Meycauayan bids for cityhood

MEYCAUAYAN, Bulacan — For the second time in five years, residents of this industrial town will decide whether to convert the town into a component city.

"It’s about time, Meycauayan will become a city," Rep. Reylina Nicolas told The STAR in a telephone interview on Friday.

As the principal author of House Bill 4397 seeking to convert Meycauayan into a city, Nicolas re-filed the cityhood bid last Nov.14, after the first bid filed by then Rep. Angelito Sarmiento lost in a plebiscite on March 30, 2001.

Nicolas’ bill later became Republic Act 9356 after it was signed into law by President Arroyo last Oct. 2.

"I tried to re-file it in the 12th Congress but the revenue requirement for a town to be converted into a city was raised from P20 million to P100 million," she said.

Since then, Meycauayan has increased its tax collection and exceeded the P100 million revenue mark, thus qualifying for the conversion into a component city of the province of Bulacan.

Nicolas said that they are confident that this town’s second attempt for cityhood would succeed.

In 2001, Florentino Blanco and Danny Javier, both opposition candidates in the May elections openly campaigned for the rejection of the cityhood bid.

Blanco and Javier succeeded in convincing the people to reject the cityhood of Meycauayan but both lost to incumbent Mayor Eduardo Alarilla.

Records show that in the 2001 cityhood plebiscite, 22,897 voters cast their votes and majority or 14,788 voters rejected the bid, while only 8,109 voted for the town’s conversion into a city. — Dino Balabo