Consolacion seeks population recount in bid for cityhood

CEBU, Philippines —  Consolacion, Cebu Vice Mayor Teresa Alegado has requested the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to re-conduct a census owing to the decline in population in seven barangays.

This is a dilemma for Consolacion, which has been vying for cityhood since 2015.

The Local Government Code of 1991 states that for a municipality or a cluster of barangay (villages) to be converted into a component city, it must have a population of not less than 150,000 inhabitants, certified by the National Statistics Office.

Based on a PSA survey last year, the town had 148,012 residents.

But Alegado said the population of the town’s seven barangays were reduced as compared to the population under “registered barangay inhabitants”.

The seven barangays are Cabangahan, Cansaga, nangka, Pitogo, Poblacion Occidental, Tugbongan and Tolotolo.

“We are not satisfied nga ang among pito ka barangay gipa-ososan kuno kay migamay ang population and that is very impossible and there is something wrong,” the vice mayor said in the town’s official Facebook post.

Alegado said the Sangguniang Bayan has already passed a resolution requesting PSA for resurvey and she already wrote a letter to PSA for the same request.

She said the town will shoulder the expenses for the population resurvey.

Aside from population requirement, other requirements for cityhood are an average annual income, certified by the Department of Finance, of at least P100 million for the last two consecutive years based on 2000 constant prices; and a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers as certified by the Lands Management Bureau.

Although the town has not complied with the land area requirement, the former town mayor earlier said the municipal government had already complied with the income requirement needed for it to become a component city.—  KQD (FREEMAN)