CABANATUAN CITY, Nov. 8 (PNA) -– Governor Aurelio Matias Umali is opposing the city’s bid for a highly urbanized city (HUC) status, saying it is not yet ready for a change in status.
“I am against its bid to become a highly urbanized city,” Umali said in response to the early HUC bid of the city under Mayor Julius Cesar “Jay” Vergara.
“I think that as of now, Cabanatuan cannot still stand on its own that’s why we are against its conversion into a HUC,” Umali said, adding that he was never consulted by the mayor about this move.
Umali, however, would not specifically state whether he would wage a campaign against the city’s bid to attain HUC in the manner that the Josons did in 1997 when the issue was presented to the city’s residents in a plebiscite called for the purpose.
The governor regards Cabanatuan as still very much a part of Nueva Ecija, which is its “Big Brother.”
In the 1997 plebiscite convoked by the Commission on Elections called for by President Fidel V. Ramos in Proclamation No. 969, dated Feb. 13, 1997, the anti-HUC votes prevailed.
Once the city gains HUC status, the city’s voters – numbering about 200,000 – will no longer vote for governor and other provincial officials in succeeding elections and shall be independent from the province where resolutions and ordinances approved by the city’s Sanggunian would no longer be presented to the provincial SP for review.
The city would have its own representative in congress.
Mayor Vergara earlier stated, “We have had enough politics for the past 60 years. We are the first municipality in Central Luzon to have gained city status, but we still dwell in the cellar of inactivity. It is about time we get down to thinking about raising the economic stature of Cabanatuan. All these we can do by being independent, free from political interference of self-serving politicians who treat us as pawns for their political pursuits instead of as partners for growth, progress and development.”
“If we push for either having a lone congressional district, or an HUC status, we get to have congressional representation and for which the priority development assistance funds or ‘pork barrel,’ that go with it would surely go a long way towards maximizing economic development and over-all growth not only in Cabanatuan but spread throughout Nueva Ecija,” the mayor rationalized.
He also said he will present the matter of the city’s status to the city’s inhabitants in public consultations such as this present seminar conference. (PNA)
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Source: www.allvoices.com
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