Sugbuak bills to be tackled in plenary

The three bills seeking to create additional provinces out of Cebu, more popularly known as the Sugbuak Bills, have been calendared for plenary discussion at the House of Representatives.

This came despite the overwhelming number of congressmen, who filed a motion for reconsideration on the approval of the Sugbuak bills in the House Committee on Local Government.

Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles who chairs the House Committee on Rules confirmed that House Bills numbers 3632, 3657 and 3733 have already been included in the calendar for approval by the plenary.

The bills authored by Reps. Antonio Yapha, Clavel Martinez and Simeon Kintanar seek to create the provinces of Occidental Cebu, Cebu del Norte and Cebu del Sur, respectively.

"Ministerial man gud ang among duty," Nograles said over radio station DYLA.

The Committee on Rules scheduled the bills for plenary discussion even before the House Committee on Local Government chaired by Negros Oriental Rep. Emilio Macias could rule on the motion for reconsideration filed by at least 45 congressmen led by Cebu Reps. Antonio Cuenco, Raul del Mar and Eduardo Gullas.

The 45 congressmen questioned the approval of the bills by the committee of Macias last August 9, because the committee chairman went on to approve them in spite of Cuenco's objection.

Cuenco objected to the action of the committee because of the absence of the petition from any of the municipality in Cebu asking for the creation of additional provinces.

Cuenco said that there was also no certification from the Land Management Bureau that would prove that the land area of the original province will not be lesser than the minimum requirement under the Local Government Code upon the creation of the additional provinces, which is 2,000 square kilometers.

Cuenco said that the Cebuanos ought to be heard, because the bills will affect them. However, the chairman of the committee refused to conduct a public hearing in Cebu despite the clamor to do so.

But, in spite of his objections during the hearing, Cuenco said Macias went on to pass the bills by putting it into vote. The bills were passed in the committee level with seven votes, four abstentions and two against.

Macias, also in an interview over DYLA, said that there is no way that the bills will be returned to his committee now that they have been included in the calendar for plenary debate.

Macias admitted yesterday that he will deny the motion even if he is yet to schedule the hearing on Wednesday. According to Macias, his committee has lost jurisdiction over the matter because he has already submitted the committee report to the Committee on Rules.

Deputy House Speaker del Mar however told The Freeman last night that the scheduled hearing on Wednesday has been postponed because of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization summit next week, which will be held in Cebu.

Macias stressed that the motion was also filed late because it was only after seven days since the approval of the bills in his committee. Even if he has already decided to deny the motion, Macias said he would still tackle it on Wednesday to explain to the anti-Sugbuak congressmen that it is too late for them to ask for reconsideration.

"This is just to accommodate them," Macias said.

Nograles however explained that although the bills have been included in the calendar for plenary discussion there is no definite schedule yet on when will these bills be submitted for approval.

According to Nograles, considering that the bills are very controversial he would recommend to House Speaker Jose de Venecia to meet with the proponents and the oppositors of the bills to be able to come up with a possible win-win solution.

"Basta dunay kontrobersiya mitingon usa namo ang mga kongresista kay di mi gusto nga masamok ang floor kay mag-iyahay og pangampanya. Kon di mahimo gyud na nga pending," Nograles said.

Nograles said he does not want also to be placed in a situation wherein both camps will pressure him. "Mahimo ta nga bibingka diha kon di sila magkasabot," he added.

Nograles said he will propose to de Venecia two weeks from now to meet with the Cebuano congressmen to discuss the issue. He said that the matter will not be given priority for the time being because of the up coming ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization summit in Cebu next week.

Del Mar and three other anti-Sugbuak congressmen, Crispin Remulla, Eduardo Gullas and Ramon "Red" Durano VI yesterday asked Nograles to suspend further action of the committee report of Macias on the approval of the bills.

Del Mar said even if the bills have been included in the calendar this will not be acted upon by the Committee on Rules, because of their request.

In a letter to Nograles, they stressed that they have a pending motion for reconsideration before the committee of Macias and it is an established procedure to resolve first the pending motion for reconsideration before taking any further action.

"We request, in the interest of fairness and in compliance with established procedure, a deferment or suspension of further action on committee report until all issues in our motion are adequately addressed," the letter reads.

Cuenco on the other hand said they fight it out to block the three bills during the plenary should they failed to stop it.

Cuenco likewise threatened to report to the plenary the obvious biases of Macias in favor of the proponents by "railroading" the proceedings in his committee. Cuenco said once he reported the actuation of Macias it might trigger an investigation by the committee on ethics.