Tuesday, November 11, 2008 Senators sit on city redistricting bill
FROM all indications, it appears that the senators, including those who claimed to have Ilonggo blood and affiliations, are sitting on the Senate version of House Bill 4256 filed by lone district Congressman Raul T. Gonzalez Jr.
The Gonzalez bill calls for the reapportioning of the lone legislative district of Iloilo City into two congressional districts and the reapportioning of the City Council to commence in the next national elections in 2010.
Gonzalez earlier explained that his bill seeks to redistrict all barangays comprising the city districts of Jaro, Lapaz, Lapuz and Mandurriao as the first district, while all barangays comprising the city proper, Molo and Arevalo shall compose the second district.
After its third and final reading in the Lower House last September, the bill was submitted to the Senate committee on local governments chaired by Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, which until now remains unacted upon.
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, an Ilongga from La Paz district, said the Senate, especially the committee on local governments, has prioritized bills submitted from the Lower House.
However, she assured the Ilonggos that she will request Sen. Aquino to calendar and prioritize the Gonzalez bill so that city residents will have something to look for in the next elections.
The Ilongga senator, newly arrived from her failed bid to become a member of the International Court of Justice, confirmed that senators are playing politics in the approval of bills filed by members of the Lower House.
Earlier, Gonzalez Jr. had expressed concern on the attitude of some senators in not giving due course to his bill, which will provide two congressional districts in the city and more importantly, provide two priority development assistance fund (PDAF) or pork barrel for city development projects.
Gonzalez said that his bill has satisfied all the requirements, especially on the population count, and a precedent case in Makati was already decided by the Supreme Court in Mariano vs Commission on Elections on March 7, 1995.
The ruling penned by then Justice Renato Puno and concurred by then Chief Justice Hilario Davide showed that "a city has at least 250,000 population to have at least 1 representative" and gave Makati City the go signal to have more than one congressman.
It was reported that some opposition figures in Iloilo have sent a petition to the Senate committee calling for rejection of the Gonzalez redistricting bill due to a question on population count.
The city has more than 400,000 population count in the 2007 census. (LCP)
