Bataoil Joins Cojuangco's Lingayen Cityhood Bid

TO CARVE - OUT 2 BRGYS IN BUGALLON

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The mayor in this capital town collaborated the ideas of his district congressman that qualification for a cityhood here needs it to carve out two villages on its neighboring town’s Bugallon to satisfy the law's land area or population requirement.

“Maganda ang solution ni Congressman na magtanong tayo sa ibang bayan kung sakali pumayag iyong ibang barangay na maging annex natin madagdagan iyong land area at population maaring mag qualify tayo. Sa ngayon, malayo pa,” declared by Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil on the cityhood’s bid in a meeting held recently with his constituents. He was accompanied in a visit at a certain village by Pangasinan 2nd District Engineering Office District Engineer Edita Manuel of the Department of Public Works & Highway and 2^nd District Rep. Mark O. Cojuangco.

LINGAYEN MAYOR Leopoldo Bataoil (left, photo) and Pangasinan 2nd District Cong. Mark Cojuangco.

The solon said that this first class town could encourage the residents of the two barangays to join for cityhood.

“Maabot po natin iyong P220 million puwede na tayo maging siyudad. Doon sa kakulangan po ng barangays andito sa side ng Agno River. Noong araw po lumiliko ang Agno River ngayon dumidiretso na sila. So may dalawang barangay ngayon andito po sa side natin puwede po natin silang mahikayat na sumali sa Lingayen so madadagdagan ang ating population para maging siyudad tayo. I think papayag kayo, di ba?” the newly elected District Representative told the residents here about the prospect of these villages in Bugallon to capitulate as part of Lingayen.

 Under the amended Section 450 (Republic Act  11683) of the Local Government Code of 1991, the requirements for cityhood by a municipality or a cluster of barangays are the following: a locally generated average annual income, as certified by the Department of Finance, of at least One hundred million pesos (P100,000,000.00) for the last two consecutive years based on 2000 constant prices, and if it has either of the following requisites: "(i) a territory of at least one hundred (100) square kilometers, as certified by the Land Management Bureau; or (ii) a population of not less than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) inhabitants, as certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In the amended law, it takes only one requirement of either territory or population after the municipality or a cluster of villages complied with the One hundred million pesos’ local income it collected from the last two years.

A city can only be created by an act of Congress and subject to approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite to be conducted by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) in the local government units (LGUs) directly affected.

This town has a population, land area and local income of 107, 728 (2020 Census), 62.76 square kilometers and P88 million, respectively.

A village under the city can benefit more financially than being under the patronage of a municipality.

Bugallon is under the mayoralty of Prescilla Espino whose husband former Governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. and son former 2^nd District Congressman Jumel Espino are political nemesis of Cojuangco since the time his wife Kimi was a District Representative of the province’s 5^th Congressional District. Cojuangco defeated in the May 9, 2022 election Rep. Espino.

The other two ideas of the newly elected Congressman to make Lingayen a city are to make it as a headquarter of the six nuclear power plants he advocated to be built in the nearby fourth class town’s Labrador and conversion of the sprawling Brgy. Estanza to an economics park. 

“So papaano po papalakihin ang income? No.1 na po iyan kung merong kumpanyang darating dito para itayo ang nuclear plant sa Labrador ang No. 1 requirement po nila sa Lingayen. No. 1 po iyan so dito sila magbabayad ng buwis”.

Each nuclear behemoth, he said, cost U.S $4 billion or Php P224 billion.

“Kaya magbabayad lahat ng kontratista na gagawa po diyan. Dito natin pa e-register sa bayan ng Lingayen para magkaroon po tayo ng local income e automatic ilang bilyong pesong halaga ang makamtang kita dito natin”.

The last one is the transformation of Barangay Estanza to a 184 hectares’ eco-park that would generate employment to the residents of the towns of Binmaley, Labrador, Bugallon, Aguilar, Mangatarem and Basista.

“Iyan iyong binabalak ni Governor (Ramon Guico, III) na eco-park sa Barangay Estanza 184 hectares po iyon na e-developed,” the solon disclosed.

He explained that buildings will be built in that village to host the lucrative earning Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Call Centers to cater with customers abroad.