday after 12,378 local folk turned out last Saturday to ratify the cityhood law as against 8,519 who rejected it.

Twenty-four percent of this town’s 85,901 registered voters cast their votes in Saturday’s plebiscite, putting a successful end to the cityhood campaign launched by Mayor Rey Aquino three years ago. No untoward incident was reported during the plebiscite.

"Henceforth, our town will be known as the City of San Fernando," said Aquino, to distinguish it from San Fernando City in La Union.

Last year, two other capitals in Central Luzon were declared cities, namely Balanga in Bataan and Tarlac town in Tarlac.

Aquino has said that cityhood meant an increase in San Fernando’s internal revenue allotment from P70 million to about P210 million annually.

"This will go a long way in improving the delivery of our basic services to the people, including the implementation of anti-flooding projects," he said.

San Fernando became prone to flooding after lahar flows from Mt. Pinatubo clogged waterways in its southwestern district in 1995.

Aquino allayed fears of critics that cityhood would mean increased taxes, saying the law, authored by third district Rep. Oscar Rodriguez, specified a five-year moratorium on local tax hikes in the next five years.

The cityhood law, he said, also prohibits any increase in local taxes beyond 10 percent after the five-year period.

"Cityhood means more investors. It also means we are going to have our own city hospital and other public facilities that we could not have otherwise," Aquino said.

Of San Fernando’s 34 barangays, only Del Pilar, Lourdes, San Jose and San Pedro voted against cityhood.

Political observers perceive the cityhood law’s approval as a verdict on Aquino’s re-election bid.