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FACES OF ALABEL. Alabel municipal (center, courtesy of Alabel Information Office); (from top, clockwise) Alabel in the provincial map (Municipal Planning and Development Office), market day (Sarangani Information Office), residential development (AIO), cops wading through flood (AIO)

A major hurdle — one currently in the national spotlight — stands in the way of Alabel’s readiness for cityhood: a working flood control system

SARANGANI, Philippines – Bulldozers are working hard in the poblacion of Alabel, laying new drainage and carving roads to distant barangays. The concrete and asphalt works seem to scream progress and development.

They also indicate a municipality playing catch-up with foundations that residents say should have been strategically built to prepare for the urbanization it has long wanted to achieve.

After all, Alabel, the capital of Sarangani province in Mindanao, has been pushing to be converted into a city for close to a decade now. It’s one of the few capitals, if not the only one, that remain as municipalities. (Read | TIMELINE: In Sarangani, Alabel’s long-drawn battle for cityhood)

Growing income isn’t everything

Despite stalled cityhood bills in past Congresses, Alabel has been gearing up to meet the requirements for conversion.

From an annual income of P79.66 million in 2018, when the first bill for cityhood was filed by then-Sarangani congressman Rogelio Pacquiao, the amount has climbed up to nearly P237.6 million in 2024.

Municipal finance records attribute the leap mainly to stronger real property tax collections, rising business permit fees, and higher market rentals as more enterprises set up in the poblacion.

Between 2022 and 2024, the Department of Public Works and Highways poured P547 million into road concreting, flood-control projects, and farm-to-market links from distant barangays to the poblacion.

Even Alabel’s municipal h