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Tuesday, March 15, 2005
New provinces will be ‘among poorest in RP’
By Jeanette P. Malinao
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A deficit worth millions that will lead to debts and inclusion in the country’s list of 20 poorest provinces will be what each of the proposed new province in Cebu will get.
Statistics to support this was the highlight of yesterday’s summit against the proposed division of Cebu, where a representative of Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal read his statement against an ambition that would be a “great mistake” to pursue.
“The Church would never put her faithful in the shadow of darkness and she would always go against in all respect whatever that would put all her sons and daughters in the clutches of apparent evil,” said Vidal.
Low rank
The letter, which said the creation of jobs is “far nobler” than the creation of new provinces, was also read before 300 priests gathered at the Sacred Heart Center yesterday.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia presented figures that show Cebu will have a total deficit of P454,852,248 with the creation of three more provinces.
Moreover, the projected income of each of Cebu del Sur, Cebu del Norte and Occidental Cebu will make them similar in status with provinces like Ifugao, Marinduque or Catandanues, which rank below 70 of the country’s 80 provinces.
The new provinces, according to data from the Commission on Audit’s financial performance report of 2003, will have an income lesser than that of Sultan Kudarat, Southern Leyte or even Tawi-tawi.
Garcia made the presentation to around 1,000 officials and civic leaders gathered for the summit. They also signed a manifesto against the bills authored by Reps. Simeon Kintanar (2nd district), Antonio Yapha (3rd district) and Clavel Martinez (4th district).
Former congressman Emerito Calderon also joined the gathering. He first raised the creation of a separate province in Cebu’s south in the 1970s, but later abandoned the idea.
“I feel it is my obligation to say this idea came from a different era. Now, mura tag naghikog ani,” said Calderon.
“They must set aside political interests and whatever political future we are thinking of. Instead of thinking big, they’re thinking small,” Calderon said of the bills’ sponsors.
Proposals
In House Bill 3733, Kintanar said he wants the second district to become the Province of Cebu del Sur, where Argao town will be the seat of government.
Yapha, for his part, wants his district, under HB 3632, to be known as the Province of Occidental Cebu, with Toledo City as its capital.
Martinez, on the other hand, wants her district separated from Cebu and named Province of Cebu del Norte. Her seat of government will be her hometown, Bogo under HB 3657.
But two mayors from the fourth district showed up at the summit yesterday: Madridejos Mayor Lety Mancio and Bantayan Mayor Geralyn Escario. Previously, it was only Daanbantayan Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot from Martinez’s turf who supported Governor Garcia.
Rep. Eduardo Gullas (1st district) also said in a taped statement that if the proposals are approved, it would “open the doors and let the flood waters in for the prostitution and continued disgraceful violation” of the constitutional prohibition on political dynasties.
Disastrous
Dr. Francisco Nemenzo Jr., the first Cebuano to head the University of the Philippines, also said that smaller political units like the proposed new provinces will be “vulnerable to pressure” and won’t be “bargaining from a position of strength.”
Breaking up Cebu, Nemenzo said, will have “disastrous effects and the damage will be irreversible.”
He said officials of new provinces will “demand better offices, big staff, cars, and so on, and money that might as well be used for development will instead be paid for a new bunch of bureaucrats and political leaders.”
The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, for its part, presented its resolution pointing out that the move will only create an atmosphere of political uncertainty and will send a wrong signal to potential investors.
Cherry Ballescas, chairperson of the Partnership for a Progressive Cebu, a group of nongovernment groups, cited that the proposal did not even come from the people and no public discourse was done by proponents.
Cardinal Vidal, in his letter, also asked the bills’ authors with a quote from the Bible: “Were there no graves on Egypt that you must lead us out to die in the wilderness? What good have you done us, bringing us out of Egypt?”
(March 15, 2005 issue)
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