Naga City’s elevation to highly urbanized city status by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sets in motion a 120-day window for the Commission on Elections to conduct a plebiscite that will formally complete the city’s conversion under the Local Government Code.
The presidential proclamation, signed Wednesday, follows Naga City having met the income and population thresholds prescribed by Republic Act No. 7160. The city’s legislative body had formally sought the reclassification through Resolution No. 2026-078, passed by the 15th Sangguniang Panlungsod on January 27.
The announcement landed on a significant date — the 68th birth anniversary of the late Jesse Robredo, the former Naga mayor whose nearly two decades at the helm of the city established its reputation as a model of transparent and participatory local governance. Robredo later served as Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government under former president Benigno Aquino III before his death in 2012.
Vice Mayor Gabriel Bordado Jr. noted that the governance approach Jesse Robredo championed had influenced local government units across the country.
Mayor Leni Robredo, who announced the HUC declaration during the birth anniversary commemoration, expressed gratitude to residents for keeping Jesse Robredo’s legacy alive through the yearly observances of both his birth and death anniversaries.
Naga now becomes the country’s 34th highly urbanized city, a designation that carries with it greater fiscal autonomy and independence from provincial oversight — outcomes directly tied to the governance foundations the city built over decades.
