Salapuddin confident on President Arroyo nod for Lamitan cityhood before May polls

House deputy speaker for Mindanao Gerry Salapuddin is confident that the Municipality of Lamitan in Basilan, once siege by the extremist Abu Sayyaf group, will gain cityhood status soon before the May 14 elections.

This came as the Senate approved on February 5, 2007 the conversion of 12 towns in the country, including Lamitan and three other municipalities in Mindanao.

Salapuddin, author of the bill converting Lamitan into city, said he is very confident that President Arroyo would be able to sign the cityhood bills into law before the May polls.

“It will be a blessing to the people of Lamitan and Basilan in general. We have long wanted this to happen,” said Salapuddin, who is serving his final and last term as congressman.

Salapuddin, who also authored the cityhood of Isabela town, is running for gubernatorial post in Basilan under the administration's Kampi-Lakas coalition party.

If signed into a law, Lamitan will be the newly-created city in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and the second city in Basilan next to Isabela City.

But the country's league of city mayors is questioning the legality of the bills converting 12 towns into cities. The league is also petitioning the Comelec from holding plebiscites.

The 12 towns include Lamitan, Basilan; Batac, Ilocos Norte; Baybay, Leyte; Bayugan, Agusan del Sur; Bogo, Cebu; Borongan, Eastern Samar; Cabadbaran, Agusan del Norte; Carcar, Cebu; Catbalogan, Samar; Tabuk, Kalinga; Tandag, Surigao del Sur; and Tayabas, Quezon.

The city mayors believe that the cities' share from the internal revenue allotment (IRA) would get smaller if the government would allow the conversion of 12 unqualified towns.

“That has always been their (city mayors) position but they are not the lawmakers. We are the lawmakers,” Salapuddin said.

“Why are they so selfish to deny what is due to others?” Salapuddin asked. “Everyone especially the depressed areas want also to be developed just like them.”

He stressed the best way of equitable sharing of the national wealth and income of the government is by creating cities specifically those provinces without cities yet.

“As I have always said there is no better way of developing of countering rebellion and insurgency in the countryside than socially and economically uplifting it.” (HG)