LUCENA CITY – The Commission on Elections in Quezon has declared its readiness to supervise a plebiscite that would decide the fate of a new law seeking to divide the province into two separate units – Quezon del Sur and Quezon del Norte.

“This plebiscite is hotly contested, very different from the others which are usually lukewarm as far as people’s participation is concerned,” lawyer Allan Enriquez, Comelec-Quezon chief, said in a phone interview Friday.

He said tension was heightened by the participation of politicians in the campaign to push and defeat the new law.

He said, however, that the police and military are ready for the plebiscite.

Materials ready

All the materials needed for the plebiscite have already been distributed to the province’s 39 towns and two cities, he said.

In northern Quezon, Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona, head of the Prelature of Infanta, urged voters, especially the young, to reject the old politics of “guns, goons and gold” in his pastoral letter issued Friday in response to the violence inflicted by a zealous No campaigner on one of his priests.

Senior Supt. Fidel Posadas, Quezon police chief, said he would place the entire police force in the province on red alert for the plebiscite.

Enriquez called on voters in the province, estimated to be around 900,000, to go out and cast their votes.

He said, however, that the Comelec expects only a 50 percent turnout.

Under Republic Act 9495, 17 towns in the first and second districts of the province will be known as Quezon del Norte and Lucena City will remain as capital. Quezon del Sur will be composed of 22 towns in the third and fourth districts with Gumaca town as the capital.

Simple process

Enriquez explained that the voter is only required to write either “Yes” or “No” in the ballot. “Oo or Hindi is also acceptable,” he added.

He also dismissed reports that the Supreme Court has issued another temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the holding of the plebiscite.

“The plebiscite is a go,” he said in an interview over radio station dwKI-FM Friday morning.

The Supreme Court issued a TRO preventing the Comelec from proclaiming the results of the plebiscite.

Before the current province of Aurora, then a sub-province of Quezon, was separated under the late President Ferdinand Marcos, Quezon was the biggest province in the country with an area of 11,946.2 square kilometers or 1,194,620 hectares.