Guico mulls more cong. districts in Pangasinan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

BINALONAN – A Pangasinan congressman wants to see two to four congressional districts to be apportioned to the present six districts so they could boost economically the mammoth province.

Fifth District Representative Ramon “Monmon” Guico, III told this writer at the terminal of the family owned WCC Aeronautical and Technological College about the proposed law he has been mulling.

“Just imagine each of the eight to ten districts gets a billion of pesos’ allocation every year,” he cited.

With four districts approved by congress and signed into law by the president of the Philippines, Pangasinan could have ten congressmen.

WINNERS - Then Fifth District congressional candidate Ramon "Monmon" Guico, III (extreme left) ride a human powered tricycle driven by then provincial board's  aspirant Louie Sison. Both forayed to win the hearts and minds of voters in a village of the eight towns one city' Pangasinan's district in the May 13, 2019 polls. The duo won the electoral derbies.

According to Pangasinan Fourth Engineering Office's District Engineer (DE) Simplicio Gonzales and Pangasinan Second Engineering Office DE Edita Leano Manuel of the Department of Public Works & Highway, the average allocation of infrastructure projects from the national government to each of the Second, Third, and Fourth Congressional Districts will be about one billion pesos this year.

Pangasinan has a population of 2,956, 726 according to the 2015 Census.

The demography of the province is bigger now after the 2018 census will be published this year by the Philippines Statistics Authority.

If based on the constitutional requirement of two hundred fifty thousand  inhabitants as minimum, the province could have 12 congressional districts.

The law says: “Each legislative district shall comprise, as far as practicable, contiguous, compact, and adjacent territory. Each city with a population of at least two hundred fifty thousand, or each province, shall have at least one representative”.

According to the Philippine Constitution “Within three years following the return of every census, the Congress shall make a reapportionment of legislative districts based on the standard’s provided in this section".

Just to show the population of the province's swelled, she has 1,946,682 voters as based on the records of the Commission on Election compared to 1, 705,260 in 2016.

According to the data given by the Comelec to this writer, the most number of districts in terms of the numbers of voters in Pangasinan from highest to lowest are: Third, Second, Fifth, Fourth, Six, and First Districts.

Then congressmen Arthur Celeste (First District) Victor Agbayani (Second District), and Rachel Arenas (Third District) filed a bill in 2008 at the House of Representatives to apportion one more congressional district in the province.

But elective provincial officials allied under then governor Amado T. Espino, Jr. opposed the measure arguing that no public hearing was conducted by the three lawmakers.

In 2014, provincial board member Alfie Bince proposed a resolution for congress to create two more congressional districts.

He said with the 2, 893, 858 province’s demography on that year, it was opportune to request congressmen to hammer a law to add more districts to Pangasinan.

Bince cited that provinces like the then 2.6 million populated Cebu, 2.4 million demographics’ Negros Occidental, and 1.8 million populated Camarines Sur have seven, six, and six districts, respectively.  

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