By Mortz C. Ortigoza
SAN CARLOS CITY, Pangasinan – A provincial lawmaker deplored
the inaction of Congress to add more congressional districts in the highly populated
province of Pangasinan.
Board Member Vici Ventanilla said if the redistricting has been the work of the provincial board (lawmaking body), the congressional apportionment to the more than three million demographic Northern Luzon’s province has long been concluded.
Photo is internet grabbed. |
“Kung ang measure na
iyan ay sa probinsiya ang sumulong na iyan, gaya ng sinabi ko matagal na
panahon na nagkakaroon tayo ng redistricting matagal na. Sa ibang probinsiya
nadagdagan na. Ang luwag ng Pangasinan,” he told Northern Watch Newspaper.
The 1987 Constitution says that each city with a population of at least 250,000, or each province, shall
have at least one representative.
“Iyan ay congressional
act although it is about time na sa probinsiya ng Pangasinan unang una
masyadong malaki na po ang ating probinsiya mahigit tatlong milyon ang ating
population 3.3 million at alam natin na in every 250,000 can be considered as
one district”
If based on the constitutional requirement of 250,000 inhabitants
as minimum requirement for a new congressional apportionment, the province
could have 12 congressional districts.
The Philippine Constitution added: “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".
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 on
this writer’s interview a few years ago with them, the average allocation of
infrastructure projects from the national government to each of the Second,
Third, and Fourth Congressional Districts was about one billion pesos on that
year.
Then Pangasinan Congressmen Arthur Celeste (1st District) Victor Agbayani (2nd
District) and Rachel Arenas (3rd District) filed a bill in 2008 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.
“Kailangan natin
consultation ng ating mga local leaders kung okay ba sa kanila kung sila ay
mapunta sa ganitong distrito. Siyempre, ibang iba ang with proper consultation.
There was a time may problem ito ang ni-opposed ng mga local leaders because
they were not consulted,” Ventanilla cited what happened before.
In 2014, Provincial Board Member Alfie Bince proposed a
resolution for Congress to create two more districts.
He said with the 2, 893, 858 province’s population on that
year, it was opportune to request congressmen to hammer a law to add more
districts to Pangasinan.
Bince cited on that year 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.
Capital town's Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil said that when he was
a congressman in the early 2000s he filed a bill for additional two districts
in the province on top of the six congressional districts under the
Reorganization Committee chaired by then 6th District Rep. Marlyn Primicias.
“For the record, I sponsored a bill creating additional
districts for our province during my time as Congressman in support to the
SP (Sanguniang Panlalawigan) Resolution of former Provincial Board
Member, Manong Alfie Bince, though it did not prosper for various reasons. Perk
was not my priority but people’s need. I’m proud of our constituents, majority
of them are intelligent and patriotic,”
he told Northern Watch Newspaper.
Another Congressman, on conditioned of anonymity, told this
newspaper in 2021 that there were several members of the House of
Representatives in Pangasinan that would not sign for the sponsorship bill on
the creation of more districts in the province after President Rodrigo Duterte
ascended to power in June 2016.
They dread to see, the solon opined, that the billion pesos’
allocation yearly in their turf could be reduced too as their district is reconfigured
by the constitutional edict.
Allocation of that amount is vulnerable to anomalous
transaction where the contractor of the project gives an S.O.P or cut to the
solon from twenty to ten percent of a certain infrastructure to be created.