Benefits of More Congressional Districts

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

                                            

Most mayors in the 44 towns and 4 cities' gargantuan Pangasinan province aspire up to four congressional apportionment the soonest.

Four of the six members of the House of Representatives in the province want it too.

Two, however, did not want to mangle the status quo to make it to ten congressional districts probably with varied reasons.

One reason could probably be they don’t want that their half to one billion pesos a year allocation on infrastructures from the national government reduced thus prejudicing their twenty percent cut of S.O.P from contractors.

The other reason could be they don’t want to endanger their bailiwick that could threaten their hold of the prestigious office despite it’s being mocked with disdain by critics as House of Thieves instead of the respectable House of Representatives.

Unlike its counterpart and copycat the U.S Congress whose member use titles on themselves as “Mister” and “Missus” or “Miss” our imperious and condescending solons want to be called “Honorable Congressman” on official and social functions despite most are only qualified as “Mambubutas (Swivel Chair Driller) of the infamous Committee of Silence.
Some in the Visaya and Mindanao Regions want to be called with the prefix's "Honorable" but also as "Deputado (Representative)" in Spanish where most of them could only qualify in debate and legislative prowess as "Hijo and Hija Deputas (son of bitches)!

The 297 members' House of Representatives in the Philippines. Photo Credit:

Thanks but no thanks to popularity votes of our electoral system. A moneyed “idiot” who has the propensity to help the destitute is catapulted to the August Chamber instead of his intellectual qualification.

 Section 5 (1), Article VI  of the Philippines Constitution says “The House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who shall be elected from legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of their respective inhabitants, and on the basis of a uniform and progressive ratio,...”.

Pangasinan has a population of almost three million or to be specific 2,956, 726 according to the 2015 Census released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The demography of the province is bigger now after the 2018 census will be published by the PSA.

 Pangasinan will hit more or less 3.5 million in population if the new survey goes public anytime from now.

With 250, 000 inhabitants needed to create a new congressional district as mandated by the Constitution, Pangasinan could have 14 congressmen who will add to the acrimony of grandstanding and idiocy with their stupid questions at the House of Representatives in Quezon City.

Of course, there will be spiked too of the numbers of jaded “mambubutas” solons.

Critics of the apportionment will argue that more districts means more corruption like S.O.P or cut from the contractors and more expenses on the salaries of the solon and his staff at the expense of the taxpayers.

These obnoxious corruption-ridden posts and bureaucratic boondoggle become trivial however to the economic benefit infused by up to four congressional representatives in the land of Warrior Princes Urduja.

With additional four billion pesos from the six billion pesos yearly average in Pangasinan given by the national coffer for “hard projects” like infrastructures and “soft projects” like scholarship to poor but deserving college students, it means multiplier effect to jobs in this lethargic province cited by the 2018 Census of the PSA to have more poor people than the three provinces in the region.

As what this newspaper published, it showed that the most numbers of poor families, as seen by ranks below, are:

1.       Pangasinan:        65, 200 families

2.       Ilocos Sur   :         8, 800 families

3.       La Union     :         5, 500

4.       Ilocos Norte          4, 700

As what the PSA said that a family is composed averagely of five household members, the magnitude of the poverty incidence in Pangasinan is 326,000 poor individuals. 

‘Nough said!

Let’s get rid of this basket case branding pronto because of our incompetent politicians in Region-1. Let those patriotic four congressional proponents in Pangasinan pass a bill in the House and argue before the almost 300 members there the rights of Pangasinenses as based on the constitutional mandate of one representative to 250,000 inhabitants "Within three years following the return of every census..".

Let’s see how the 297 members House of Representatives and the 23 members House of Senate vote for it.

If they allowed mammoth provinces Cavite and Cebu (Cebu Province, Cebu and Lapu-Lapu Cities) with eight and ten congressional districts, respectively the people of Pangasinan are optimistic they can have eight to ten as conservative estimate from the 14 congressional apportionment if we divide the 250,000 population requirement to the 3.5 million demography.

Let’s expedite the passing of the four or more districts so we can be a beneficiary of the billions of pesos manna yearly from Imperial Manila.

***

FIRST TIME

While talking with Binmaley, Pangasinan mayor Sam Rosario whose town he declared under a state of calamity due to African Swine Flu that killed hundreds of pigs, a town mate in Mindanao, a head of an LGU department called me.
"Mortz we are here in Baguio for Lakbay Aral. What's the requirement to tour PMA?"
I told him just tell the guards at the gate your purpose.

"Baw, mayad nadala mo mga staffs mo sa Baguio. Iban dira pinaka malayo nakadtuan nila siguro sa Bankerohan, Davao City lang (Geez, nice you brought your staffs in Baguio. Probably, some of them have only reached as far as Bankerohan, Davao City)," I said in Ilonggo.
The town mate had a guffaw (humahalakhak).
"Yes ha ha ha ha. Pati sa eroplano first time. Siling nila baw grabe gali ang batse sa eroplano (Even riding an airplane was first time for them. Many of them wondered upon landing in Manila that they got a rocky ride (we called it Air Pocket because of thick clouds) in the air)"
"Nadumduman pa siguro nila ang mga pot holes rough road naton in the early 1980s like the muddy M'lang -Matalam Highway (Probably they recalled the pot holes rough roads in our town in the early 1980s," I retorted.

READ MY OTHER BLOG/ARTICLE:

Dagupan, 3rd Cong’l District have most voters in P’sinan

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too attotomortz@yahoo.com)