Residents reject barangay split
CEBU CITY—The residents of Guadalupe in Cebu City rejected the move to split the biggest barangay of Cebu City during the plebiscite on Saturday.
The turnout, however, reached only 42.5 percent or 12,097 voters of the 28,421 voters in the barangay.
The result showed an overwhelming “no” votes of 8,107 or 67 percent as against the “yes” votes of 3,990 or around 32 percent.
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With the “no” votes prevailing, Republic Act No. 9905, the law authored by former Cebu City south district Rep. Antonio Cuenco creating Barangay Banawa-Englis was not ratified.
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“In short, that law is already dead”, said Cebu City south district election officer Edwin Cadungog.
Cuenco immediately conceded the rejection. “The people have spoken. They do not agree to the split so I will accept this. I respect your decision so congratulations and congratulations for this beautiful exercise,” Cuenco said on Sunday.
But incumbent Cebu City south district Rep. Tomas Osmeña used the result of the plebiscite to lambaste Cuenco and Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama who reportedly favored the proposal.
“The resulting ‘no’ vote shows that Cuenco and Rama have no influence on the people with their endorsement to vote ‘yes.’ Maybe their endorsement backfired. Both Cuenco and Rama should have left the people alone to decide. Now they proved that they cannot lead the people. They should read the writing on the wall,” Osmeña said in a text message.
Guadalupe Barangay Captain Michael Gacasan, who campaigned for “no,” said he was glad that the people have spoken. He said the people of his barangay did not want to destroy its image as the biggest barangay not just in the city but also in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Guadalupe has a land area of almost 600 hectares. Its voting population is 28,421 but based on the 2007 census, the total population of the barangay is 49,956.
Gacasan said he would deliver basic services fairly to the entire barangay, including the Sitios Banawa and Englis.
The failure to deliver basic services in Banawa and Englis was cited as the main reason for the move to split the barangay. Gacasan denied the accusation.
