Sitoy wants Cebu as separate federated region

CEBU, Philippines — Presidential Adviser on Legislative Affairs, Secretary Adelino Sitoy, wants Cebu to be a separate federated region under the proposed new federal constitution.

Sitoy formally submitted his plea to the Constitutional Committee (Con-Com) formed by President Rodrigo Duterte to draft the federal constitution of which he was appointed as an observer.

He said that while Cebu and Bohol provinces would remain in Central Visayas, Bohol has no fighting chance in any election at large like that of a senator in federated region considering its population of only 1,313,560 while Cebu has almost five million inhabitants.

 “In all likelihood, Cebu will be dubbed by Boholanos as ‘Imperial Cebu’ like that of Imperial Manila,” Sitoy said.

 In his plea, Sitoy cited “a good number of historical significance and symbolism” that adequately justify Cebu being created as separate state or a federated region of its own.

 These include the Battle of Mactan won by Datu Lapu-Lapu and Cebu being the seat of Christianity in the Philippines and in Asia.

 Cebu is the first province named Villa del Santisimo Nombre de Jesus established in the Philippines and is now 452 years old and 496 years old as the cradle of Christianity.

 “It bows to no other place in our country,” Sitoy said.

 The Cebuanos, led by Leon Kilat whom Andres Bonifacio had sent to Cebu to organize the Katipunan, started their victorious revolt against the Spaniards in 1898.

 Under the American regime, the first speaker of the Philippine Assembly was Sergio Osmeña Sr. who served from 1907 to 1922.

Sitoy said in World War II, it was only in Cebu that more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers surrendered peacefully.

 In 1978 elections for the interim Batasang Pambansa Assembly, it was only in Central Visayas under Cebu’s dominance when all of the 13 candidates of Pusyong Bisaya, an opposition party, won against Kilusang Bagong Lipunan of then former president Ferdinand Marcos.

 During the first EDSA revolution, President Cory Aquino was in Cebu and was protected by the Cebuanos who escorted her to Manila.

 Sitoy said Cebu is the exporter of big business leaders like Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, the Gokongweis and the Gotianuys who started with small businesses in Cebu.

 Cebu is also the chief exporter of political leaders like the Almendrases, the Cagases, and the Llanoses of Davao, the Quebranzas of Lanao, the Amantes of Agusan, the Navarros of Surigao, the Velosos of Leyte, Samar and Mindanao, the Climacos, Hoffers, and Cerilleses of Zamboanga, and the Roas of Leyte and Cagayan de Oro, and also the present Senate President, Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who is the grandson of the late senator Vicente Sotto.

 The committee that drafted the 1935 Constitution was chaired by lawyer Filemon Sotto of Cebu.

 Former Supreme Court chief justice and former Senate president Marcelo Fernan, a Cebuano, was the only Filipino to have held two highest positions in the judiciary and the Congress.

 Sitoy said that while former chief justice Hilario Davide Jr., also a Cebuano, proclaimed the 1987 Constitution as the “best” in the world, Con-Com led by former chief justice Reynato Puno has devoted heart and soul to produce a much better one than the vaunted best. — MBG (FREEMAN)