Congress Inaction on P’sinan's Redistricting

 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.