How does ‘City of Liloan’ sound?

Rep. Duke Frasco files bill seeking to convert the northern Cebu town into a component city

The Bacayan Lighthouse (Parola) in Catarman, Liloan, is one of the historic landmarks in the town that is now seeking its charter as the eighth component city of the Province of Cebu. CDN Digital PHOTO | Cris Evert Lato-Ruffolo

CEBU CITY, Philippines–Will Liloan be the eighth component city of the province of Cebu?

It could be soon as Representative Vincent Franco “Duke” Frasco of Cebu’s Fifth District has filed a bill seeking to convert Liloan, a first income class municipality located some 22 kilometers north of Cebu City, into a component city of the province.

Liloan is presently one of the component municipalities under Cebu’s Fifth District.

“Cityhood will undoubtedly open the floodgates of a multitude of economic opportunities for the people of LIloan, which will ultimately redound to the improvement of the delivery of services, but most of all, to the betterment of the quality of life of the people of Liloan and those living in its neighboring communities,” Frasco said in his explanatory note to House Bill 5031, which he filed in Congress on October 2, 2019.

For a town to be considered for conversion into a city, Republic Act 9009 requires that it must have an annual local income of at least P100 million in the past two years as certified by the Department of Finance. It also needs to either have a territory of 100 square kilometers or 10,000 hectares or a population of at least 150,000.

Liloan has logged P103 million of local revenue collection in 2018. Based on the last census of population of the Philippine Statistics Authority in 2015, Liloan had 118,753 residents with a growth rate of 3.63 percent. Applying such growth rate, Liloan is projected to have around 155,000 residents in 2020.

“The conversion of Liloan from a municipaloty to a component city cannot anymore be delayed because such conversion will greatly booost the capacity of the local government unit to address and to respond to the increasing needs and demands of its constituents, investors and other visitors amid ever changing economic and political landscape,” Frasco said.

Among the major infrastructure projects seen to boost further Liloan’s economic activities are the P2-billion Asturias-Danao-Liloan Bypass and Diversion Road; P28-billion 73-kilometer Mega Cebu Expressway, which will provide a faster route from the City of Naga in the south to Danao City in the north; and the P1.5 billion Pier 88 Port Development project, which already commenced last March 2019.

Prior to his first election as district representative in May 2019, Frasco served as a three term mayor of Liloan from 2007 to 2016. He also served as vice mayor until January 2017 when he was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte to become a commissioner in the Cebu Port Authority (CPA).

The town is currently under the leadership of Mayor Ma. Esperanza Christina Garcia-Frasco, Rep. Frasco’s wife and the daughter of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. /bmjo