Celso bares Zambo’s strong objection to House Bill 4963
Mayor Celso Lobregat informs the business, academe, religious and media sectors including members of the City Council about the filing of House Bill 4963 which seeks to make Zamboanga as the provisional seat of the proposed Autonomous Region in Southwestern Mindanao, during a press conference in City Hall Thursday morning. (JOEY BAUTISTA)
Mayor Celso Lobregat bared yesterday Zamboanga City’s strong objection to the passage of House Bill 4963 which seeks to make the city as the provisional seat of the proposed Autonomous Region in Southwestern Mindanao as clearly spelled out in Sec. 3, Article 2 of the said statute.
“In view of the negative repercussions of this House Bill to the City of Zamboanga and in the light of the fact that the House of Representatives shall be adjourning its session, we are immediately and respectfully submitting our initial comment to the foregoing House Bill before Congress adjourns,” Mayor Lobregat said in his letter faxed Wednesday night to Speaker Prospero C. Nograles through Congresswoman Beng Climaco-Salazar of District 1.
Lobregat informed the academe, business and community leaders together with members of the local media that last Feb. 2, Congresswoman Climaco furnished him a copy of HB4963, “An Act Amending RA 6734 titled “An Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as amended by RA 9054, providing for the creation of the Autonomous Region in Southwestern Mindanao and the Autonomous Region in Central Mindanao.” Bill was introduced by Congressman Nur Jaafar of Tawi-Tawi.
The chief executive specifically cited Sec. 3, Article 2 of the said bill which states “Until the seat of the Regional Government is transferred as provided (above), the provisional seat of the Autonomous Region in Southwestern Mindanao shall be in Zamboanga City and the Autonomous Region in Central Mindanao shall be in Cotabato City. The Regional Assembly elected after the plebiscite shall within its term identify the site of the permanent seat of the regional government.”
The bill further provides that the plebiscite, pursuant to the said act, shall be held simultaneously with the May 2010 local and national elections and that the first regional elections for the elective officials of the Autonomous Regions shall be held on the second Monday of August 2011.
Further, Lobregat deplored Sec. 1(2) of the bill in which the City of Zamboanga is included as among the enumerated areas in the Southwestern Mindanao Region wherein a plebiscite shall be held to determine its inclusion to the proposed autonomous region in Southwestern Mindanao.
It shall be conducted at each and every barangay in the provinces of Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay and the cities of Isabela, Pagadian, Dipolog, Dapitan and Zamboanga in Southwestern Mindanao; and each and every barangay in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat, North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Saranggani and the cities of Cotabato,Marawi, Iligan, Kidapawan, General Santos, Koronadal and Tacurong in Central Mindanao. “This is worst than the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD).”
“This is clearly unacceptable. It should be stressed that the city and its 98 barangays had unequivocally made known its firm and steadfast position that it should not be included in the ARMM, Bangsamoro Juridical Entity or any similar nomenclature for that matter,” Lobregat stressed, as he recalled that in the 1989 plebiscite 90,152 or 94.5% of the city’s population voted “NO” to the proposition that the city be included in the ARMM. In the 2001 plebiscite for the inclusion in the expanded ARMM, an overwhelming 112,735 or 95.1% of the population voted against it compared to only 5,894 or 4.9% who favored the same.
According to the mayor, the proposed bill creating the autonomous regions in Southwestern and Central Mindanao is not in consonance with the appurtenant provisions of the Constitution and the Local Government Code in so far as the creation and conversion of the local government units. “The fundamental law provides that no province, city, municipality or barangay may be created, divided, merged, abolished or its boundary substantially altered except in accordance with the criteria established by the Local Government Code and subject to the approval by majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units directly affected.”
As this developed, those who attended yesterday’s meeting in City Hall approved a resolution adopting the mayor’s strong stand against the passage of HB4963 as moved by Councilor Eddie Rodriguez and seconded by Atty. Arsenio Gonzales and Maasin Barangay Chairman Doglo Bernardo. The City Council is also expected to make similar stand during its regular session next week. (Vic Larato)