Sugbu-ak hearing won't be held here

Despite the lobbying of four congressmen to hold a public hearing in Cebu on the proposed bills to divide the province into three, the chairman of the House committee on local government remained firm in his decision not to.

Negros Oriental Rep. Emilio Macias insisted that there is no need for his committee to come to Cebu for a public hearing because its duty is only to determine whether or not the proposed bills complied with the P20 million income, 2,000 square-kilometer land area and 250,000 population requirements for the creation of a new province as provided by the Local Government Code.

The proposed provinces have complied with the income and population requirements according to the local government finance of the Department of Finance and National Statistics Office but failed in the land area requirement, said an official of the land management bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Director Maloy Malvar of the finance department told the committee of Macias that the proposed province of Cebu del Sur has an income of P104 million in 2004 while Occidental Cebu has P111 million and P101 million for Cebu del Norte, which are above the P20 million requirement.

Maria Vergara of NSO likewise said that it has complied with the population requirement because based on the year 2000 census the proposed Cebu del Sur has a population of 371,764, Occidental Cebu has 425,561 and Cebu del Norte 387,647.

But Daryl Alerre said that all failed in the land area requirement. But the law provides that only two of the three requirements are necessary to create a new province provided that the land area of the original province is not below 2,000 square kilometers.- Fred P. Languido