Friday, February 18, 2005
Against Cebu split: Mayors resist move; Bogo’s Tining defends ma’s plan
By Jeanette P. Malinao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
The local league of mayors made it official yesterday that they are against the proposal to carve separate provinces out of Cebu. They passed on mass motion a resolution stating their stand.
“It is an opportune time to make the voice of our league heard. We got the status as premier province mainly because of our oneness,” said League of Municipalities of the Philippines Cebu president Ronald Allan Cesante.
But as this developed, Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III spoke in defense of his mother’s proposal to make Cebu del Norte, a separate province out of Cebu’s fourth district.
Aside from pointing out the closer interaction between the people and the Provincial Government should this be approved, Martinez wants Cebu Province to show how much it allocated so far per district, to see if these have been equal or “balanced.”
President Arroyo, who visited Cebu yesterday, refused to comment, saying, “That is a local issue.”
Cebu del Sur
Also yesterday, the Capitol criticized Rep. Simeon Kintanar for going ahead with his bill creating Cebu del Sur, despite opposition from his mayors in the second district.
Capitol consultant Pablo John Garcia said Kintanar’s legacy will be “his propensity to take a cause which is absolutely against” the will of his constituents and leaders, to add to his failure to defend fellow Argaoanon Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. against impeachment.
Pablo John, the governor’s brother, debunked Kintanar’s argument on an increased Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) share, saying the bulk of the amount the Province is getting comes from the amount computed from its total land area and population.
Even if Kintanar’s “debatable” figures and formula are correct, Pablo John said, whatever raise in income a district will get will only be “eaten up by the sheer expense” of personnel services and maintenance and operating expenses, among others.
So far, three legislators from Cebu have filed bills to form a separate province out of their districts. Rep. Antonio Yapha wants an Occidental Cebu out of the third district, Rep. Clavel Martinez seeks the creation of Cebu del Norte from the fourth district, and Kintanar, Cebu del Sur from the second district.
More powers
All three are barred by term limits from seeking reelection. Martinez’s husband Celestino Jr., a former congressman, lost the gubernatorial election last year.
Most Provincial Board members expressed support for the bills, although none of Cebu’s mayors have done so.
The “devious, selfish and totally illogical bills” that “the misguided and selfish opportunists filed,” Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia told the mayors’ league yesterday, only spawned “this one great indignant cry from all sectors.”
“Whatever motives they have, for the sake of our beloved province, please do not cut up Cebu. Run as governor of this great province and I will consider them my worthy opponents,” said Garcia of the bills’ authors.
But Mayor Martinez said people should “consider what Cebu can get after the creation of separate provinces, not just the division per se.”
The aim of the move is to devolve more powers concentrated at the Capitol right now to the rural areas, said Martinez, former president of the mayors’ league.
‘Natural’
Creating provincial agencies right where the towns are will spare the people from traveling all the way to Cebu City to transact business.
“This is addressing directly the needs of the populace,” said Martinez.
One thing that Garcia’s camp ought to reconsider, he said, is that the present Capitol could easily monitor and address needs once it will have a smaller jurisdiction.
“This is not for the mayors to decide but for the people in the districts,” said Martinez of the LMP Cebu resolution.
Moreover, Martinez criticized the Cebu City Council for passing a resolution against the move to divide the Province.
“It’s far out for them to join the debate. It’s out of their jurisdiction; the city has a different need. It is not in their place to discuss that.”
“To consider the cultural aspect of this is only natural. People are always resistant to change. We should just submit to the fact that we have to grab an opportunity given to us,” added Martinez.
(February 18, 2005 issue)
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