Cities of the Philippines

A city is one of the units of local government in the Philippines. All Philippine cities are chartered cities, whose existence as corporate and administrative entities is governed by their own specific municipal charters, in addition to the Local Government Code of 1991, which defines their administrative structure and powers., there are 149 cities in the country.
A city is entitled to at least one representative in the House of Representatives if its population reaches 250,000. Cities are also allowed to use a common seal. As corporate entities, they have the power to acquire, hold, lease, convey, and dispose of real and personal property for their general interests; condemn private property for public use ; enter into contracts; sue and be sued; and exercise all other powers conferred on them by Congress. Only an act of Congress can create or amend a city charter, and through this charter, Congress may grant a city certain powers not available to regular municipalities—or even to other cities.
Despite differences in the powers accorded to each city, all cities, regardless of status, receive a larger share of the Internal Revenue Allotment than regular municipalities, and are generally more autonomous than municipalities.

Government

A city's local government is headed by a mayor elected by popular vote. The vice mayor serves as the presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlungsod, which serves as the city's legislative body. Upon receiving their charters, cities also receive a full complement of executive departments to better serve their constituents. Some departments are established on a case-by-case basis, depending on the needs of the city.

Office	Head	Mandatory / Optional
City Government	Mayor	Mandatory
Sangguniang Panlungsod	Vice Mayor as presiding officer	Mandatory
Office of the Secretary to the Sanggunian	Secretary to the Sanggunian	Mandatory
Treasury Office	Treasurer	Mandatory
Assessor's Office	Assessor	Mandatory
Accounting and Internal Audit Services	Accountant	Mandatory
Budget Office	Budget Officer	Mandatory
Planning and Development Office	Planning and Development Coordinator	Mandatory
Engineering Office	Engineer	Mandatory
Health Office	Health Officer	Mandatory
Office of Civil Registry	Civil Registrar	Mandatory
Office of the Administrator	Administrator	Mandatory
Office of Legal Services	Legal Officer	Mandatory
Office on Social Welfare and Development Services	Social Welfare and Development Officer	Mandatory
Office on General Services	General Services Officer	Mandatory
Office for Veterinary Services	Veterinarian	Mandatory
Office on Architectural Planning and Design	Architect	Optional
Office on Public Information	Information Officer	Optional
Office for the Development of Cooperatives	Cooperative Officer	Optional
Office on Population Development	Population Officer	Optional
Office on Environment and Natural Resources	Environment and Natural Resources Office	Optional
Office of Agricultural Services	Agriculturist	Optional

Subdivisions

Cities, like municipalities, are composed of barangays, which can range from urban neighborhoods to rural communities. Barangays are sometimes grouped into officially defined administrative or geographical districts. Examples of such are the cities of Manila, Davao, Iloilo, and Samal. Some cities such as Caloocan, Manila, and Pasay also have an intermediate level between the district and barangay levels, called a zone. However, geographic districts and zones are not political units; there are no elected city government officials at these administrative levels. Rather, they serve only to facilitate city planning, statistics-gathering, and other administrative functions.

Classification

Income classification

Republic Act No. 11964, or the Automatic Income Classification of Local Government Units Act, was signed by President Bongbong Marcos on October 26, 2023. The law classifies cities into five classes according to their income ranges, based on the average annual regular income for three fiscal years preceding a general income reclassification. The classification are as follows:

Class	Average annual income
First	>1,300,000,000
Second	1,000,000,000–1,300,000,000
Third	800,000,000–1,000,000,000
Fourth	500,000,000–800,000,000
Fifth	<500,000,000

Legal classification

The Local Government Code of 1991 classifies all cities into one of three legal categories:

Highly urbanized cities : Cities with a minimum population of 200,000, as certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority, and with the latest annual income of at least 50,000,000 or USD 1,000,000 based on 1991 constant prices, as certified by the city treasurer. However, San Juan City in Metro Manila became a highly urbanized city in 2007 through Republic Act 9388 despite having a population of 126,347 people. A majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite held on July 21, 2007, approved the conversion.
Independent component cities : Cities of this type have charters that explicitly prohibit their residents from voting for provincial officials. All five of them are considered independent from the province in which they are geographically located: Cotabato, Dagupan, Naga, Ormoc, and Santiago.
Component cities : Cities which do not meet the preceding requirements are deemed part of the province in which they are geographically located. If a component city is located along the boundaries of two or more provinces, it is considered part of the province of which it used to be a municipality.
Independent cities

There are 38 independent cities in the Philippines, all of which are classified as either "Highly urbanized" or "Independent component" cities. A city classified as such:

does not have its Sangguniang Panlungsod legislation subject to review by any province's Sangguniang Panlalawigan;
does not share tax revenue with any province; and
is directly supervised by the President of the Philippines through the city government, as stated in Section 29 of the Local Government Code.

Currently, there are only four independent cities in two classes that can still participate in the election of provincial officials :

Cities declared highly urbanized between 1987 and 1992, whose charters explicitly permitted residents to both vote and run for elective positions in the provincial government, and therefore allowed by Section 452-c of the Local Government Code to maintain these rights: Lucena, Mandaue ;
Independent component cities whose charters only explicitly allow residents to run for provincial offices: Dagupan and Naga

Registered voters of the cities of Cotabato, Ormoc, Santiago, as well as all other highly urbanized cities, including those to be converted or created in the future, cannot participate in provincial elections.
In addition to the eligibility of some independent cities to vote in provincial elections, a few other situations become sources of confusion regarding the complete autonomy of independent cities from provinces:

Some independent cities still serve as the seat of government for the province in which they are geographically located: Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Lucena, Puerto Princesa and Tacloban. In such cases, the provincial government, apart from already financing the maintenance of its properties such as provincial government buildings and offices, may also provide the government of the independent city with an annual budget to aid in relieving incidental costs incurred by the city such as road maintenance due to increased vehicular traffic in the vicinity of the provincial government complex. The independent city of Butuan was the capital and seat of government in the province of Agusan del Norte until Cabadbaran became the province's capital since 2000.
Some independent cities are still grouped with their former provinces for the purposes of representation in Congress. While 24 independent cities have their own representative in Congress, some remain part of the congressional representation of the province to which they formerly belonged: Butuan, for example, is still part of the 1st congressional district of Agusan del Norte. In cases like this, independent cities that do not vote for provincial officials are excluded from Sangguniang Panlalawigan districts, and the allotment of SP members is adjusted accordingly by the Commission on Elections with proper consideration of population. For example, Agusan del Norte is entitled to elect eight members to its Sangguniang Panlalawigan, and belongs to two congressional districts. The seats of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan are not evenly distributed between the province's first and second congressional districts because its 1st district contains Butuan, an independent city which does not vote for provincial officials. Rather, the seats are distributed 1–7 to account for the small population of the province's 1st Sangguniang Panlalawigan district and the bulk of the province's population being in the second district. On the other hand, the city of Lucena, which is eligible to vote for provincial officials, still forms part of the province of Quezon's 2nd Sangguniang Panlalawigan district, which is coterminous with the 2nd congressional district of Quezon.
General lack of distinction for independent cities, for practical purposes: Many government agencies, as well as Philippine society in general, still continue to classify many independent cities outside Metro Manila as part of provinces due to historical and cultural ties, especially if these cities were once or currently socio-economic and cultural capitals of the provinces to which they once belonged. Furthermore, most maps of the Philippines showing provincial boundaries almost never separate independent cities from the provinces in which they are geographically located, for cartographic convenience. Despite being first-level administrative divisions, independent cities are still treated by many to be on the same level as municipalities and component cities for educational convenience and simplicity.

A component city, while enjoying relative autonomy on some matters compared to a regular municipality, is still considered part of a province. However, there are several sources of confusion:

Some component cities form their own congressional representation, separate from their province. The representation of a city in the House of Representatives is not a criterion for independence from a province, as Congress is the national legislative body and is part of the national government. Despite Antipolo, Biñan and San Jose del Monte having their own representatives in Congress, they are still component cities of Rizal, Laguna, and Bulacan, respectively, as their respective charters specifically converted them into component cities and have no provision stating a severance in relations with their respective provincial governments.
Being part of an administrative region different from the province: Isabela City functions as a component city of Basilan: its tax revenues are shared with the provincial government, its residents are eligible to both vote and run for provincial offices, and it is served by the provincial government and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Basilan with regard to provincially devolved services. However, by opting out of joining the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Isabela City's residents are ineligible to vote and run for regional offices of the Bangsamoro Parliament, unlike the rest of Basilan. Regional services provided to Isabela City come from offices in Region IX based in Pagadian; the rest of Basilan is serviced by the BARMM based in Cotabato City. Isabela City, while not independent from its province, is this outside the jurisdiction of the BARMM, the region to which the rest of Basilan belongs. Regions are not the primary subnational administrative divisions of the Philippines, but rather the provinces.