Nueva Camarines: political or economic split?

Thursday, 15 September 2011 22:47 Miraluna Tacadao Share this o Twitter o Digg o Del.icio.us o Reddit o Yahoo o Googlize this o Facebook
o

Export PDF Print E-mail

Last August, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 4820 (originally filed as House Bill 4728) dividing Camarines Sur (CamSur) into two provinces. With an overwhelming vote of 229-1, HB 4820 seeks to create the province of Nueva Camarines. The lone dissenting vote was cast by Representative Salvio Fortuno of CamSurs fifth district.

Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella who represents CamSurs fourth district, is the principal author of the measure. Representatives Rolando Andaya, Jr., Diosdado Arroyo and Luis Villafuerte of the first, second and third districts, respectively, are co-authors of the bill.

New province The proposed new province, to be named as Nueva Camarines will combine the 10-town fourth district, the sixtown and one-city fifth district from the 35-town and two-city Camarines Sur province, with a population of more than 800,000.

Nueva Camarines will consist of Caramoan, Garchitorena, Lagonoy, Presentacion, San Jose, Siruma, Tinambac, Goa, Tigaon and Sangay towns of the fourth district and the towns of Baao, Balatan, Bato, Bula, Buhi, Nabua and Iriga City of the fifth district. The capital town and seat of government of the new province will be the municipality of Tigaon.

The mother province of CamSur would be comprised of the remaining first, second and third districts, with almost the same population.

Villafuerte, who declared his intention to run for governor in 2013, said the province has become too big to manage and the necessity to divide would be a natural course to improve the pace of development in a focused area. He added the proponents of HB 4728 have complied with the requirements of the creation of a new province based on the provisions of the Local Government Code.

Compliance to legal requirements

Under the Local Government Code of 1991, the general rule on creation of a local government unit, or its conversion from one level to another, shall be based on verifiable indicators of viability and projected capacity to provide services such as income, population and land area.

In a gathering of 22 mayors and 12 vice mayors and councillor of the 35-town, two-city province, where two political patriarchs, Deputy Speaker Fuentebella and Rep. Villafuerte Sr. are present, Tigao mayor Arnie Fuentebella explained the arguments favouring the split of the province.

Arnie, who is also son of Fuentebella stressed that HB 4820 complied with the legal requirements for a new province. These requirements were: An average income of not less than P20 million, population of not less than 250,000 and land area of not less than 2,000 square kilometres.

The young Fuentebella said that the division would maintain the first-class classification of both Camarines Sur and Nueva Camarines. He further added that when divided, the mother province of Camarines Sur, with a population of 892,203, would have an average annual income of P283.48 million while Nueva Camarines, with a population of 801,618, would have an income of P223.4 million.

Both provinces exceeded the 2,000 sq. km. land area requirement at 2,531.60 sq. km. for Camarines Sur and 2,970 sq km for Nueva Caceres, he said.

Meanwhile, the elder Fuentebella said that the resulting two provinces would have enough income to deliver basic services to their respective constituents. Based on projections, he said that the new province would have P690 million in annual revenues, while CamSur would still generate close to P850 million.

Data from the Department of Tourism showed that Camsur has overtaken Boracay as the country's top tourist destination. In 2010, the province recorded a total of 2,330,116 foreign and local visitors and posted a 48.75 percent growth in the number of visitors compared to 2009.

Family feud

Meanwhile, the governor of Camarines Sur said that the main proponent of the measure to divide the province is feeding on the feud between him and his father to push for a new province. According to Luis Raymun (LRay) Villafuerte Jr., the elder Fuentebella is riding on the differences between him and his father, Rep. Luis Villafuerte Sr. He (Fuentebella) has been taking advantage of our family differences, the governor said. However, Fuentebella denied the accusation. He said that the creation of the new province had nothing to do with the feud between father and son Villafuerte. Nueva Camarines is all about uplifting the people of the 16 towns and one city comprising the Partido and fifth districts from poverty and giving them a better future, Fuentebella had said in a statement. The idea of Nueva Camarines is not a spur-of-the-moment thing, he said. It is the product of rigorous and detailed studies. The so-called family feud among the Villafuertes did not figure at all in my bill. This is a purely socioeconomic issue, not a political one, Fuentebella said. The rift between the father and son started in 2004 when LRay succeeded the elder Villafuerte as governor after he campaigned so hard for him. Upon assuming office, Villafuerte said LRay removed his people from the provincial capitol and did not spare even those with civil service eligibility whom he assigned to far-flung areas where they were not residents. In the succeeding election, he said, LRay fielded his own people to run against incumbent officials allied with him. The two then slugged it out in the Supreme Court on the issue of the creation of another district which was opposed by LRay and whose seat was won by Rolando Andaya. In a recent development, Governor LRay Villafuerte Jr. filed plunder and graft charges against House Deputy Speaker Fuentebella, his wife and two sons for allegedly amassing more than P80 million in ill-gotten wealth from government funds to finance personal projects. Meanwhile, Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos has joined opponents of the bill that would break up Camarines Sur, saying there is no new room for a new province.

Second time If CamSur division will become a law, it would be the second time in less than three years that the province would be divided. During the 14th Congress, the first district, which is the bailiwick of the Andayas, was divided to create a new district for Diosdado Arroyo, who has adopted Libmanan as his hometown. Then Sen. Benigno Aquino III, who chaired the Senate local government committee, questioned before the Supreme Court (SC) the division of the first district, arguing that the resulting two districts did not meet the minimum 250,000 population requirement prescribed by the Constitution. But the SC, dominated by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyos appointees, declared the creation of the new CamSur district constitutional.

Nueva Camarines Bill tinalakay ng Senado Masusing tinalakay noong Mayo 31 ng Senate Committee on Local Government, na pinamumunuan ni Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., ang House Bill 4820 na naglalayong lumikha ng bagong probinsiya na kukunin mula sa Camarines Sur. Sa isinagawang ikalawang pagdinig para sa panukalang batas, nilalayon nito na pagsamahin ang ika-apat at ika-limang distrito ng Camarines Sur para makalikha ng bagong probinsiya na tatawaging Nueva Camarines. Pangunahing awtor ng nasabing panukalang batas si deputy speaker at Camarines Sur fourth district Representative Arnulfo Fuentebella. Sina Representatives Luis R. Villafuerte, Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo, at Rolando Andaya naman ang mga pumirma bilang co-authors. Ayon kay Rep. Fuentebella, ang panukalang batas ay makakatulong ng malaki sa mga residente ng probinsiya hinggil sa larangan ng maayos na pamamahala at mahanapan ng solusyon ang nararanasang kahirapan ng probinsiya lalo na sa mga liblib na barangay nito. Kumpiyansa si Fuentebella na ang binubuong bagong probinsiya ay lilikha ng positibong pananaw para sa mga residenteng naghahangad ng pagbabago, progreso at pag-unlad. Sakaling maisabatas ang HB 4820, ang probinsiya ng Nueva Camarines ay bubuuin ng mga bayan ng Baao, Balatan, Bato, Buhi, Bula, Caramoan, Garchitorena, Goa, Lagonoy, Nabua, Presentacion, Sagay, San Jose, Siruma, Tigaon at Tinambac. Ang bayan ng Tigaon ang ipinapanukala na maging kapital ng Nueva Camarines, habang ang magiging kapitolyo nito ay posibleng itayo sa siyudad ng Iriga o di kaya sa alinmang munisipalidad na sakop ng First Legislative District ng Nueva Camarines kung saan pagdedesisyunan ng mayoryang miyembro ng sangguniang panlalawigan batay na rin sa probisyon ng magsisilbing host na local government unit. Gayunpaman, ang panukalang batas ay nahaharap sa mga negatibong reaksyon at pagtutol. Isa na rito si Camarines Sur Governor L-Ray Villafuerte.

Sa pahayag ni Villafuerte, ikinatwiran niya na ang HB 4820 ay walang kuwentang panukalang batas dahil kontra ito sa itinatakda ng Local Government Code of 1991 dahil sa kawalan ng konsultasyon at malalimang pag-aaral. Binanggit naman nina Senators Antonio Trillanes at Gringo Honasan ang isyu ukol sa babawasang Internal Revenue Allotment sa maaapektuhang probinsiya dahil sa paglikha ng Nueva Camarines. Tiniyak naman ni Rep. Fuenteballa na ang panukalang batas ay sumusunod sa legal na rikisitos para sa paglikha ng bagong probinsiya base sa isinasaad ng Local Government Code of 1991. Ang mga kailangan para dito ay ang sumusunod: ang pagkakaroon ng average income na hindi lalampas sa P20 milyon, populasyon na aabot sa 250,000 at land area na aabot sa 2,000 square kilometers. Dinagdag pa ni Fuentebella na ang dibisyon sa pagbuo ng bagong probinsiya ay mapapanatili ang first-class classification ng Camarines Sur at Nueva Camarines.