Additional House seat for Zamboanga del Sur pushed

 (PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

PAGADIAN CITY – Local leaders in Zamboanga del Sur are asking Congress to hasten the breakup of the province’s current legislative districts to allow it to have one more seat in the House of Representatives and the greater influx of public funds.

The measure, House Bill No. 5647, was filed in 2019 by Rep. Leonardo Babasa Jr. but it has since languished in the House’s Committee on Local Government.

Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co said that having the measure enacted into law ensures more public funds will flow into the province, especially into the new district which, in turn, would help pump-prime recovery of the local economy from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Babasa’s measure seeks to reapportion Zamboanga del Sur into three legislative districts, taking the city of Pagadian and the towns of Labangan and Tukuran from the first district, and Dumalinao town from the second district.

The third district, under Babasa’s measure, will comprise a population of 312,683 based on the 2015 census.

In 2015, Zamboanga del Sur, which has 26 towns and one city, had a population of 1,010,674 of which 602,609 are in the first district and 408,065 in the second district.

According to Babasa, each Congressional district gets as much as P2 billion in budgetary allocation of which P1.5 billion are in the form of funding mostly for infrastructure projects.

“It would do good for Zamboanga del Sur,” he said of the proposal for a new legislative district.

Babasa said tha in 2019, the bill did not move up the legislative mill because Rep. Divina Yu and her husband, Governor Victor Yu, “stopped it along its tracks as they wanted a good timing, saying the province is not yet ready” for such breakup.

Pushing the measure may now be an uphill battle as Babasa and the Yu couple have parted ways. Rep. Yu, who is now Deputy Speaker, however, has not spoken about when is the right time for the breakup.

Another opponent to the Babasa bill is former Governor Antonio Cerilles who also used to represent the second district in the House.

Cerilles said taking away Dumalinao town from the second district is unconstitutional, a view challenged by Babasa, citing a Supreme Court ruling on a similar issue.

Dumalinao town is one of Cerilles’ bailiwicks.

In 2010, then Rep. Victor Yu filed House Bill No. 3632 seeking the creation of a new legislative district. Instead of Dumalinao, the Yu proposal included Aurora town. It was co-authored by then Rep. Aurora Cerilles.

Cerilles recalled that the measure had reached the Senate but that Aurora town leaders opposed their inclusion in that new district, dooming its passage before the Senate Committee on Local Government chaired by then Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Cerilles said Babasa can refile the Yu proposal.

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