Impeding Cabanatuan’s progress

At long last, the Supreme Court (SC) has given the Commission on Elections (Comelec) the go-signal for the much-awaited plebiscite on the conversion of Cabanatuan City into a highly urbanized city (HUC) but on condition that the plebiscite will be participated in by qualified registered voters of Nueva Ecija. (STAR, 4/24/14). The order revised the rule that limits the plebiscite only to qualified voters in Cabanatuan.

With due respect to the highest magistrates of the land, said condition does not sit well with the Cabanatueños, saying that it is highly impractical and entails a large budgetary allocations. Imagine all the barangays, towns, and cities in the province will vote in a political exercise that does not concern them. It seems awkward, they said. However, Nueva Ecija Governor Aurelio Umali who petitioned the SC to allow all qualified voters in the whole province to take part in the plebiscite, argued that “they have to because they would be affected, once Cabanatuan shall have become an HUC.”

The move to convert Cabanatuan, a 64-year-old progressive component city of Nueva Ecija into an HUC began in 1997 during the administration of then Mayor Manolette Liwag. However, the move did not prosper because then Nueva Ecija Governor Tommy Joson opposed and campaigned intensely against it. In 2010, under the administration of Mayor Jay Vergara, the plan for a dream HUC status surfaced-anew but incumbent Nueva Ecija Governor Aurelio Umali opposed it, because this would take away a huge chunk of the voters’ population in the third district, perceived to be his political stronghold. This would also mean loss of the provincial government’s share in the city’s revenue. Indeed, as in the past, petty reasons continue to impede Cabanatuan’s 17-year-old HUC bid to be more progressive. — PRUDENCIO E. MAGPAYO, Consultant, First Cabanatuan Ventures Corp, Cabanatuan City