Sunday, April 27, 2008 Toledo planned as state capital By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU City could lose its position as “center” of Central Visayas if senators pushing to amend the Constitution to establish a federal system of government succeed with their proposal.
Central Visayas, one of 11 states of the proposed Federal Republic of the Philippines, will comprise five provinces instead of four at present.
Its capital will be Toledo City in Cebu. The State Congress seat will be in Tagbilaran City in Bohol, where members will hold office and sessions.
The State of Central Visayas will include the provinces of Masbate, Oriental Negros, Bohol, Cebu and Siquijor and all its cities, municipalities, and barangays.
Autonomy
But Cebu City Reps. Antonio Cuenco (south district) and Raul del Mar (north district) said they will amend Senate Resolution 10 when they craft its Lower House version, and make Cebu City both the capital and the seat of Congress in Central Visayas.
Among other changes in government, a federal system will give more autonomy to the regions or the states, and will allow the states to keep their income within their provinces, Cuenco said.
A federal government patterned after that of the United States is being pushed “to decentralize and speed up the development of the countryside and help dissipate the causes of poverty and insurgency, particularly the Moro rebellions.”
“This is a very good bill for Cebu because it will give us autonomy. If we can preserve our finances here, we will be better off. We would not have to share our income with the National Government,” Cuenco told Sun.Star Cebu.
Eleven senators filed last Wednesday “A resolution convening the Congress into a Constituent Assembly for the purpose of revising the Constitution to Establish a Federal Form of Government.”
They proposed to create 11 states, each with their own centers of finance and development, so that the country’s development programs are not centrally determined, planned, funded and implemented by a national government, as it is under a unitary system.
Amendments
“This (centralized system) lopsided arrangement has spawned a host of problems, including massive nationwide poverty to runaway insurgencies and rebellions that feed on the social inequalities in the nation,” the senators said in their explanatory note.
Del Mar said that Sen. Aquilino Pimentel asked him and Cuenco to draft the Lower House version of the Senate resolution.
“We will make the counterpart measure with the amendments that we feel are necessary. I think Cebu City would be the more appropriate capital because we are the premier city in the region, and I don’t think anybody will disagree with that. As for the seat of the State legislature, I feel that it should still be in Cebu City, where the capital is,” del Mar said in a separate interview.
He said he does not know who among the senators proposed to make Toledo City the capital of Central Visayas.
He will also propose to exclude Masbate from the State of Central Visayas and retain it as part of the State of Bicol.
Meeting
Del Mar and Cuenco will meet with other legislators from the five provinces that will supposedly make up the State of Central Visayas.
He will consult them on the contents of their version of the resolution and what amendments they think should be made.
Both Cebu City congressmen also agreed that convening a Constituent Assembly would be the fastest way to amend the Constitution.
If Congress approves, the Senate and the Lower House will be convened into a joint assembly to endorse the shift from presidential to a federal system of government.
Cuenco does not believe the senators filed the bill at this time to promote their own political interests, since most of them are on their last term of office.
“I don’t think so because in this version, there is no extension of terms so the last-term legislators both in the Senate and in the House will not benefit from this,” he said.
Cuenco and del Mar are on their last terms.
The Senate resolution was proposed by Senate President Manuel Villar, and Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Edgardo Angara, Rodolfo Biazon, Pia Cayetano, Juan Ponce Enrile, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, Gregorio Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Francis Pangilinan and Ramon Revilla Jr.
They proposed to create the states of Northern Luzon, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Minparom, Eastern Visayas, Central Visayas, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao and BangsaMoro.
Representation
The 11 states are in addition to Metro Manila, which would be constituted as the Federal Administrative Region.
Each state will be represented by six senators with nine more senators representing Filipinos overseas, so that the Senate would have 75 members instead of the existing 24.
The House of Representatives will have no more than 350 members.
