La Trinidad cityhood pressed

A CALL for cityhood of Benguet capital town has been made anew.

Lawmakers of La Trinidad have asked the aid of Benguet Congressman Nestor Fongwan Sr. for the filing of a bill for the conversion of the municipality into a component city of the province.

The resolution sought the conversion of the town to a city approved by the Municipal Council during Tuesday's regulation session introduced by Councilors Teddy Walang, Apolinario Bagano Jr., John Botiwey and Vice- Mayor Roderick Awingan.

"Conversion of the municipality into a component city of the

province will pave way for more development and added services to its growing population and to properly address issues and concerns commonly seen in rapidly developing urban communities," the approved measure reads.

Lawmakers said the Bureau of Local Government finance-Cordillera Administrative Region certified that the town has an annual income of P131,445,297.69 and P143,776,838.28 for 2013 and 2014.

The town's land area at 8,079.50 hectares and 129,133 population based on August 2016 census where it is expected to balloon based on a consistent population growth rate of 3.8%.

As per Republic Act No. 9009 requirements for cityhood include locally generated income of at least ?100 million (based on constant prices in the year 2000) for the last two consecutive years, as certified by the Department of Finance, and a population of at least 150,000, as certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA); or a contiguous territory of 100 square kilometers, as certified by the Land Management Bureau, with contiguity not being a requisite for areas that are on two or more islands.

The town had been clamoring for cityhood through past resolutions requesting legislators to file a bill in the Congress.

Copies of the resolution will be transmitted to Mayor's office and Office of Benguet Congressman for his appropriate action.