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Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Prov'l Board finally votes: Split-Cebu wins
By Jeanette P. Malinao
CEBU CITY -- The Provincial Board (PB) has finally spoken and, with a vote of 8-7, supported the move to divide Cebu into smaller provinces.
The resolution is one of the requirements of the House committee on local government before it tackles the three bills filed by three Cebu congressmen for the creation of their districts into separate provinces.
It also ended three months of long suspense on their stand on the three-split Cebu House bills.
Those who voted for Cebu's division for development of "forsaken" towns were PB Members Carmiano Kintanar, Jose Ma. Gastardo, Joevn Mon-digo, Antonio Almirante, Estrella Yapha, Victoria Corominas, Bacaltos and Gabriel Luis Quisumbing.
PB Members Juan Bolo, Rosemarie Durano, Alfred Francis Ouano, Teresita Celis, Ramon Martin Calderon, Victor Maam-bong and Agnes Magpale believe in the "strength of a united Cebu."
But Capitol consultant Pablo John Garcia said in an interview that it's still a long way to go to before the plan to divide Cebu is realized.
"It was not monumental. We have expected that. It was one step of a journey of a thousand miles because what is critical is the favorable resolutions from the component cities and municipalities of the district that wants to become a province," he said.
Caucus
The PB came up with a pre-session caucus agreement not to discuss the merits of the proposal on the floor, and then voted nominally to support the move.
Swing vote was PB Member Raul Bacaltos, whose stand was not known until Vice Governor Gregorio Sanchez Jr. refused his persistent request that he be made to vote last.
Those who supported the plan anchored their sentiment on three things: Cebu is a big province and "difficult to manage," there is currently an inequitable distribution of resources that will be answered with the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) of new provinces, and it should be the people who must decide through a plebiscite.
Yapha, wife of Representative Antonio Yapha (3rd district) and author of the pending bill for the creation of Cebu Occidental, adopted the logic contained in the rationale for Cebu del Sur: The present Cebu is too big and difficult to govern. Like lighting a candle, only the area nearest to it gets the better illumination.
Three more candles
"Creating three more provinces is just like lighting three more candles to add to the original one," Yapha said.
"Cebu is too unwieldy, taking into account its population and area...Decentralization of resources and leadership will surely bring essential projects to distant, forsaken municipalities," said Almirante.
Almirante is an ally of Representative Simeon Kintanar (2nd district), who is pushing for the Cebu del Sur bill.
For Mondigo, who comes from the fourth district that Rep. Clavel Martinez wants to form into Cebu del Norte, dividing Cebu "will develop a culture of excellence, as new provinces will outdo each other for better performance."
Plebiscite
Bacaltos, Quisumbing and Corominas all believe that the people should be given the chance to decide for themselves in a plebiscite.
"I will not dictate on the people of the second, third and fourth districts on whether they should create their own provinces. They are in the best position to determine their own fate," Quisumbing said.
Maambong, who lost in his move for a resolution against the division, fought it out by raising the possibility of Sanchez moving to create a tie, which he said is not prohibited by law.
But Almirante objected to this, and they ended up allowing Sanchez to make his position known without influencing the result of the voting.
In advancing his side, Maambong answered the point on the plebiscite by saying that democracy could even be mob rule sometimes.
"Sometimes, democracy is demo-crazy. As leaders, we should lead the people to positions supported by facts and figures," Maambong said.
Magpale, meanwhile, said they could always fight for transparency and equitable distribution of resources without breaking Cebu.
"With my experience, I know this is not the solution. I saw the province grow from an income of P265 million in 1992 to more than a billion now. There is strength in our unity, we got the National Government to notice us," she said.
Setback
Resigned to the fact that there was nothing he could do to alter the outcome of the PB sentiment, Sanchez told the board that the move will surely mean a "setback" in the development of the towns in the proposed new provinces.
He said businessmen will surely invest in what will remain of Cebu because it is where the international airport and the ports are located.
Bringing business to the areas in the second, third and fourth districts would mean they have to deal with a separate bureaucracy.
"And who in this body can assure that in the next five years the country's economy will improve? If it goes down, do you think the share in the IRA will be the same? What will remain of Cebu will be luckier because they will have more than P1 billion assets," said Sanchez.
Last March, Sanchez already warned that the PB may support the move to split Cebu, saying political alliances with sponsor-congressmen may be stronger than town resolutions junking the proposal. (With AIV)
(May 24, 2005 issue)
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