Tony Cuenco encourages participation in plebiscite

CEBU, Philippines - If there is one thing that Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña and his predecessor, former Rep. Antonio Cuenco, agree on, it is to let the people of Barangay Guadalupe vote freely during the upcoming plebiscite on splitting the barangay.

Both belong to the same barangay but Osmeña keeps himself neutral while Cuenco openly declared to vote in favor of making Banawa-Englis a separate barangay of Guadalupe.

At the weekly Tapok-Tapok sa Sugbo Media Forum at NS Hotel yesterday, Cuenco stressed that his only role in the process was the filing of House Bill 5652 that seeks to create Barangay Banawa-Englis when he was congressman which was later approved as Republic Act 9905 in 2010.

The Commission on Elections finally scheduled the plebiscite on July 28.

“Mag-agad ko sa kabubot-on sa katawhan sa ilang desisyon whether they agree or disagree to the proposal,” Cuenco said. (It’s up to the people.)

Cuenco explained that he merely provided the mechanism for the people of Guadalupe to express their vote.

“Whatever is the result, I will vow and respect it, I will implement it, I will respect it and vow to the wisdom of the majority of the people,” he said.

Cuenco is appealing to the around 30,000 registered voters of Barangay Guadalupe to go out and vote so that big turn out will determine the real sentiment of the people.

At the 888 News Forum at Marco Polo Plaza last Tuesday, Osmeña said that there is nothing he can to enlighten the people on their own interpretation.

“They know the issue more than me, do they want to be part of another barangay or not,” Osmeña said.

Osmeña who is seeking back the mayoralty post of Cebu City asked the people to decide and he will just implement the law.

The Comelec had first set the plebiscite on March 13, 2010 and set aside P1.4 million. It has already spent around P400,000 for the paraphernalia when the court ordered the suspension of the plebiscite.

Then Labangon barangay councilman Victor Buendia had petitioned the court to withhold the plebiscite.

Buendia argued that the law infringed his right as a voter and as resident of Barangay Labangon, where he is now the barangay captain, since it stated that the whole of Labangon’s Rosalina Village, where he resides, would be part of Barangay Banawa-Englis.

But on March 11, 2011, Regional Trial Court Judge Gabriel Ingles dismissed Buendia’s petition for lack of merit. His decision became final and executory.

Banawa-Englis residents said one of the reasons for their move to separate from Guadalupe is the neglect by barangay officials, claiming that only Guadalupe proper has benefited from government projects.  (FREEMAN)