Camarines Sur split backers seen after posts in new province

Acknowledging that the motives for and against a bill that would create a new province out of a district in Camarines Sur are “political,” Sen. Francis Escudero said the proposal to create Nueva Camarines would put the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in a bind over whether or not the deadline for filing of candidacies should be extended beyond today.

He said if the proponents of the bill, among them last term Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella, want to “make it to the 2013 elections, it depends on Comelec if it could still adjust the last day of filing” of certificates of candidacies.

“The motives behind the move to divide or not to divide the province of Camarines Sur are political,” Escudero said in a statement.

The bill creating Nueva Camarines out of Camarines Sur’s fourth district, which is Fuentebella turf, is pending at the Senate.

Its critics, led by Camarines Sur Gov. LRay Villafuerte Jr., point to results of a survey showing that 72 percent of the province’s residents reject the bill to stress on the argument that it is a waste of funds and time to create a new province that would surely be rejected by the people in a plebiscite.

Fuentebella, who has not made public whether he would run for any position in the newly created province, said 24 of 35 mayors and four out of five congressmen in Camarines Sur support the bill.

“Ultimately, the people of Camarines Sur will decide,” said Fuentebella.