Lawyers studying when: before or after GMA signs the law?

With his fellow senators clearly bent on approving the creation of a new district in Camarines Sur despite its failure to meet the minimum population requirement, Senator Benigno Aquino III will question its constitutionality before the Supreme Court at the proper time.

Aquino, as chair of the committee on local governments, had been blocking the bill for a fifth congressional district in the Bicolano province because it has less than the required population of 250,000.

However, the senators on Wednesday voted 10-4 to approve Committee Report 550, which proposes the regrouping of municipalities in the first and second districts of Camarines Sur to create a new district. The province currently has 4 districts.

The creation of an additional district in the province is interpreted by various camps as a form of accommodation for the youngest son of President Arroyo, the incumbent congressman of the first district, and her budget secretary, Roland Andaya, who wants to re-claim that same congressional seat.

Administration ally Joker Arroyo, who also hails from Camarines Sur, had challenged oppositors to let the measure be enacted, and just question its merits before the Supreme Court.

Enough basis

Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada, spokesman of the Liberal Party (LP) where Aquino belongs, told Newsbreak that the senator’s legal team is weighing the right time to go to the Supreme Court.

“We are studying if do we have to wait for the signature of the President or do we have enough basis to restrain her from signing it,” Tanada said in a telephone interview.

The 1987 Constitution’s Ordinance says that provinces or cities that have more than 250,000 residents shall be entitled to at least one representative or more, depending on its population in the immediately following election. 

Based on the 2007 census, the proposed new district—composed of the municipalities of Cabusao, Del Gallego, Lupi, Ragay, and Sipocot—only has a population of 176,383.

“This move does not comply with the population requirement set by the law.” Tañada said.

The proposed new district in Camarines Sur is one of the 18 new districts being proposed in the House of Representatives.

However, Newsbreak research—using population data from the National Statistics Coordination Board and maps of local government units—showed that only 8 of these proposed districts have contiguous territories and have met the population requirement. (Click here to read 8 proposed districts more qualified than Dato’s).

Population and contiguous territory are the requirements set by the Constitution in the creation of a new district. Constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas, however, wrote in a commentary that the territorial requirement is not absolute.

Since 1987, 22 additional districts have been created. Twelve of these additional districts were created under the Arroyo administration. (Click here to read Most add’l House seats created under GMA.) (Newsbreak)

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