Senate OKs Malolos bill despite Charter issue

By Angie M. Rosales

02/17/2009

Despite some senators having aired objection over its alleged unconstitutionality, the Senate yesterday went on to approve the controversial lower house proposal seeking to convert Malolos City into a congressional district.

On third reading in plenary, 11 senators voted in favor of House bill 3693, three voted against it and one abstained.

In explaining his vote against the bill, a position shared by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Sen. Pia Cayetano, Sen. Joker Arroyo repeated the warning he had voiced out before that the matter could be elevated before the Supreme Court.

“I did not expect that this bill would draw a lot of outcry from the people of Malolos and Bulacan. I just realized the passed few days there were a lot of newspaper reports (about this),” he said on the floor.

Arroyo, who has recently been airing strong opposition to the bill’s enactment, again pointed out to his colleagues that it bears three violations in the Constitution.

“First is that the House of Representatives has reached already the limit provided by the Constitution, which is a number of 250-200 for legislative districts and 50 for party-list…(while) 13 more are being proposed,” he said.

Second, he said the population of the city has not reached the constitutional requirement of 250,000 for a town to be allowed to form a congressional district.

“The Constitution is clear that a city that has reached a 250,000 population is entitled to a representative in the lower house. Short of that, it cannot have a representative. (But) We have been asked and we have voted to allow Malolos to have a legislative district despite the lack of a 250,000 population,” Arroyo said.

“The third violation is that, the House bill has dismembered the first district, thereby cutting off certain municipalities from the legislative district – the first congressional district. The town of Bulacan in the province of Bulacan is now separated from the first legislative district and with that one, it violates the constitutional requirement of compactness and contiguousness,” he said.

“I lament the fact that the House of Representatives keeps on telling us that we don’t need the Senate when in respect to Charter change. But when they (congressmen) forward to us unconstitutional bills, we accommodate them!” he added.

Pimentel and Arroyo have been saying that converting Malolos into a congressional district goes against the constitutional rule on a city first having a 250,000 population as Malolos, as of August 2007, has a mere population of 223,069.

But proponents of the bill shunned this, saying that based on projections on the city’s annual growth rate, it will meet the requirement by next year.

“We cannot pass a law based on projections. Since when did we observe that kind of practice in lawmaking? They should not push it just because of statistical projections. We have to do it according to the law,” Pimentel, however, contended.

But the more serious issue over it, according to Arroyo, is the apparent “gerrymandering” that will be committed once the bill is passed into law.

Gerrymandering refers to an act of manipulating an electoral area, usually by altering its boundaries, to gain an unfair political advantage in an election.

Arroyo also adhered to the claim made by concerned sectors that are lobbying against the bill that it is being done for some politicians to obtain more votes in elections, the nearest of which is slated next year, a national level poll.

Concerned Malolos residents had said that the then proposed legislation also violates the requirements for “territorial compactness.”

Senate Bill 1986, the counterpart of House Bill 3693, provides that should Malolos City be allowed to have its own representative district, the municipality of Bulacan will be isolated from the other remaining municipalities in the first district of Bulacan province, namely Paombong, Hagonoy, Calumpit and Pulilan.

If Malolos City is removed from the first district, the municipalities of Hagonoy and Calumpit, the hometowns of Vice Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado and Rep. Marivic Sy-Alvarado, will have the biggest number of total votes among remaining municipalities in that district in local elections.

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