Sugbuak and the Macias Committee

Have you not noticed that the actuations of Congressman Emilio Macias, chairman of the House local government committee, seem to be in favor of the Sugbuak proponents? First, he denied the request to have the hearing in Cebu and insisted on conducting it in Manila. In the hearing itself, he allowed only governor Gwen Garcia to speak on behalf of the bills' objectors, and denied even congressman Tony Cuenco from airing his side, taking the position of congresswoman Clavel Martinez that the Cebu City congressman was not a member of the committee. Requested by congressman Eduardo Gullas to have the second hearing held in Cebu, Macias' reaction was again negative reinforced with the comment that, as quoted by The Freeman "the right time for the sentiments of the Cebuanos to be heard is during the required plebiscite".

It was bad enough that Macias would have nothing to do with a Cebu-based hearing, it was quite upsetting to have heard from him about when Cebuanos would air their sentiments on the bills. Frankly, it's difficult to make sense out of the congressman's statement. Is not a legislative consultation designed to enlighten the committee handling the bill on the sentiments of those who are affected by the proposed legislations? Is it the intention of the Macias committee to act first on the Sugbuak bills before getting the pulse of the Cebuanos? That would be like placing the cart before the horse. To wait for the plebiscite, which to Macias is "the right time" for the Cebuanos to have their say on the bills, is rather an inappropriate way to gauge the sentiments of the stakeholders.

Bills of local application are seldom deliberated in the plenary session; after all, these are of concern only to the representatives whose areas of jurisdiction are affected. Usually, the skirmish is in the committee level during the public consultation or in the in-house deliberations. That's why it's very important for the committee members working on the bills to be very sensitive to the viewpoints and feelings of the people concerned. Disregarding these would be a negation of an important democratic process no less different from taxation without representation, rather a little off-tangent but relevant comparison.

By insisting on conducting the hearing in Manila, the government wasted a lot of money for the travel expenses of Cebu officials, not to mention the loss of work hours for the more than forty key personnel. It would have been a simple matter for congressman Macias himself and one or two members of his committee to come to Cebu for such hearing. But then the Negros Congressman wants to play monarchical insofar as Sugbuak is concerned. So the wishes of his majesty must be fulfilled.

For the second hearing, Manila will still be the venue because the mind of the committee chairman is already made up. So be it. Let another batch of provincial and municipal officials hie to the capital city to defend the dismemberment of Cebu. If Congress wants us to spend millions to oppose Sugbuak, let it be. In fact, even if we have to pawn the provincial Capitol building if only to keep the Cebu heritage one and entire, let's do it.

Congressman Macias' dogged refusal to do the consultation in Cebu is sending a wrong signal about his objectivity on the issue at hand. The suspicion is that the bills' authors must have briefed him of the possible deluge of objections from many sectors in the province, a situation which will likely be embarrassing to both proponents and committee members. In fact, it is doubtful if the three honorable representatives would have the heart to show up knowing the unpopularity of their supposed innovation so intense is the anti-split Cebu feeling among local folks. But if the Macias group is really interested in having the issue adequately ventilated, it should have initiated, in fact insisted, on a Cebu consultation.

We have worked for sometime in the 1980s with congressman Macias, first when he was vice governor and later when he was governor of Negros Oriental. We knew him to be a no-nonsense leader whose probity and transparency was a standout among his local government peers. That's why it is difficult to believe that the honorable congressman has allowed himself to be used by the three Sugbuak proponents to chop Cebu into four pieces.