Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Ruiz to push bill making Lapu-Lapu City lone district
REPRESENTATIVE Nerissa Soon-Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district) will present to the House of Representatives this week the bill declaring Lapu-Lapu City as a lone congressional district.
She hopes to have the bill approved into law by December if there will be no hitches at the Senate.
Since it is a bill affecting a locality and since she already consulted Cebuano lawmakers about it, Ruiz is confident that House Bill 1306 will be approved, leaving Mandaue City and the towns of Consolacion and Cordova under the sixth congressional district.
She hopes that in two weeks or before Congress goes on a recess this October, the bill will be approved in its third and final reading.
Ruiz also eyes the draft measure to be at the Senate by the fourth quarter of this year for the senators’ concurrence.
Last Tuesday, the House committee on rules, headed by Oriental Negros 2nd Dist. Rep. Jorge Arnaiz, approved the proposed bill creating the lone district of Lapu-Lapu City.
The draft measure was already approved by the House local government committee.
Ruiz calls the “modified” proposed bill as the best compromise with Rep. Pablo Garcia (Cebu, 2nd district), who prefers a lone district of Lapu-Lapu City rather than dividing the sixth congressional district into three different districts.
Once the bill is approved, Lapu-Lapu City officials said they will have their own representative in the Lower House, with an P80-million Priority Development Assistance Fund under his or her disposal. (OCP)
