Cities of The Philippines - Creation of Cities

Creation of Cities

Congress is the lone legislative entity that can incorporate cities. Provincial and municipal councils can pass resolutions indicating a desire to have a certain area (usually an already-existing municipality or a cluster of barangays) declared a city after the requirements for becoming a city are met. As per Republic Act No. 9009, these requirements include:

• locally generated income of at least PHP 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 150,000 or more, as certified by the National Statistics Office (NSO); 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.

Members of Congress (usually the representatives of the district to which the proposed city belongs) then draft the legislation that will convert or create the city. After the bill passes through both the House of Representatives and the Senate and becomes an Act of Congress, the President signs the Act into law. If the Act goes unsigned after 30 days it still becomes law despite the absence of the President's signature.

Before 1987 many cities were created without any plebiscites conducted for the residents to ratify the city charter, most notable of which were cities that were incorporated during the early American colonial period (Manila and Baguio), and during the Commonwealth Era (1935-1946) such as Cavite City, Dansalan (now Marawi), Iloilo City, Bacolod City, San Pablo and Zamboanga City. In addition, the creation of cities before the enactment of the Local Government Code was solely at the discretion of Congress; no requirements had to be met in order to incorporate cities before the LGC became law. But since 1987 it has been constitutionally mandated that any change to the legal status of any local government unit requires the ratification by the residents that would be affected by such changes, thus all cities created after 1987, after meeting the requirements for cityhood as laid out in the Local Government Code of 1991 and Republic Act No. 9009 of 2001, acquired their corporate status only after the majority of its voting residents approved the charter.

It is also important to note that before 1983, there were no requirements for achieving 'city' status other than an approved city charter. This is what made it possible for several current cities such as Tangub or Canlaon to be conferred such a status despite their small population and locally generated income, which do not meet current standards. The relatively low income standard between 1992 and 2001 (which was PHP 20 million) also allowed several municipalities, such as Sipalay and Muñoz, to become cities despite not being able to meet the current PHP 100 million local income standard.