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Saturday, August 27, 2005
Who’ll pay split-Cebu plebiscite expenses?
By Jeanette P. Malinao
CEBU CITY -- Much is being said about the need to go directly to a plebiscite on the proposal to create three new Cebu provinces, but who will shoulder the expenses?
If Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s interpretation of the Local Government Code is right, it would be the towns and cities in the proposed new provinces that will have to pay, in case the move will go that far.
Other Cebuanos will get a chance to express their views on the expenses, benefits or drawbacks of the proposed provinces, with Representative Luis Villafuerte saying he will move for a public hearing to be held in Cebu.
“We will hear all objections. Both sides will be heard,” said Villafuerte, chairman of the technical working group that the House local government committee formed.
Villafuerte also said the technical working group will schedule a hearing on Rep. Antonio Cuenco’s motion for the House committee to defer further consideration of the bills.
Cuenco, like Garcia, believes the proponents have failed to meet all requirements. And who will spend for a plebiscite?
Who asked?
The code’s implementing rules state: “All expenses incidental to the creation shall be borne by the petitioners.” But the governor said the bills’ sponsors could not be considered the petitioners.
The code’s implementing rules, in the paragraphs on procedure, also said a petition must come from towns or component cities requesting the creation of a new province.
The towns’ capability to spend for the plebiscite may not even be the first question here, but whether there is a petitioner in the first place, Garcia said.
Her camp believes that the bills violated rules when these were filed without a petition from the towns.
Proof of this, the governor said Friday, was the Provincial Board resolution on the issue with its title, “Supporting the LGUs supporting the bills...”
37 of 52
This only shows that the bills came before the petition, a violation of the procedure, she said.
The code’s implementing rules also stated that the documents are required “to support the petition,” and not to support the bills.
So far, 37 of Cebu’s 52 towns and cities oppose the creation of additional Cebu provinces.
Section 50 of the bills for new provinces states that the “amount necessary for the plebiscite shall be charged to the appropriation of the Province of Cebu,” but the Capitol has vowed not spend for this.
Proponents of Cebu del Sur, Cebu del Norte and Cebu Occidental earlier said they will spend from their discretionary funds, but Garcia said this would be against the law.
Cebuano officials are clamoring for a public hearing here.
But advocates of the new provinces earlier said there’s no need for a public hearing in Cebu, as the plebiscite can offer a credible venue to get the public sentiment.
Cuenco, for his part, said it is in the rules that the bills should not have been scheduled for deliberation until they meet all requirements listed in the rules drafted by the House committee affairs department.
Coverage
Rep. Simeon Kintanar had said they complied with the requirements as far as they are concerned.
Apart from its costs, the coverage of a plebiscite is also being debated.
Cebu Provincial Board committee on laws chairman Antonio Almirante said it should not be conducted in the whole island of Cebu, only in the districts concerned.
Almirante, an ally of Kintanar who voted for the PB resolution supporting the new provinces’ creation, cited the difference in the provisions for this between the 1973 and the 1987 Constitutions.
Article 11, Section 3 of the 1973 Constitution states that a plebiscite should be conducted “in the unit or units affected.”
Article 10, Section 10 of the 1987 Constitution, however, mentioned a plebiscite “in the political units directly affected.”
But the governor has said the rest of the districts will be directly affected, especially by the reduction of the income and land area, not to mention the historical value of Cebu. (Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(August 27, 2005 issue)
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