Sunday, September 14, 2008 Rift with bry. chief revives split plan
SIXTEEN years after his son started the campaign at the City Council, Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City south) yesterday said he will file a bill seeking to detach the Banawa-Englis area from under Guadalupe’s jurisdiction.
In doing so, Cuenco said it would turn the Banawa-Englis area into a separate barangay.
Admitting that politics has something to do why it took him over a decade and a half to act and why he is working on it now, Cuenco said the most important realization for him was that the two areas are “indeed uncared for.”
His son Ronald first initiated steps to make Banawa-Englis a new barangay during his term as city councilor in 1992.
The elder Cuenco said the City Council, then, came up with Ordinance 1661 approving the holding of a plebiscite for such purpose.
The plebiscite, said Banawa Separation Movement officer-in-charge Jaime Sala of Sitio Verano II, was postponed three times and eventually was not pursued because of objections by Guadalupe barangay officials.
Sala and several Banawa and Englis residents attended a press conference Cuenco called for yesterday morning.
Politics?
“The move didn’t push through because of politics, of the objection of Barangay Guadalupe officials. Maybe you can say that politics is a reason for this (revival) but the more important reason is that I realized that the Banawa-Englis area hasn’t been attended to,” the congressman said.
“To do justice to the people, I find it imperative to file the bill. I think I owe it to them…It is just right to give Banawa and Englis (residents) their own barangay so they can manage their own affairs,” Cuenco said.
He volunteered to pay for the P450,000 needed to have the metes and bounds of the new barangay surveyed, which is required by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
He projected that the bill he will pass next week would be at the House of Representative’s committee on local government level in two weeks. The bill, he said, would be approved within the year so that a plebiscite could be held by the middle of 2009.
“I am optimistic no one would block this because this is a local bill. The other congressmen will respect that,” Cuenco said.
More attention
In a separate interview, Guadalupe Barangay Captain Eugenio Faelnar said he will support the move creating Banawa-Englis a new barangay, saying it will be good for the residents there since a new set of officials could give more attention to the area.
He, however, took exception to the claim that the two sitios have been neglected by the barangay.
He said one barangay councilor, Harry Cańete, comes from the area and had been very diligent in his work and responding to the needs of the constituents there.
“I don’t see any problem with that because the move will be for the good of the residents there and their needs would be addressed. Politically, having a bigger area is better. Maayo man gani Barangay Cebu City ra, pero kung dili tanan (officials) motrabaho, di gyud maatiman tanan,” Faelnar said.
Sala complained that Guadalupe barangay officials failed to deliver the basic services they need.
He said garbage is collected only once in one to two weeks, barangay tanods rarely patrol the interior areas of Banawa and Englis, and infrastructure are hardly constructed in the two areas as they are concentrated in the Guadalupe proper.
Representing those from Sitio Englis, Pedring Angcay said they are treated like “second-class citizens” because Banawa and Englis seldom get their fair share of barangay projects. (RHM)
