The Senate passed on second reading the bill adding another district to Camarines Sur

amid doubts over its constitutionality.

 

With a vote of 10-4, the Senate approved on Wednesday (Sept. 23) House Bill 4264, which seeks to increase the number of districts in Camarines Sur to five.

 

The bill, authored by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte is seen to help Pres. Arroyo’s son incumbent Camarines Sur 1^st District Rep. Diosdado Ignacio ‘Dato’ Arroyo secure his congressional seat. 

 

The younger Arroyo is now on tender hooks following a potential comeback by current budget secretary and Camarines Sur native Rolando Andaya Jr.

 

Andaya, who practically inherited the position from his father, Rolando Andaya Sr., is expected to assert his domain over the district in the upcoming 2010 elections.

 

 

The Senate approved the legislation amid earlier opposition from Sen. Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino that it smacked of legal loopholes.

 

Aquino, chair of the committee on local government, tried to block the passage of the bill during the period of interpellations last Thursday by arguing that the legislation overlooked the population requirement for new districts.

 

The proposed district only has around 170,000 inhabitants, less than a hundred thousand short of the required 250,000 residents spelled out in the 1987 Constitution.

 

Sen. Joker Arroyo, who sponsored the bill, however, insisted that the population requirement was only required by the Constitutions with respect to cities. He argued during the plenary debate that the Constitution is silent on any other prerequisites for new districts in provinces.

 

Article VI. Sec. 5.3 of the 1987 Constitution states that “…Each city with a population of least two hundred fifty thousand, or each province, should at least have one representative.”

 

Arroyo furthered that the bill should be passed on the ground that it fit the territorial requirements – that the additional district is ‘compact, contiguous, and practicable.’

 

 

Sen. Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas criticized the bill as part of Malacañang’s dirty tricks to keep the younger Arroyo in power.

 

“Let me put it on record that members of the Liberal Party opposed the measure, which is clearly meant to favor somebody who is from Pampanga,” LP’s contender for the position of vice-president said.

 

Roxas, along with fellow Liberal Party members Senators Aquino and Francis Pangilinan voted against the passage of the bill. Senator Panfilo Lacson, who recently said he prefers Aquino over other aspirants to the presidency, also voted against the measure.

 

Arroyo is only on his first term as representative of the Camarines Sur 1^st district. Andaya previously held the post from 1998-2004. His father, Andaya Sr., served as the district’s representative from 1987-1998.

 

In 2006, the same year Andaya was given the budget portfolio by Pres. Arroyo, Dato had a residential house built in Potot, Libmanan in the said province. He ran the following year and won. – Purple Romero, abs-cbnNEWS.com/ Newsbreak