Cotabato City calls for creation of own legislative district

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The city council has drafted a resolution urging Congress to create a lone congressional district to represent its 37 barangays.

Japal Guiani III, a member of the Cotabato City’s 16th Sangguniang Panglunsod, told reporters Thursday the resolution was sent to Rep. Ronnie Sinsuat (Maguindanao 1st District).

Cotabato City is part of the first congressional district of Maguindanao, along with 11 other towns in the province.

Guiani said the council approved the resolution unanimously during a session Tuesday.

Sources from the office of the Department of the Interior and Local Government in Region 12 said Cotabato City has been qualified since 2015 to become its own congressional district based on population, area and revenue collections.

The power to create legislative districts is with the House of Representatives.

Sinsuat earlier sponsord a bill to split Maguindanao into two provinces, one to be named Western Maguindanao.

His proposal aims to group together all of the 11 towns in the first district of Maguindanao under a new Western Maguindanao province.

Guiani said he and other SP members are optimistic that Congress, through the efforts of Sinsuat, will consider the mounting calls for Cotabato City, now with more than 300,000 residents, to have its own congressional seat.

Cotabato City was created through a congressional charter more than five decades ago.

The city is also known as Kuta Wato, or stone fort, which refers to the iconic hill overlooking the Rio Grande de Mindanao and nearby marshes that connect to the 220,000-hectare Liguasan Delta.

Moros opposed to Spanish rule used the stone fort as a staging ground for attacks against the colonizers from the 16th to late 18th century.