Thursday, October 02, 2008
Council to talk to Tomas on Guadalupe split bill
VICE Mayor Michael Rama said he and the Cebu City councilors will talk to Mayor Tomas Osmeña and discuss with him the proposal to split Barangay Guadalupe.
He said that while he is already working on the plan, he has not yet formally spoken with the city councilors in a gathering because he wanted that they do so with the presence of the mayor.
The vice mayor, though, did not specify when they will meet with Osmeña, who had said that while he supports the plan, he find the motive and the haste with the way Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south) proposed it as questionable.
Explanation
Cuenco last Tuesday filed a bill seeking to create “Barangay Banawa Englis,” saying that while he still wanted the City Council to set the plebiscite and allocate funds for it, he opted to proceed with the filing because the council has not yet acted on the plan.
In the bill’s explanatory note, Cuenco said Guadalupe is home to at least 50,000 inhabitants, while it only needs a population of 5,000 to create a new barangay in a highly-urbanized city.
Proposal
He said there is a “strong and persistent clamor to create a new barangay out of Banawa and Englis.”
As introduction of the proposed measure, Cuenco said the two areas, composed of 57 puroks, are “not very well attended to in terms of its needs.”
So my response to the clamor is to file the bill,” the congressman told Sun.Star Cebu.
He had said, however, that it takes several months for the bill to reach the president for approval, and at least a year, reckoned from the date of filing, for a possible holding of a plebiscite.
This is a long process, he said, compared to having the council simply reenact the measure setting the plebiscite and allocating funds for such purpose.
Yesterday, Rama said he has been working on the plan.
“We’re still working towards that direction. We have to discuss it as one group with the mayor, because it has to have the concurrence of the mayor.
“Ako na hinoon silang giistoryahan (I have already talked to the city councilors),” Rama said.
He has designated City Councilor Richard Osmeña, a Guadalupe resident, to author the measure once the executive department makes the proposal.
As then city councilors, Rama and Ronald Cuenco, Congressman Cuenco’s son, co-authored Ordinance 1661, which was approved on Dec. 18, 1996.
The measure set the plebiscite on March 3, 1997, which was then postponed several times.
No plebiscite was eventually held, however, after Guadalupe barangay officials passed on March 2, 2002 a resolution blocking a plebiscite for the split.
However, Banawa Separation Movement officer-in-charge Jaime Sala this week said Guadalupe councilors have assured that they will repeal the resolution in their next session. (RHM)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (October 2, 2008 issue)
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