Friday, December 19, 2008 Kalingas hit mayor for 'betrayal' By Sam Bautista
TABUK, Kalinga -- If there is anyone Tabukeños were hopeful for support for their cityhood, it was Baguio City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. Now they feel betrayed.
This as Bautista supported the complaint lodged by League of Cities (LOC) against 16 newly established component cities with the Supreme Court (SC).
The SC recently upheld Republic Act (RA) 9009 which effectively nullified the cityhood of Tabuk and 15 others including Batac, Ilocos Norte.
Meanwhile, Tabukeños are not taking the SC ruling sitting down. Together with their lead counsel former solicitor general Estrellito Mendoza, mayors and other officials of the 16 embattled cities trooped to the SC last December 10 to file their motion for reconsideration.
Tabuk City Information Officer Oliver Gacuya said the motion for reconsideration was partly based on the dictum of law, which says a law should not retroactive. RA 9009 was passed a year before Tabuk's cityhood was approved in a referendum.
Gacuya added that all 16 cities included in the SC decision were already "pending" in Congress with the appropriate House and Senate bills awaiting action.
"Because of the jueteng (of former president Joseph Estrada) hearings and subsequent political turmoil in Manila, Congress was not able to act on our cityhood bills," Gacuya explained.
In the meantime, RA 9009 was also being deliberated in Congress.
A year before Tabuk was declared a city, the LOC filed the suit based on the revised minimum yearly income a town must earn before it could petition to be elevated into a city. The section raised the income from P20 million to P100 million. The SC based its decision on this.
"We feel this is unfair because before RA 9009 was passed and while our bills were pending, Tabuk already exceeded the P20 million requirement," the information officer said.
Betrayed?
"We feel Bautista should have supported Tabuk because Tabuk is located in the Cordillera and Cordillerans must stick together," Gacuya added.
What stuck in the mind of Tabukeños and Kalingas, in general, is the perception that Bautista did not want another city in the region.
As such, there is a covert movement in Tabuk and the rest of the province, which aims to show the Kalingas's hard feelings against Bautista. "Right now, Kalingas are telling their relatives in Baguio to vote for anybody except Bautista," Gacuya narrated.
Bautista is said to be eyeing Baguio's sole congressional seat when current Representative Mauricio Domogan's third term ends in 2010.
"The Kalinga community in Baguio may be small, but at least we can show our feelings by voting as a block," he added.
"Municity"
For now, residents do not know their government's status. A number of them have started calling Tabuk a Municity.
Because of Tabuk'a unknown future, a number of vital services are at stake.
"Take our scholars for instance. In the old setup, the local government could support 100 scholars. When we achieved cityhood, we immediately increased this to 300 plus. What will happen now to the 200 or so scholars if we lose our cityhood?" said Gacuya.
Aside from the scholars, other projects of Tabuk are in peril. An endeavor to construct irrigation systems for the upper portions of Tabuk could not be pursued until its status is resolved.
"We want our people in the upper portions of Tabuk to have meaningful livelihood. If we can't provide the irrigation, they will most likely migrate to the lower portions. This in turn contributes to the squatting problem we are now experiencing," he added.
"What's P300 million to Baguio anyway? For us Tabukeños, P300 million is a lot of money we could use to develop and help deliver vital social services to all Tabukeños," he said.
It may still be a year and a half before the next elections and whether or not Bautista decides to pursue his political career and if there really are enough Kalingas registered in the city to make a difference, will only be known by then. For now, Bautista still has time to make amends.
