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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Roperos: Unfair to Cebuanos
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
It appears to be definitely not fair and reasonable.
The expressed reluctance of the chair of the congressional committee on local governments to hold a public hearing in Cebu does not show consideration to the Cebuanos who would be most affected by the three bills providing for the creation of three new provinces out of the small island province.
The decision is anchored on the flimsy reason of the cost it will entail, and of his own security. If he is an objective chair, he should not worry about his security.
The point that is tacitly at issue, which no less than his eminence Ricardo Cardinal Vidal himself pointed out in his homily at the Cebu Cathedral last Sunday, is the sentiment of the average inhabitant, and not only that of the bill’s proponent and those openly opposing it.
The committee chair, in his rationale for refusing to hold a hearing in Cebu, immediately betrayed a bias for the proposal. Fact is, some sectors feel that the proposals are already good as approved in the committee.
And since the members of the House have a courteous understanding regarding local bills a colleague files, the bills would be as good as approved during the plenary.
Thus, it appears very obvious that the House committee on good government chair, in immediately ruling that there cannot be a hearing of the bills in Cebu City, showed a clear bias. It is as if Rep. Clavel Martinez, along with her two cohorts--the second and third district representatives—is holding the chair by the nose.
And the move did certainly arouse reasonable protests from the province’s leaders and concerned citizens.
Reps. Eduardo Gullas and Antonio Cuenco had reportedly openly proposed to the committee chair, Rep. Emilio Macias, that a hearing should be held in Cebu.
But Macias told them there would not be any hearing at all in the province.
That the chair’s decision is clearly unfair to the people, as this means that the “small” citizens of Cebu would not be heard and would be unable to express their thoughts about the bills.
Cebu City North District Rep. Raul del Mar, though, even if he is for the holding of a committee hearing in Cebu City, appears to be more realistic about the situation in the House. Hence, he is quite resigned to the possibility that the three bills would pass the local government committee, and would be reported to the plenary.
And as I have earlier pointed out, the plenary would surely approve the bills without much discussion as a matter of courtesy that the members feel they owe to their colleagues.
This perception of Raul is probably the reason why Macias felt that it is a waste of money for his committee to hold such hearing in Cebu.
Which is also the reason why I think it is only fair and reasonable that the committee should listen to the Cebuanos before it makes a decision. The non-Cebuano committee members owe it to themselves to make a careful, sincere, and honest decision on whether they should pass the bills.
This is probably what the bill proponents are afraid of, the committee hearing the true sentiment of majority of the average Cebuano in a hearing.
(August 18, 2005 issue)
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