P-Noy requested to declare Cabanatuan a highly urbanized city

The Cabanatuan City hall

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija, July 12, 2010-The Sangguniang Panlunsod (SP) has passed a resolution requesting President Aquino III to issue a proclamation declaring this city as a highly urbanized city (HUC), opening up a head-on collision with the camp of Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali who is strongly opposing the move.

During its regular Monday session, the SP chaired by Vice Mayor Jolly Garcia, passed the resolution stating that the city has met all the necessary requirements for conversion, including income, to be forwarded to the Chief Executive.

Eleven of the city councilors are mostly allies of Cabanatuan City Mayor Julius Cesar Vergara who signed the resolution except Councilor Jess Diaz who was absent.

Councilor Ariel Severino said that the copies of the resolution will formally come out today (Tuesday). After the issuance of a presidential proclamation, a plebiscite will be held among Cabanatuenos to ratify the proclamation.  

The council also passed a resolution requesting Umali’s wife, third district Rep. Czarina Umali to sponsor a bill in the House of Representatives declaring Cabanatuan as a lone congressional district.

The passage of the twin resolutions came nine months after Umali and Vergara parted ways over the HUC issue which the former vehemently opposed. Umali said Cabanatuan is not yet ready and ill-prepared to become HUC, adding its conversion would cripple the delivery of basic services to Cabanatuenos.

Vergara has argued that the HUC conversion of Cabanatuan is long overdue, saying its full development could not take off while under the provincial government.

It is the second attempt to convert the city into HUC. In 1995, Vergara’s predecessor, then-mayor Manolette Liwag pushed for HUC conversion which was subsequently proclaimed by then-President Fidel Ramos.

However, the move lost badly during the plebiscite, largely due to the opposition made by the Josons. 

If it becomes HUC, Cabanatuan would be politically independent from the provincial government and voters from Cabanatuan will no longer vote for governor, a move seen as detrimental to Umali who counts on this city as one of his bailiwicks.

Also, all taxes collected in the city would no longer be remitted to the province and all resolutions and ordinances passed by the city council would no longer be reviewed by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.          

Umali said a HUC status would remove the powers of the provincial government and the SP to check possible abuses of city officials. He said city officials may abuse their powers and this could trigger corruption in “high places.”

“If you are a HUC and you are the mayor who also happens to own a utility, then that's a frightening scenario,” Umali said, apparently referring to Vergara whose family owns the Cabanatuan Electric Corp. (Celcor).

He said since the provincial government and SP no longer wield control over the city government and city officials, there will no longer be a higher authority to check on possible abuses and legislate ordinances that would bear down on these abuses.

“If, for example, there is an increase in the power rates of Celcor, who is there to check on the  abuse if there is any of the Celcor?,” he said.

Umali said it would be erroneous on the part of the Vergara camp to say that those objecting to HUC are playing politics, which, the mayor, said, has been dominating the province over the past 60 years.

“My I ask the mayor's camp, who was engaged in petty politics for the past 60 years? I was the one who stood up against such kind of politics. And when I rose up against that kind of politics, it was only then when he took the cue and followed my lead,” he said, adding that ever since he fought partisan politics, he pushed hard for political reforms which are now clearly seen and felt in the province.

“Converting Cabanatuan into a HUC and making it a separate political subdivision from Nueva Ecija is delivering the wrong message to the people, tantamount to saying Cabanatuenos are no longer Novo Ecijanos which is exactly not the case in point,” the governor said.

He said that when Cabanatuan becomes HUC, we are creating the wrong impression that the city is an independent republic. “Are we now saying the people of Cabanatuan are no longer the people of Nueva Ecija? What happens to me who is from Cabanatuan? Will I be deprived of my identity?” he asked. (Jason de Asis)