|
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
They ask for split of assets
By Jeanette P. Malinao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
There is more to the proposal to create separate provinces out of Cebu.
Rep. Antonio Yapha’s bill pending before the House committee on local government includes a provision that the “obligations, funds, assets and other properties of the present Province of Cebu shall be divided proportionately between the Province of Cebu and the Province of Occidental Cebu.”
But Rep. Clavel Martinez, in her bill, also includes the same provision, for the current assets to be divided “between the existing Cebu Province and the Province of Cebu del Norte.”
The division of assets, according to the bills, will be done “by the President of the Philippines upon the recommendation of the Commission on Audit (COA).”
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said in earlier pronouncements that because of the previous administration’s fiscal prudence, Cebu Province now has zero obligations. It was also cited by COA as number one among provinces in terms of gross assets, in equity or net assets and net income.
Garcia, however, is not convinced there’s a need to divide Cebu into new provinces right now.
Several mayors have also asked where the new provinces would get funds for new provincial offices. Local leaders have also wondered what new offices need to be created, should the proposals succeed.
They were apprehensive that the share the new provinces will get from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) will not be enough to cover the expenses needed to create offices and pay for personnel services.
Yapha’s House Bill 3632 and Martinez’s House Bill 3657, filed a week apart, are also similar in many other things.
Both legislations provide that each new province will constitute one legislative district.
The new provinces will also have a provincial architect, a provincial cooperatives officer and a provincial population officer, to add to the usual fiscal managers, department heads and elected officials under the existing provincial structure.
Both bills do not speak of a new provincial police office, but they seek the creation of a provincial fire station with five fire substations, a provincial jail, a provincial schools division office, a provincial prosecution service and a provincial engineering district.
It seems it will not only be the current Cebu Province that will share its resources for the new provinces. Agencies of the National Government will also spend for the new offices.
The Department of Interior and Local Government, for example, will have to establish, “within two months” from the start of the new province’s corporate existence, a “clean, equipped and sanitary jail facility.”
The Department of Education, meanwhile, will also have two months to “establish and maintain” a separate school division for the newly created province.
The Department of Justice, for its part, will need two months to form a prosecution service to be headed by a provincial prosecutor and “such number of assistant prosecutors as maybe necessary.”
Moreover, the Department of Public Works and Highways will also have to establish within two months a “separate and independent” engineering district.
So far, none of the elected leaders from Cebu’s towns expressed support for the move. Although proponents have projected faster development for the countryside because of the split, most mayors want figures to prove this claim.
(February 16, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
