MIDTERM EXAMINATION PAPER IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT CODE

Submitted by:
Almonte, Jeff
Florida, Romayna
Marcelo, Estephanie
Oclarit, Raymer
Paala, Joan
Pineda, Sam
Villaruz, Leoven

THIS GROUP DISAGREES ON DIVIDING THE PALAWAN INTO THREE PROVINCES

The Government of Palawan is seeking to divide Palawan into three provinces: Palawan del Norte,
Palawan Oriental and Palawan del Sur. The Government of Palawan proposes that future Internal Revenue
Allotment (IRA) will be allocated proportionately to the three new provinces, in accordance with land
areas and population. It has sparked mixed reactions to us local residents after it breezed through the
House of Representatives. There are a lot of criticisms that we are raising against it which defends the
measure as not motivated by partisan political concerns, nor a gerrymandering exercise.

Legal Basis

If we are looking on it at the outset, basically the thrust of dividing the island into smaller
provinces will directly affect the delivery of basic services to the inhabitants. The Local Government Units
are mandated to provide these basic services and facilities to the people by virtue of Section 17 (a) of the
Local Government Code of 1991 which provides:

“Section 17. Basic Services and Facilities. -

(a) Local government units shall endeavor to be self-reliant and shall continue exercising the
powers and discharging the duties and functions currently vested upon them. They shall also discharge
the functions and responsibilities of national agencies and offices devolved to them pursuant to this Code.
Local government units shall likewise exercise such other powers and discharge such other functions and
responsibilities as are necessary, appropriate, or incidental to efficient and effective provisions of the basic
services and facilities Xxx.”
Our Reaction

Concerning this, there must be a consensus among the people which means that the legislators
must secure public consultations to gather widespread support from the constituents. Let it be
emphasized that the bill has been filed in the lower house and has eventually gained approval from its
lawmakers and is making its way on to the upper house, now on its second reading. At present, the
Province is still waiting for the version of the upper house anent its comments and modifications and will
soon gain momentum before it reaches the Office of the President.

House Bill 8055, which the House of Representatives approved in August, reached the Senate
without undergoing prior public consultation. Such consultation will show that there was no true clamor
from the people; rather, it was a plan conceived by a handful of local politicians, who desire to remain in
power perpetually. It will benefit the politicians and the political dynasty in Palawan but not the people.
On October 13, 2018, people were dismayed to find out that Palawan will soon be divided into three
provinces from a Facebook post of Senator Sonny Angara. The casualness in announcing that the said
division is timely and needed stirred angry reactions from people, mostly Palaweños who claimed they
were “blindsided” by the speedy progress of the proposed measure in Congress. It became the “most
commented” post in Senator Angara’s FB page.

Foreseeable Effects

What could be the cons of this drastic move by our leaders? The following are some of the
contentions presented:

First, there was a missing real debate. There was no encouragement for an open discussion which
will indubitably contribute to an informed decision by the citizenry. Let it be stressed that we are in a
participative democracy and a genuine participation of the people is a vital factor. If there is no audience
with the inhabitants, the issues will not be addressed properly. Clearly, the absence of public consultation
is a clear violation of Section 13 Article 16 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution which provides:

“SECTION 16. The right of the people and their organizations to effective and reasonable
participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision-making shall not be abridged. The State
shall, by law, facilitate the establishment of adequate consultation mechanisms.”

Next is political warlordism. If the delivery of the basic services and facilities is the primordial
problem of the province, why doesn’t the government directly provide for better arrangements? The
creation of three more gubernatorial posts will not make delivery of basic services and facilities more
effective. It will only create a swollen bureaucracy of safe interests which will hinder said delivery of
services to the masses. With new and numerous elective positions, there will be a separate political
agenda which will contribute to the elitism of the few. The division of the island of Palawan will give rise
to extended political clans which will eventually turn into dynasties. While proponents of the bill claim
that dividing Palawan will bring progress and development because it will improve the delivery of basic
social services, having three provinces would mean more politicians, more opportunities for corruption,
and more bloated bureaucracies. The same people who failed to alleviate poverty in various areas in
Palawan will dominate these new provinces, perpetuating their weak style of governance, as well as the
same governance, social and environmental issues that have made lives difficult for the Palaweños,
especially the poor and marginalized. Creating three smaller provinces out of Palawan does not guarantee
progress to each smaller unit. Palawan del Norte would encompass many of the province’s popular tourist
destinations, such as El Nido, Busuangam and Coron. Provinces which have been divided are currently
among the poorest provinces in the country (e.g. Zamboanga del Norte). Progress does not happen
equally among the divided (e.g. Davao Del Sur is more prosperous than Del Norte and Oriental) and there
are provinces that have refused division and are doing quite well (e.g. Cebu, CamSur).

Lastly, there will be a permeation of new positions in the government at the expense of money of
the taxpayers. The people will be forced to feed the new governors, new board members, new heads of
offices, and new officers.

Concluding Statement

We Palaweños were blindsided by how fast this proposal came into being, without consulting the
people, excluding Puerto Princesa. It is our contention that the entire nation has to know that this move
won’t be beneficial even to the country and this will serve as another unnecessary proposal which will be
entirely based on self-interests and greed of a few individuals who want to retain and even gain more
power, as this creation of provinces will cause a bloated bureaucracy and definitely a burden since it
means another expense as the holding of a plebiscite will be shouldered by taxpayer’s money. The mantra
that division equals better public services is too simplistic to be embraced, for surely we all should know
that things are more complicated than they are. It is true that the essential proposition that granting
political autonomy to a subset of the province could help that subset progress economically. But such
autonomy and self-rule is all about since it is the core premise of the Duterte administration’s vows for
federalism.
 The division of Palawan is not the appropriate answer to the existing weak governance,
corruption, and natural resource use issues in the province. It is not about that Palawan is hard to govern
or the local government has been inaccessible to the people, or the delivery of basic services is the root
problem, but it is simply because of the more political and personal agendas of other politicians who are
being pursued first instead of concerns of the citizens of our province. We strongly oppose the division of
the province since the division is not the solution for the current predicaments and issues of our province.
Rather, there must be a better and active governance by all who is obligated to serve in the local
government of Palawan.