Totol, Tom differover new district

CEBU, Philippines -  If he wins in the next election, Cebu City south district congressional candidate Aristotle “Totol” Batuhan will revive the proposal to create a third district in the city.

“The basic concept is, more representatives the city has in Congress would mean more funding from the national government assuming the pork barrel system will continue,” Batuhan said.

But south district Representative Tomas Osmeña is opposing the move, saying it is not necessary.

“That means another eight councilors. New building? New session hall? Additional vehicles and staff? Overhead? It’s not necessary,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña said the creation of another district will just add a layer of bureaucracy.

“Right now there even isn’t enough parking space in City Hall. So we build a new City Hall. One thing leads to another like a chain reaction. I believe in a smaller bureaucracy,” Osmeña added.

Yesterday, Batuhan told mountain barangay residents about the advantages of having another representative in Congress from the city.

He said the new representative will focus on the needs of mountain barangays, specifically on infrastructure development.

A congressman receives a P75 million Priority Development Assistance Fund every year for projects in his district.

Cuenco’s idea

The idea of creating a third district in the city was previously introduced by former congressman Antonio Cuenco, who endorsed Batuhan to run for Congress under Team Rama.

The proposal is to divide the south district into two.

But at the time of Cuenco proposal, south district has a population of only about 425,000, short by about 75,000 to meet the population requirement to create two districts.

Cuenco then asked former congressman Raul del Mar to possibly give up one barangay in the north district, but the latter opposed the idea.

Batuhan said that if given the chance to sit in Congress, he would base the bill to create a new district on the projected population of south district’s 34 barangays by 2013.

He said he is confident that the population requirement would be met.

A congressional district must have a population of at least 250,000.

Batuhan said the south district’s population is close to 500,000 according to the latest census and it is expected to increase by next year.

He said that creating a new district in the city is one of the advocacies of Team Rama.

Batuhan and some Team Rama candidates were with Mayor Michael Rama during the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday of a new bridge that would connect barangays Bonbon and Buot.

Batuhan said that creating a new district will pave way to more development in the mountain areas like new bridges, more concrete roads, among others.

There are two ways he is thinking of dividing the south district.

One is to separate the urban barangays from the rural barangays or dividing the district equally as long as the requirement of contiguity is met.

NIPAS amendment

Likewise, Batuhan said he wants to amend the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992 as it is a hindrance to developing the mountain areas that are identified as within the protected landscape.

He said he believes that there is a way to protect the environment without depriving barangays inside the protected landscape of infrastructure projects. —/LPM (FREEMAN)