By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff Reporter
City of Batac—Local
officials here enjoin all government offices, private institutions and all
concerned to use “City of Batac” as the official name of Batac and not “Batac
City’’.
In a resolution approved by the Sangguniang Panlungsod, it
calls for the use of City of Batac as its official name as based on Republic
Act No. 9407.
Being classified as fourth class municipality in 1987
then becoming a first-class municipality in November 2005, Batac hurdled all
requirements needed to become a city on 2007 under the administration of former
Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta.
On June 23, 2007, Batac was proclaimed as component city
by virtue of RA 9407, “An act converting the municipality of Batac in the
Province Ilocos Norte into a component city be known as the City of Batac”.
In November of 2008, the Supreme Court of the Philippines
heard a petition filed by the League of Cities of the Philippines declaring the
Cityhood Law (RA 9047) with the other 15 cities as ‘unconstitutional’.
However, the 16 newly converted cities including Batac
fought for their cityhood.
After a long fight, the Supreme Court finally declared
the cityhood laws converting the 16 municipalities into component cities as “constitutional
in a “final and executory” decision on June 28, 2011.
At present, Batac councilor Kitchel Jomarie Pungtilan,
who sponsored the measure, said there are still some who use “Batac City”,
which is supposed to be “City of Batac” after the RA that made it a city.
In view of this, Mr. Pungtilan said they need to enjoin
all concerned to use the official name “City of Batac’’ so the people may know.
Batac Vice Mayor Atty. Windell D. Chua, also one of the
main sponsors, said they needed to pass the resolution to formally recognize
the official name of Batac not for local residents but to those from outside
the city to use,
Mr. Chua stressed that “City of Batac” should strictly be
used so that the children would be able inculcate into their minds the official
name of Batac, including all government and private agencies, and other
institutions so that the people not only in the city of Batac would be
knowledgeable and reminded of the official name of Batac.
In a random interview with the people of Batac
particularly students, their schools already use the “City of Batac” as the Batac
Dept. of Education began using this name after its conversion into a city.
However, they admitted that they also sometime still use “Batac
City” in their school work and teachers ignored this instead of correcting them.
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