PB Member Backs Bill on Conversion of Cebu Town into City

(PNA) — Cebu Provincial Board Member Grecilda “Gigi” Sanchez said she supports Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia’s bill seeking to convert the western Cebu town of Balamban into a city.

Sanchez said Balamban is already “ripe” to become a city with the Transcentral Highway linking it to Cebu City.

Garcia (Cebu, third district), a former three-term Cebu governor, filed House Bill No. 4515 which seeks to convert Balamban into a city.

Balamban, some 50 kilometers west of Cebu City, is the home of one of the leading shipbuilders in the world, Tsuneishi Heavy Industries (Cebu) Inc. (THICI).

Shipbuilding, ship repair and manufacturing of outfittings for ships and vessels constitute the main business of the company.

THICI employs more than 10,000 workers.

Sanchez’s colleague and relative, PB Member Alex Binghay, had already expressed support to the move when it was first introduced by Garcia’s brother, former Rep. Pablo John Garcia, in 2011.

The PB then passed the resolution sponsored by Binghay and former board member Caesar Ian Geronimo Zambo supporting Pablo John Garcia’s bill, which failed to hurdle the House of Representatives.

Binghay, a former mayor of the town, earlier said Balamban has met the two requirements set under Republic Act 9009 or the amended Local Government Code of 1991.

The law requires a town to be converted into a city to have a locally-generated average annual income of at least P100 million for the last two consecutive years based on 2000 constant prices; a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers and a population of not less than 100,000 inhabitants. (PNA)LAP/EB