Las Piñas plebiscite yields 60K voters

Residents of Las Piñas City voted in favor of a new ordinance that clarifies the territorial boundaries of its 20 barangays, according to a plebiscite held on 30 June by the city government and the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

The ordinance — City Ordinance 1941-23 Series of 2023 -- aims to rectify discrepancies in the existing boundaries established by presidential decrees in 1978 which resulted in some barangays having non-contiguous land areas or overlapping territories.

It also aligns the barangay boundaries with the approved cadastral survey completed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2015.

Over 60,000 residents participated in the plebiscite, with 41,493 voting to ratify the ordinance and 19,498 voting against it.

While the ordinance passed with a majority vote, Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia said that the low turnout — with only about 20 percent or 61,237 of Las Piñas’ 308,059 registered voters participating.

Following the ratification, concerned government agencies such as the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Philippine Statistics Authority, and Comelec have three years to make necessary adjustments to their records to reflect the new barangay boundaries and jurisdictions.