HB 3255 seeks creation of new Aurora town

MARIA AURORA, Aurora – A House Bill creating a new municipality named after the late patriarch of the Angaras – former lieutenant governor, Dr. Juan Angara – has been endorsed to the House committee on local governments.

HB 3255, which seeks the creation of a ninth municipality in the province, is now pending before the committee of Negros Oriental second district Rep. Jorge Arnaiz.

HB 3255 has stirred a political tempest in the province with the Angaras, its reigning political kingpins defending the move, saying it would jumpstart the development of this town.

The father-and-son tandem of Sen. Edgardo Angara and House Deputy Majority Leader Juan Edgardo Angara said the bill will spur economic progress in the areas proposed to constitute the new town.

It seeks to create the new municipality by carving out nine barangays from Ma. Aurora town into a town covering a total area of 20,102 hectares.

The nine barangays proposed to comprise the muni­cipality of Juan Angara are Decoliat, Dianawan, Galintuja, San Juan, Suguit and portions of Bazal, Dialatnan, Punglo and Villa Aurora.

The proposed town will be bounded by Alfonso Castañeda, Nueva Vizcaya in the north, by San Luis, Aurora in the south, its mother town Ma. Aurora in the east and the municipality of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija in the west.

Barangay San Juan was eyed as the seat of the municipal government of the proposed town.

Under the bill’s explanatory note, the proposed town was observed to have several major economic activities that can easily and sustainably support the new local government unit.

It noted that San Juan is among the top livestock producers in the province while Dianawan is the center of the Aurora Food Production and Agro-Forestry Project where vegetables, tropical sweets and forest trees are propagated and planted. Villa Aurora, it noted, is also at the center of the 3,800-hectare Aurora Memorial Park, the oldest public park in Eastern Luzon.

The bill noted, however, that despite the proposed municipality’s potential for development, it has remained underserved because the covered barangays are very far from the town proper with the access roads poorly maintained, resulting in the failure to meet the basic needs of residents for social services, livelihood, irrigation among others. – Manny Galvez