Pampanga village chief wants to regain lost territory

• Source: http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/pampanga-village-chief-wants-to-regain-lost-territory/
• Sunday, August 9, 2015

By Ashley Manabat

ANGELES CITY—The prosperous barangay of Balibago was downsized to prevent it from eventually separating from the city and becoming a new municipality. This in effect is what Balibago Barangay Captain Tony Mamac tried to explain at the media forum “Talk Widus” at the Prism Lounge of Widus Hotel and Casino last Wednesday organized by the Pampanga Press Club in cooperation with the hotel.

Mamac said he intends to regain his village’s lost territory after it was gerrymandered during the time of Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin who was city mayor from 1998 to 2007.

Mamac said Lazatin’s action, backed with the non-opposition of then-Balibago Barangay Captain Noel Flores and the late Malabanias Barangay Captain Thelmo Lalic, has solidified the then-mayor’s gerrymandering move.

Lalic, a known close supporter of Lazatin, gained from the gerrymandering with the acquisition of new territory for his barangay which included SM City Clark.

Mamac said that when SM City Clark was opened in May 2006, it acquired all its permits from Barangay Balibago.

Until now, Mamac said, SM Clark tenants unknowingly go to the Balibago Barangay Hall, less than a kilometer from SM, to get their permits only to be directed to Barangay Malabanias which is located in the downtown area or about 5 kilometers from SM.

Mamac said it was also during Lazatin’s time when Barangay Pulung Maragul, located at the eastern border of Balibago, also gained the latter’s territory including Don Bonifacio Subdivision.

Just recently, the raging controversy over the location of the Capilion Corp. Pte. Ltd. project at the main gate of the Clark Freeport revealed that SM City Clark and the Bayanihan Park are actually excluded from the free port by virtue of Republic Act (RA) 9400 which amended RA 7227, or the Bases Conversion and Development Act.

RA 9400 provides that the 22-hectare commercial area that is now occupied by SM City Clark and another 7.5 hectares covering the Bayanihan Park are excluded from the free port. Armed with this information, Mamac said he intends to reclaim his barangay’s lost territory.

He said RA 7160, or the Local Government Code of the Philippines, states that the territory of a barangay cannot be altered without a corresponding city ordinance and a plebiscite. The law states that as the basic political unit, “the barangay may be created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundary substantially altered, by law or by an ordinance of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan or Sangguniang Panlungsod, subject to approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite to be conducted by the Comelec…shall be necessary.”

Mamac, who won his first term in 2007, said he is now studying his next move to reclaim Balibago’s lost territories. According to the law, “a municipality may be created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundary substantially altered only by an act of Congress and subject to the approval by a majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite to be conducted by the Comelec…” The law also states 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 last two consecutive years based on the 1991 constant prices; a population of at least 25,000 inhabitants as certified by the National Statistics Office; and a contiguous territory of at least 50 square kilometers as certified by the Lands Management Bureau.”

Barangay Balibago has a daytime population of 45,000 to 48,000, which doubles up during nighttime and weekends since it is the main entertainment district not only of the city but the province, as well. The infamous Fields Avenue is located in the village.

Balibago’s land area has been reduced to only 160 hectares even as it presently hosts majority of the hotels in the city, Pagcor’s Casino Filipino, hundreds of restaurants, banks, malls and upscale residential subdivisions with an annual income of P23 million as of last year. Barangay Balibago has a higher income and population than at least six other Pampanga towns—Santo Tomas, Sasmuan, Santa Rita, Santa Ana, San Luis and San Simon.