... this article also explains why JOKER ARROYO, a stalwart of Cory's administration, was nowhere to be seen or heard these past weeks....
Noynoy to block district for Dato By Christina Mendez<http://www.philstar.com/ArticleListByAuthorName.aspx?AuthorName=Christina+Mendez> (The Philippine Star) Updated August 19, 2009 12:00 AM MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is planning to bring to the Supreme Court (SC) a proposed bill that seeks to create a new and separate constituency in Camarines Sur tailor-made for President Arroyo’s son, Diosdado, the incumbent representative of the province’s first district. Aquino, chairman of the committee on local government, opposes the bill. “If I lose it here (at the Senate), I intend to go to the Supreme Court,” Aquino said yesterday. “The point here is (if we push through with this) and somebody brings the issue before the Supreme Court, it will be a case of People of the Philippines versus the Senate. Who will be charged in the Supreme Court? It’s not the building but the person, it will be me as chair of the committee,” said Aquino. He said he has reservations on the bill because of the constitutional problems particularly on the population requirement. Aquino said he would ask another senator to sponsor it before the floor for deliberations. Nonetheless, Aquino said the Senate committee on local government has forwarded the committee report last Monday to the plenary with seven signatories and that he is leaving it up to his colleagues who are members of the committee to choose somebody who will sponsor it. “I have reservations and I intend to reiterate that during the interpellation,” Aquino said. “I think it’s violative of the Constitution, especially on the population requirement.” Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said the Senate will tackle the resolution on the floor today with *Sen. Joker Arroyo sponsoring the report. Arroyo has been advocating the creation of the new district *which created a rift between him and Aquino. In an interview, Aquino pointed out that the bill proposing the creation of a fifth district in Camarines Sur fails the population requirement of 250,000. Under the proposal, the first district will be divided into two where one district will get a population of 250,000 and the second, only 170,000 which is short of 80,000 people to comply with the 250,000: 1 ratio for a congressional district. In stressing his point, Aquino cited Article VI Section 5, sub-sections 1 and 3 of the Constitution that provides that those who shall be elected from legislative districts should be in accordance with the number of inhabitants. “So there is a population requirement. And on the basis of a uniform and progressive ratio (the proposal for another district in Camarines Sur) is not followed,” Aquino added. When asked if the pressure to create the new district was aimed at accommodating the President’s son and to allow Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya to return to his congressional district, Aquino said he does not want to impute accusations against anybody. “I don’t see any other reason. I would not want to impute that but the bottom-line is as far as I am concerned, there is a population requirement, they had the wherewithal to do so and they chose not to. And they are now forcing me to agree to that position,” Aquino said. Aquino said he has consulted two known constitutionalists who backed his opinion on the matter. “We consulted Dean (Pacifico) Agabin and Fr. (Joaquin) Bernas on population requirement, they are two noted constitutionalists. Yun ang sabi ng Constitution that there is a requirement and the requirement is 250,000,” Aquino said. Aquino added that he would have not met any problems with the proponents had they reconfigured the division of the districts to comply with the 250,000 population requirement. “So if they only arranged it, it’s on the record, can you not reconfigure so that it meets the constitutional requirement? Joker said we tried so many formulations, it doesn’t work. The bottom-line is the 170,000 is very far from 250,000,” Aquino maintained. Even if his colleagues use the formula used in the creation of a new district in Malolos, Bulacan, Aquino noted that the same is full of statistical errors. The National Statistics Office has overestimated the population increase of 10 percent in the next few years in Malolos. -- spanx' blog: http://spankyenriquez.blogspot.com/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gimik" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gimik?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
