DAVAO City Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang is proposing three additional districts for the city due to its increasing population.
Dayanghirang, during his privilege speech on Tuesday, July 9, at the City Council, said that the current three district-set up of the city can no longer properly distribute the services and programs to its constituents due to the overly congested set up.
"We lost economic opportunities kung di ta mag organize (We will lose economic opportunities if we don't organize)," the councilor told reporters right after the session.
Dayanghirang said Davao City is qualified to add three more districts as stated under Section 5, Article VI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
Under the law, "Congress shall make a reapportion of legislative districts based on the standards fixed in this selection."
One of the provisions states that a legislative district must have a minimum population of 250,000.
Dayanghirang also said having more House representatives could help extend and address the problem especially in small areas.
"We currently have around 1.6 million (population), 200,000 to 250,000 kaya na nato ang unom," he said.
"A congressman's pork barrel is around P100 million and since the structure is flattened, more congressmen can extend help to small areas," he added.
Dayanghirang said prior to his proposal, he said "the people" were the ones who proposed it.
"Ang sistema, gigamay na imung area, so kung gamay imung area pareha ra imung kwarta mas daghan matabangan (You can extend more help in small areas)," Dayanghirang added.
The second district councilor said he plans to divide the district due to its large land size.
He, however, said he is still going to consult his constituents.
Dayanghirang, in a previous talk with Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, agreed to divide the second district.