A Reconnaissance of Philippine Cities (Part IV: The Evolution of the Laws on Cities)

Baguio City. Because of its special functions as the summer
capital of the Philippines, Baguio was declared in 1979 as
a highly urbanized city regardless of its income.
Photo credits: dawnlyndelle.wordpress.com

Complicated. 

That was the word I uttered to myself when I read the classifications of cities for the first time. It was so confusing that one will not grasp the provisions unless the background is known.

This article shall unravel the mysteries behind the puzzling legal framework and hopes to clear up ambiguities concerning the three types of cities. The provisions pertaining to these types of cities on the Local Government Code read:

Section 451. Cities, Classified. - A city may either be component or highly urbanized: Provided, however, That the criteria established in this Code shall not affect the classification and corporate status of existing cities. Independent component cities are those component cities whose charters prohibit their voters from voting for provincial elective officials. Independent component cities shall be independent of the province. 

Section 452. Highly Urbanized Cities.

xxx xxx xxx

Unless otherwise provided in the Constitution or this Code, qualified voters of independent component cities shall be governed by their respective charters, as amended, on the participation of voters in provincial elections.

Qualified voters of cities who acquired the right to vote for elective provincial officials prior to the classification of said cities as highly-urbanized after the ratification of the Constitution and before the effectivity of this Code, shall continue to exercise such right.

I could hardly grasp some of its portions. True, there were easy parts but the last two paragraphs of Section 452 were worded in a manner that forced me to read what happened and study how those paragraphs made its way to the Local Government Code.

I searched the net to understand more about these three types of cities. In a predictable turn of events, I stumbled upon Wikipedia’s article. As most people have said, Wikipedia lacks credibility but it’s a good starting point for a research – it can be edited by anybody but it is nevertheless replete with sources.

And so I did what I usually do when I write a thesis – I read through Wikipedia’s page without hinging my trust thereto and examined the articles cited on its footnotes. Fortunately, Wikipedia’s page turned out to be accurate as I later on checked with the sources cited there. I, however, still found the need to write this article to suit the needs of lawyers and law students alike.

Rapid Changes in the Laws Governing Cities (1979-91)

As early as the beginnings of the Spanish Conquest in 1565, Cebu was already a city. However, this article will no longer dwell on the entire history of cities in the Philippines – how they were created, dissolved, the laws that used to govern them, etc. Instead, it focuses on that short period of time when the laws on cities experienced many changes over the course of only 12 years in order to show the evolution of the current law on cities.

Before 1979, there was only one type of city. The laws did not see to it that a classification was needed. As mentioned in a previous article, all cities have their own charters - the statutes creating them. But despite the varying city charters, the 1951 case of Teves v. Comelec held that all cities are independent of any province – just like the current highly urbanized and independent component cities that exist today.

In the Teves case, the court encountered a city where the charter was silent on the city residents’ participation in provincial elections. There was then a legislative practice to include in the city charter a provision where the residents’ right to vote for provincial candidates were either recognized or withdrawn expressly.

The case of Dumaguete City presented a novel issue: its charter was silent on the voting privileges of its residents. Petitioner's contention was that, as said voters were residents of the province of Negros Oriental, they were clearly entitled to vote for provincial positions.

However, the Supreme Court overruled the petitioner’s position explaining that “[t]he creation of Dumaguete City has made it a political entity separate from and independent of the province of Negros Oriental.” This ruling necessarily implies that, when a city is created, it becomes independent of any province and it will take an express provision in the charter for the residents to have the right to vote for provincial positions.

Batas Pambansa 51 (approved December 22, 1979)

The 1973 Constitution mentions for the first time two of the present-day types of cities – the highly urbanized and the component – with the express statement that the HUC shall be independent of the province while the component city was to be under its administrative supervision. The Constitution did not define the characteristics of either type of cities. It was not until the tail-end of the 1970s, at the height of the Martial Law era, when these types of cities were given their definitions.

Batas Pambansa 51 describes the HUC as a city with an annual regular income derived from infrastructure and general funds of not less than forty million pesos. All other cities were regarded as component cities.

The classification of a city into an HUC automatically removes the residents’ rights to vote for provincial positions. Meanwhile, the residents of component cities were given such rights to vote but, upholding the Teves case, BP 51 likewise declared that when the charter of a component city was silent on the manner of voting, the residents thereof were not to have this right.

Because there were no independent component cities at that time, the cities that would later on become ICCs under the Local Government Code were still under the administrative supervision of the province, following the said provision in the 1973 Constitution. They were lumped alongside other component cities.

Baguio City was a special case. Due to its special functions as the summer capital of the Philippines, it was classified by BP 51 as a highly urbanized city irrespective of its income.

Omnibus Election Code (approved December 3, 1985)

The landmark case of Teves lost its persuasive effect in 1985 with the emergence of the Omnibus Election Code. Unlike BP 51, the OEC removed the presumption against the residents’ rights to vote for provincial positions. 

Its Section 30 gave residents such voting privileges in the absence of a specific declaration in the city charter. It states that “[u]nless their respective charters provide otherwise, the electorate of component cities shall be entitled to vote in the election for provincial officials of the province of which it is a part.”

The 1987 Constitution (ratified February 2, 1987)

The Marcos administration was toppled in barely two months after the approval of the Omnibus Election Code in 1985. The political turmoil that the country was experiencing and the victory of the People Power revolutionaries presented yet another opportunity for the sovereign people to change the laws on cities.

Indeed, there was a change in the laws. While the OEC earlier provided that when the charter is silent, the residents of component cities shall participate in the provincial elections, the new constitution made a step even further, away from the Teves doctrine, by providing that “[t]he voters of component cities within a province, whose charters contain no such prohibition, shall not be deprived of their right to vote for elective provincial officials.”

This provision did not sound material at that time and it didn’t seem to change anything at all. However, in the latter part of 1991, this constitutional provision became so forceful that it compelled the inclusion of an awkward clause in the Local Government Code.

The Local Government Code of 1991 (took effect January 1, 1992)

The current Local Government Code was conceived in 1991 and took effect on the first day of the following year. It is the current law governing cities in the Philippines. Its Section 452 contains the above-mentioned awkward clause:

“Qualified voters of cities who acquired the right to vote for elective provincial officials prior to the classification of said cities as highly-urbanized after the ratification of the Constitution and before the effectivity of this Code, shall continue to exercise such right.”

This clause came into existence because of the said constitutional provision. By virtue of this clause, the residents of Lucena and Mandaue who became voters thereof before these cities became HUCs (both of which in 1991) still hold voting privileges for provincial positions despite the current HUC status of these cities.

1991 also saw the conception of the third type of city, the independent component city, when it was for the first time introduced in the Local Government Code. Under this type, only five are existing today – Santiago, Ormoc, Naga (Camarines Sur), Dagupan and Cotabato.

Independent component cities are those component cities whose charters prohibit their voters from voting for provincial elective officials. Independent component cities shall be independent of the province.(LGC, Sec. 451)

The Local Government Code also provides that the criteria established in the code shall not affect the classification and corporate status of existing cities then (id., Sec. 452) so even though an HUC under previous laws would have not qualified as such under the LGC, they were not demoted into mere component cities despite the changes in the requirements.

Summary

The changes in the laws of cities were caused by the Teves doctrine but were precipitated by the ruling’s loss of persuasive effect few decades later. The changes were piecemeal but gave people a clear view on the evolution of the laws and a better understanding on the current classifications of cities.