House approves bill dividing Camarines Sur

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill dividing Camarines Sur (CamSur) into two provinces.

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said House Bill 4728 was approved by an overwhelming 229-1 vote, with Rep. Salvio Fortuno of CamSur’s fifth district casting the lone dissenting vote.

He said the bill creating Nueva Camarines (NuevaCam) out of the fourth and fifth districts would be sent to the Senate next week.

Deputy Speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella, who represents CamSur’s fourth district, is the principal author of the measure. Reps. Rolando Andaya Jr., Diosdado Arroyo and Luis Villafuerte of the first, second and third districts, respectively, are co-authors of the bill.

Besides Fortuno, Villafuerte’s son and CamSur Gov. Luis Raymond Villafuerte is against the division of their province. Father and son are not on speaking terms, as far as local politics is concerned.

The proposed new province of Nueva Camarines would be composed of Iriga City and 15 towns in the fifth and fourth districts, with a population of more than 800,000.

The mother province of CamSur would be comprised of the remaining first, second and third districts, with almost the same population.

Fuentebella said CamSur has become so big and so populous that it is now necessary to divide it into two provinces for better administration.

He said the resulting two provinces would have enough income to deliver basic services to their respective constituents.

He said based on projections, the new province would have P690 million in annual revenues, while CamSur would still generate close to P850 million.

However, Fortuno argued that the towns proposed to comprise the new provinces are among the poorest in CamSur.

“My apprehensions over the bill are not borne out of some imagined misgivings, but are based on the initial findings of an ongoing UP study,” he said.

Citing the study, he said dividing CamSur “would reverse the gains and benefits that the people of the province are now enjoying.”

If HB 4728 becomes law, it would be the second time in less than three years that CamSur would be divided.

The previous Congress split the first district, which is the bailiwick of the Andayas, to create a new district for Diosdado Arroyo, who has adopted Libmanan as his hometown.

Then Sen. Benigno Aquino III, who chaired the Senate local government committee, questioned before the Supreme Court (SC) the division of the first district, arguing that the resulting two districts did not meet the minimum 250,000 population requirement prescribed by the Constitution.

But the SC, dominated by appointees of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, declared the creation of the new CamSur district constitutional.