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Monday, March 10, 2003
Olango’s township bid on shelf
By Rose O. Verzosa
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
MAKING Olango Island and its neighboring islets into a town has been a popular clamor among its residents since 1998, but public support has remained mostly verbal, except for a bill filed for its conversion.
The 11 barangays in Olango and the islets of Pangan-an, Caubian and Ca-ohagan remain part of Lapu-Lapu City.
The bill seeking its separation from Lapu-Lapu, which Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz filed in 2001, is still with the House committee on local government.
The committee cannot hold further deliberations until all 11 barangay councils, the Lapu-Lapu City Council and the Cebu Provincial Board submit their respective resolutions supporting the bill.
Even before the Olango municipal bill can take off, doubts over its land requirement are already pulling it back.
Although its creation as a new town is exempt from the land requirement, its separation from Lapu-Lapu City will leave the latter with a land area that is less than the minimum for a city.
In his letter to Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district) last year, Lands Management Bureau Director Concordio Zuniga said Olango and its surrounding islets have an aggregate land area of 2,828 hectares.
This is below the 50-square-kilometer minimum land requirement set by the Local Government Code for the creation of a new municipality.
The code, though, exempts those towns comprising more than one island from this land requirement.
Smaller Lapu-Lapu
However, Zuñiga pointed out that the creation of Olango town will reduce Lapu-Lapu City’s land area to 2,882 hectares.
Lawyer Gonzalo Malig-on said this lessens Olango’s chances of becoming a separate town because the limitation is technical, which cannot be bypassed.
Soon-Ruiz is not yet giving this obstacle serious thought, considering that they have not yet even completed all the documentary requirements imposed by the House committee on local government.
She admitted, though, that the House committee, which is headed by Negros Oriental Rep. Emilio Macias II, is still very busy preparing amendments to the Local Government Code that creating new local government units is not the committee’s priority for now.
Still, Soon-Ruiz believes that to hasten its approval, the affected barangays must take the initiative in drawing support for their township.
While city and provincial officials are supportive of the move, the Province and the City cannot pass the required resolution without the affected barangays passing the resolution first.
City Councilor Alexander Gestopa, who was designated as the district councilor of Olango, admitted that none of the 11 barangays has formally passed the required resolution.
This does not mean, though, that their interest in the creation of Olango town has waned.
Basic services
Based on his consultations, Gestopa said majority of the residents and officials in Olango favor their eventual separation from Lapu-Lapu City.
But their support for the bill will only be manifested when their concerns over the island’s lack of basic services are properly addressed.
“Olango can already meet the requirements to become a town but we also have to look at its sustainability. It all goes down to sustainability,” said Gestopa.
The 24-hour electrification of Olango was already completed last year.
The island also has a landline telephone connection and cellular mobile phone signal. Its road network is also in place.
It has a mini-city hall, a district hospital and a number of elementary, secondary and vocational schools.
Gestopa said their only remaining concern is lack of potable water. He is hopeful that even this will be resolved soon since Soon-Ruiz’s office, the Department of Public Works and Highways and the City Government are working for the transfer of the desalination plant from an inland in Barangay Talima to Barangays Caw-oy and Tingo.
48th municipality
With its transfer, the desalination plant will become operational and it is expected to produce 10,000 liters of potable water daily.
Gestopa is hopeful that Olango will soon become the 48th municipality of Cebu, notwithstanding the contrary opinion made by the Lands Management Bureau.
Olango and its neighboring islets have reached a combined income of P11 million and the latest census showed that it has a 25,400 population, which is more than enough to qualify it to become a municipality.
The code merely provides that a municipality may be created if it has an average annual income, as certified by the provincial treasurer, of at least P2.5 million for the past two consecutive years based on the 1991 price index and a 25,000 population.
With Olango being even bigger and richer than some of the existing municipalities in Cebu, there’s no reason why it should not be entitled to become one and be allowed to enjoy all the rights and benefits due a municipality.
(March 10, 2003 issue)
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