BACOLOD City Lone District Representative Alfredo Abelardo Benitez vowed to refile the redistricting bill of the city.
This was after the Bacolod City Council earlier approved a resolution requesting Benitez to propose a law dividing Bacolod City’s lone legislative district into two.
The resolution was authored by Councilor Al Victor Espino, chairperson of the City Council committee on laws.
Benitez said it will start again in step 1 since all the bills for the 20th Congress will go back to zero in filing.
"It's my stand to push through the redistricting of Bacolod City so we will file a bill dividing the city into two districts," he said.
Benitez is also hopeful that the Senate and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will see the necessity of the proposed bill.
Espino earlier said that redistricting Bacolod City into two legislative districts is necessary to ensure proportional representation in Congress, enhance accessibility to national government programs, and strengthen democratic participation through more localized representation.
He also said that dividing the city into two legislative districts is expected to bring substantial economic benefits through increased congressional representation, allowing greater access to national funding allocations, infrastructure programs, and other socio-economic development initiatives that will benefit all constituents of Bacolod City.
Espino noted that Section 5, Article VI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution provides that each legislative district shall comprise, as far as practicable, contiguous, compact, and adjacent territory with a population of at least 250,000.
Moreover, Benitez said his office will focus more on filing of resolutions rather than legislative bills.
"We are more interested in implementation and executions of the laws that being passed by the Congress and to determine its status," he said.
He added that they will find ways on how they can help alleviate the hardships of the people.
Meanwhile, Mayor Greg Gasataya said he also supported the redistricting of the city since he filed the proposed bill in 2016 during his first term as congressman of Bacolod.
He said for his three terms as congressman, the leadership in the House of Representatives failed to give green light for additional congressional districts. (MAP)