Cities of the Philippines
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A city (lungsod, sometimes siyudad, in Filipino and Tagalog) is a tier of local government in the Philippines. Cities are in the same hierarchical level as municipalities, but under the Local Government Code of 1991, cities are given special treatment in terms of bigger share from the internal revenue allotment (IRA) which forms part of the city's budget. Cities, like municipalities, are composed of barangays and are governed by elective officials such as Mayor as Local Chief Executive, Vice-Mayor, and councilors as well as appointive officials heading the different local offices under them.
A number of cities in the country act independently from any province and are self-governing as decreed by Philippine Law through an Act of Congress. They are classified as chartered cities. They have their own Representatives in the Congress. Examples of these are Valenzuela City and Zamboanga City. A significant proportion of these chartered cities are also classified as HUCs, or Highly Urbanized Cities. Manila, Quezon City, and Davao City are examples of these cities. The second type of cities are component cities, which are part of a province and are thus governed as part of the latter. They do not have autonomy or representation in the Philippine Congress, as Chartered Cities do. They depend on their provincial government for support and representation. Examples are Tarlac City in Tarlac province, and Palayan City, in Nueva Ecija province, and Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur province. There are, however, some component cities that are somewhat independent, like Ormoc City in Leyte.
Quezon City, in Metro Manila is the most populous city in the Philippines with over 2,000,000 residents. Davao City, is one of the largest cities in the world in terms of land area, occupying more than 2,500 square kilometers.
There are two metropolitan areas in the Philippines. Metro Manila is the largest conurbation or urban agglomeration in the country. It is composed of the city of Manila plus 16 neighboring cities and municipalities. The second is Metro Cebu in Cebu Province. It is centered on Cebu City, the provincial capital plus 12 surrounding cities and municipalities.
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[edit] Classification
[edit] City classification
Highly Urbanized Cities - Cities with a minimum population of two hundred thousand (200,000) inhabitants, as certified by the National Statistics Office, and with the latest annual income of at least Fifty Million Pesos (P50,000,000.00) based on 1991 constant prices, as certified by the city treasurer.
Chartered Cities - Cities that have been created by an Act of Congress and are run as an independent government with the Mayor as its Chief Executive, a Vice-Mayor, City Council, one Congressional District and Representative per every 250,000 population count, a Police force, a common seal, and the power to take, purchase, receive, hold, lease, convey, and disposes of real and personal property for the general interests of the City, condemn private property for public use (eminent domain), contract and be contracted with, sue and exercise all the powers conferred to it by Congress.
Independent Component Cities - Cities whose charters prohibit their voters from voting for provincial elective officials. Independent component cities shall be independent of the province.
Component Cities - Cities which do not meet the above requirements shall be considered component cities of the province in which they are geographically located. If a component city is located within the boundaries of two (2) or more provinces, such city shall be considered a component of the province of which it used to be a municipality.
Definitions taken from National Statistical Coordination Board.
[edit] Income classification
Cities are classified according to average annual income based on the previous 3 calendar years. [1]
- 1st class - P250 million or more
- 2nd class - P155 million or more but less than P250 million
- 3rd class - P100 million or more but less than P155 million
- 4th class - P70 million or more but less than P100 million
- 5th class - P35 million or more but less than P70 million
- 6th class - Below P 35 million
[edit] League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP)
The League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP) is a non-profit organization and is not a government agency. It has a membership of 117 cities and was founded in 1988. The organization was formed to help coordinate efforts to improve governance and local autonomy and to tackle issues such as preserving the environment and improving public works..
[edit] List of Cities
As of December 2004, there are 117 cities in the Philippines.
Note: For statistical purposes, independent cities are listed under the province to which they are most closely associated with, such as Baguio City in Benguet, Zamboanga City in Zamboanga del Sur, and Davao City in Davao del Sur.
[edit] Largest cities
The following is a list of the twelve largest cities in the country in terms of population, ordered according to their 2000 census population.
| Rank | City | Population (2000 census) |
Population (2005 estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Quezon City | 2,173,831 | 2,260,160[1] |
| 2. | Manila | 1,581,082 | 1,454,558[1] |
| 3. | Caloocan City | 1,177,604 | 1,352,132[1] |
| 4. | Davao City | 1,147,116 | 1,325,355[2] |
| 5. | Cebu City | 718,821 | 815,716[3] |
| 6. | Zamboanga City | 601,794 | 700,078[4] |
| 7. | Pasig City | 505,058 | 538,458[3] |
| 8. | Valenzuela City | 485,433 | 517,535[3] |
| 9. | Las Piñas City | 472,780 | 504,045[3] |
| 10. | Antipolo City | 470,866 | 566,712[3] |
| 11. | Taguig City | 467,375 | 498,283[3] |
| 12. | Cagayan de Oro City | 461,877 | 563,114[5] |
