Philippine municipality

A municipality (bayan in Filipino) is a local government unit in the Philippines. Provinces are composed of cities and municipalities. Municipalities, in turn, are composed of barangays.

A municipality is headed by a municipal mayor who is the executive officer. The legislature is composed of the vice-mayor (bise-mayor) and eight councilors (kagawad or konsehal). The eight councilors, plus the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) (Youth Council) President and the ABC President, forms the Sangguniang Bayan (Municipal Council). All are elected public officials who serve terms of three years.

A municipality, upon reaching a certain size, may opt to become a city. First, the residents must vote in a plebiscite and if majority of the residents opts for cityhood, a bill is filed in Congress usually by that municipality's congressman.