The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Aklan voted on Feb. 8 to endorse to the House of the Representatives a municipal council resolution on Malay’s bid to become a city.
According to the SP members, the cityhood of Malay – currently classified a first-class town – would mean the further development of the municipality and its famous Boracay Island, and greater autonomy.
Cityhood would mean a bigger Internal Revenue Allotment for Malay. This, in turn, would improve the delivery of basic services, they stressed.
Section 450 of Republic Act (RA) 7160 as amended by RA 9009 (Local Government Code of 1991) states a municipality may be converted into a component city if: it has a locally generated average annual income of P100,000 for the last two consecutive years as certified by the Department of Finance, it has a contiguous territory of at least 100 square kilometers and it has a population of not less than 150,000 inhabitants.
According to SP member Esel Flores, Malay was able to sustain its tax collection of over P169 million for two years pre-pandemic (2018 and 2019), exceeding the cityhood threshold prescribed under existing laws.
The average annual income is based on the Statement of Receipt and Expenditures submitted by the Municipal Treasurer of Malay, Aklan, and computed using the 2000 constant prices and in accordance with the Department Order No. 031-2018 issued by the Secretary of Finance.
Because of its robust tourism industry, the municipality of Malay, Aklan is considered as having the strongest economy in all the municipalities in Region 6, and the richest municipality of Aklan in terms of income and annual budget. The tourism industry of Boracay Island is the catalyst of Malay’s economic growth, bringing in investors and helping transform the municipality into a cosmopolitan area.
The high-income municipality is also qualified to be converted into a component city without regard to the size of its population or land area. Last October 2020, the Land Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources certified that Malay was composed of more than one island, hence, exempted from the land area requirement of Republic Act 9009.
According to the 2015 census, Malay had a population of 52,973 people.
Malay is politically subdivided into 17 barangays, three (Balabag, Manoc-Manoc, and Yapak) of which are situated within Boracay Island, while the rest are in mainland Malay.
Last year, the local government of Malay created a technical working group to study the cityhood plan.
It also wanted Aklan 2nd District’s Cong. Teodorico Haresco to sponsor a House bill on the cityhood./PN
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