Flaws surface in House process on local measures

PILI, Camarines Sur—Flaws in the way the House of Representatives processes bills creating new cities or provinces emerged recently after the chair of a House committee admitted errors in the use of so-called templates for a bill that creates a new province in the Bicol region and which had been sent to the Senate.

Rep. George Arnaiz (2nd district, Negros Oriental) said in a letter to the provincial board of Camarines Sur that errors were found in House Bill No. 4820, which seeks to create a new province out of Camarines Sur.

Arnaiz said the “inadvertent errors emanated from the template used in the preparation of the bill.” The template, he said in his letter, was that for new cities and municipalities.

HB 4820 gave taxation and regulatory powers to the proposed new province that are exclusive to city and municipal governments.

Arnaiz said in his letter to the board that he has written the Senate to insert amendments to correct the bill’s flaws.

A key critic of the bill, however, said the action was tantamount to “dagdag-bawas.” Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte Jr., estranged son of one of the bill’s main supporters Rep. Luis Villafuerte Sr., said the move to correct the bill’s flaws was just an afterthought.

The governor questioned the process. “They want to amend the bill by way of a letter. Is that the right legislative procedure?” he said.