Bogo City, Declared Illegal
The Philippines Supreme Court has held that Bogo City and 16 other Philippine cities were illegally upgraded to a city. GMA news is reporting that “when Bogo became a city last year, it collected about P180 million as its IRA share for 2008, compared to only about P60 million when it was still a town.” As a result of this ruling, Bogo, Carcar and Naga each stand to loose more than P120 million a year.
Scuba Diving Development May Be Halted
Bogo City Mayor Celestino Martinez Jr. indicated that he had given raises and started three new departments with these funds. There are also plans to develop scuba diving in Bogo City that will likely be put on hold due to this change.
I feel it is likely that the politicians will find a way around this or they will pass a new law to make the ruling mute by making changes retroactive. These cities cannot pay back what they already have.
I would personally love to see scuba diving developed here in Bogo City. We are not far from Malapascua Island with is considered one of the best diving spots in the world. I don’t know if Bogo can compete with that but it would certainly be an enhancement! I am eager to go scuba diving but first I’ll have to take classes.
The fees I and other expats pay for that will help the Philippine economy as does all of the money we spend here. I get to have fun in the process. I get to live the good life and at the same time I support the Philippine community, something that is very important to me.
The court held in a 6-5 decision that the Philippine Congress erred when it gave an exception regarding income requirements for a new city. The court held that congress had no authority to make such an exemption. It seems other cities believe they lost some funds when these 16 cities were added.
I know Bogo City has been proud it has become a city so this is also a blow to the cities pride. I feel the blow myself and I will continue to call it a city. Representative Eduardo Gullas told his constituents not to concern themselves with the ruling as it is not final. There will be filings for a reconsideration and I suspect changes in the laws will be pushed through just in case they loose the reconsideration as well.
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Tagged with: Bogo City • Expats Living in Cebu • Living in Cebu • Scuba Diving
Filed under: Expats Living in Cebu
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I finally found out the rest of the cities affected by the ruling. The are:
Baybay in Leyte; Bogo in Cebu; Catbalogan in Samar; Tandag in Surigao del Sur; Borongan in Eastern Samar; Tayabas in Quezon province; Lamitan in Basilan; Tabuk in Kalinga; Bayugan in Agusan del Sur; Batac in Ilocos Norte; Mati in Davao Oriental; Guihulngan in Negros Oriental; Cabadbaran in Agusan del Norte; Carcar in Cebu; El Salvador in Misamis Oriental; and Naga in Cebu.
Oh my… I’m so disappointed for the ruling of the Supreme Court. Anyways, it is not final yet and maybe they will reconsider their decision soon…
Hi Nel,
Reading today’s newspaper,k it looks highly probable that it will be reversed. One justice even spoke out saying the ruling is not final. I wouldn’t worry about it. They will get it worked out.
Hi, my name is Christine, I live in Australia, but was originally from Cebu. I was actually born in a small township of Tabogon, about 3o mins. drive to Bogo. Last year was the first time I took the courage to go back to Tabogon after 22 years. The place has not changed much, except just a bit more people and more houses. I envy you because you are able to live there. I am now a naturalized Aussie. I hope to spend 1/2 the year in Oz, and 1/2 the year in the Phil. in the near future. I still love the islands even after such a long absence. You might have heard of Australia’s the Gold Coast here in Qld. The Aussies are very proud of it, but I always say, beaches in Cebu would beat the Gold Coast hands down any time. I would like to see more photos of Bogo if you have any. Cheers from Oz….Christine.
By the way, I hope to go back to Tabogon this year, I’m still negotiating with my nurse manager to let me go in June so I can take my daughter with me, as she immensely enjoyed Cebu last year. I would also like to have some dental work done. Last year I went to a dentist in Cebu City, he was very good, and it only cost me A$1500 for 5 porcelain crowns, 1 root canal and 1 bridge, plus some minor filling and the cost of re-gluing my brother’s 2 crowns as they kept falling off! Has anyone tried any of the dentists in Bogo? It’s just my Cebu dentist is very good, but it took us 2 hours down and 2 hours back, losing 4 hours each day for every appointment which gives us very little time for any thing else in Cebu, we were often rushed. If any one can recommend a good Bogo Dentist pls will be much appreciated. Thanks you…Chritine
Hi Christine,
Yes I’ve heard of the Gold Coast. Its famous all over the world. I would enjoy Australia’s wild life immensely, especially the brightly colored tropical birds. Not some of those spiders and snakes though. Or those mean little wasp, those things are crazy mean.
There are a lot of pictures on the site from Bogo City. Almost every one of them is from Bogo. This will get you all of them I hope, if not most: http://cebuexperience.com/tag/pictures-of-cebu/ . I call them Cebu because more people search for that and they are all in Cebu.
I add pictures every week, well most weeks. It takes hours and hours to get my pictures on here. I’ve got about 40 I need to work on right now. I may do that later tonight. Or might not get to it until Sunday. I need another one of me.
Dentist. I know someone that used a local Bogo dentist but she can’t remember the name. She could likely show you were it is though.
I hope you get to do your 1/2 year here and 1/2 there. I hope I get to visit Australia but for not that long.
Can’t be away from the Ph that long. 
Hi Russ, thanks for the info. I live in a semi-rural area in Queensland, so we get a lot of wildlife, especially birds. In the old house we used to live in, my husband had an aviary, and he was a bit upset that he could not take his aviary when we built our new house, but since I’ve put plenty of trees around the place, we get plenty of different birds,and I always said I prefer to watch birds when they are free, so we got into the routine of feeding them in the mornings now. We used to get a lot of snakes here too, I hope they’ve gone. I still say beaches around Bogo is much nicer than anything I’ve seen in Oz, especially the virgin Island resort. I haven’t been there, but if my holidays get approved, I plan to go island hopping including Bantayan island and the Virgin Island of course. I’ve had a look at some of your pics., I didn’t see much Bogo photos? I have some Tabogon shots I’ll be happy to share with you, but they are mainly scenes around Tabogon, such as the seaside and just the natural beauties of the place. Cheers from Oz..Christine
Sounds like a nice place you have there in Oz.
Most of the pictures you see on this site were taken in Bogo City.
How long has it been?
You might find more seascapes of the city if you visit my other site, http://rustyferguson.com The most recent pictures I posted where all from Bogo. The only ones that are not are the ones that I titled the article trip to cebu city or something like that. I will be adding more soon. I’ve taken around 150 pictures this month that I’ve kept so far, most have been published. Maybe 40 of them were of Cebu, everything else was taken in Bogo City. They may not look like it. They are of people and flowers a lot. More of the city pictures that look like the city might be on my other site.