The Legal Issue of Catbalogan's Cityhood

By ANTONIO MORALES
June 16, 2007

The issue of Catbalogan's cityhood being contested by the League of Cities, represented by its Secretary-General Mel Senen Sarmiento of Calbayog, is anchored on the fact that Catbalogan failed to comply with the new income requirement now pegged at 100 million pesos by the Local Government Code, as amended, in order for it to be converted as a component city of Samar. The other requirements being land area and population.

The crux of the matter is that Catbalogan failed to comply with the new requirement but was exempted together with other aspiring municipalities because these municipalities used to have incomes above the previous requirement of 20 million pesos. In effect, therefore, these municipalities have surpassed the old requirement but were blocked when the income requirement was increased by 500%. Since the bills converting these municipalities were already pending, meaning that they have been filed, in congress when the increased income requirement took effect, the bicameral committee of congress thought, and rightly so, that they should be grandfathered, meaning that they should be exempted from the new requirement since the bills pre-dated the new requirement.

It's Money that is causing the controversy.

The opposition of the League of Cities is not because they do not want somebody to belong to an elite group of local government units (LGUs) called "cities" but because their respective Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA) will be reduced with the entrance of new cities. An IRA is like a commission you get from the government for all BIR-collected taxes like corporate and personal income tax, sales tax (EVAT), estate tax, capital gains tax, gift tax, and other internally-generated income of the government. Cities get a fatter check from the central government than the municipalities hence the contention.

The current system is wrong.

The current system of giving more money to a more progressive LGU is highly questionable. The number one reason why Catbalogan wants to become a city is not to become independent and self-sufficient but to have more money from the national government or simply and plainly said to be more dependent from the national government.

IRA is like the lifeblood of LGUs. Without it, many LGUs will become bankrupt. The problem with this system is the too much centralization of the government. When the local government units rely so much on the national government for its simple operations then it should not have been created in the first place because it cannot stand on its own feet. Decentralizing tax collection and authority to tax should have been prioritized so these local government units should no longer be too dependent on the national government for income. It is sad that almost 90% of LGUs in the country are IRA-funded and the hopes of the Local Government Code of 1991 to create independent and self-reliant LGUs have failed miserably.

Back to the Legal Issue of Catbalogan's Cityhood.

The League of Cities will definitely go to the Supreme Court to question the validity of converting Catbalogan and other municipalities into cities for their failure to comply with the 100 million peso-income requirement. They will assail that even the president did not sign R.A. 9009, the organic act of converting Catbalogan into a component city. Many would ask now why GMA did not sign it into law. It was at the middle of the campaign season and she wanted a solomonic solution to the contention of the two opposing factions. She did not sign it to become a law but has merely allowed it to lapse to become a law by not doing anything to it after it was transmitted to her from congress. So, in effect, R.A. 9009 became a law by mere lapse of reglamentary period.

Is R.A. 9009 (An Act Converting the Municipality of Catbalogan into a Component City of the Province of Samar and for other purposes) valid?

Although this is a test case for the Supreme Court, it will eventually decide in granting the cityhood status for Catbalogan and others similarly situated. The doctrine on special and general law will come into play in their decision. R.A. 7160 or the Local Government Code of the Philippines is a general law while R.A. 9009 (Catbalogan Cityhood Law) is a special law. When a special law and a general law run in conflict with each other, the special law will become an exception to the general law. Thus, the cityhood of Catbalogan is actually an acceptance of congress that it is an exception to the general rule provided by the general law which is the Local Government Code. And, once the plebiscite is done and an overwhelming majority says yes to cityhood, the Supreme Court will recognize now the vox populi, vox dei doctrine that the aspirations and hopes of the people shall forever be respected and given due consideration as if it is a divine call.

How can Mel Sarmiento stop the cityhood of Catbalogan?

The only logical way for Mel Sarmiento to block the cityhood of Catbalogan is to campaign heavily against the ratification of the law, RA 9009, before the Catbalogan voters. It would be quite a gargantuan task for Mel and he could not possibly stop an idea whose time has come.