LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The municipal government welcomed the filing of two proposed bills in the House of Representatives by Benguet caretaker congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap providing available opportunities for this capital town to be converted into a city.
Mayor Romeo K. Salda also commended the gesture of the lawmaker for the conduct of the required public consultations with the different stakeholders to get their input on how to improve the bills to suit the interests of the constituents of the municipality.
“We welcome the opportunity given to the municipality to become a city under two options. We hope we will reach a consensus on how to make our fast-growing municipality one of the cities of the country,” Mayor Salda stressed.
Earlier, Congressman filed House Bill (HB) 6366 that seeks to automatically convert the capital towns of provinces with no component cities, independent component cities or highly urbanized cities within its territorial jurisdiction, into a component city and House Bill 6467 that seeks to convert the municipality of La Trinidad, Province of Benguet into a component city to be known as the City of La Trinidad.
In his recent visit to the province, the lawmaker disclosed the bill will jumpstart the public discourse on the need to upgrade the status of the first-class municipality to a component city and any consensus reached will be incorporated as the final version of the proposed law that will be enacted.
Under HB 6367, the City of La Trinidad shall comprise the preset territory of the existing municipality.
La Trinidad is located 3 kilometers north of Baguio and is 256 kilometers north of Manila. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Tublay, on the south by Baguio City, on the west by Sablan and Tuba.
However, the bill stated that the same will be without prejudice to the resolution of appropriate agency or forum of existing boundary disputes or cases involving questions of territorial jurisdiction between the municipality of La Trinidad and the adjoining local government units, provided, that the territorial jurisdiction of the disputed area or areas shall remain with the local government unit the final resolution of the case.
Yap claimed La Trinidad lacks the minimum 10,000 hectares land area for the same to be converted into a component city but there are other remedies that could be adopted to ensure its compliance, thus, the conduct of the needed public consultations to get the suggestions and recommendations on how to proceed with the town’s cityhood that had been pending over the past several years.
Salda claimed that the municipal government will be awaiting for the notices from the concerned House committee on the next steps to be undertaken to advance the deliberations of the proposed bill that will lead to its eventual passage during the present Congress.
By HENT
Photo by Armando M. Bolislis
