Romualdez
TACLOBAN CITY — Mayor Alfred Romualdez is advocating for Tacloban City to have its own congressional representative, citing its status as a highly urbanized city (HUC).
However, Romualdez said he is leaving it to his cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, to file the necessary bill in Congress.
“I’ll leave it to him because he is the congressman,” the mayor said.
Creating a new congressional district requires an act of Congress.
Currently, Tacloban is part of Leyte’s first district, along with eight other towns. With over 146,000 registered voters, the city is considered the stronghold of the Romualdez political clan.
“I’ve been pushing for Tacloban to have its own congressional district. We are the only highly urbanized city in the country without one,” Mayor Romualdez said in a press interview on Monday, May 26.
Tacloban, the regional capital of Eastern Visayas, was declared an HUC in December 2008. There are 32 highly urbanized cities in the country.
The mayor said the city already meets the population requirement of at least 250,000 to qualify for its own congressional district. He added that having a separate district would allow the city to directly receive national government funding.
“Right now, we’re sharing funds with eight towns. If we had our own district, we would have our own budget allocation to support our programs and services,” Romualdez said.
Now on his third and final term as mayor, Romualdez previously served as Leyte’s first district representative from 1998 to 2001.
The elected vice mayor, Raymund, is Mayor Romualdez’ son while a son of Speaker Romualdez, Martin Jr., was elected as councilor of the city.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)
