Is it the final answer?

By Alex P. Vidal 

“There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer.” —Gertrude Stein

SPLITTING Iloilo City into two districts would be a good move if the purpose was development or the gaining of more programs and infrastructure projects for the benefit of the Ilonggos first and foremost.

But if the purpose was “to end the rivalries” of political personalities and “avoid conflicts” among incumbent public officials, forget the proposed law, which is now anyway slumbering in the House Committee on Local Government.

Politicians will continue to fight for their vested interests whether there is a lone or 10 districts as may be allowed by the law.

Ideally, territories and districts created through legislation are expected to spread the wealth of the nation and expand the prospects of pushing for unbounded urban development.

The lawful creation of another district in one particular city or province should be anchored and focused on the interests of the residents and the future of the entire metropolis, not the politicians.

Politicians just come and go. Their functions are ministerial for fledgling districts that will stay and continue to grow and prosper under different leaders in the local government unit (LGU).

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We doubt if Senator Franklin “Frank” Drilon, who has made an appeal to House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero to approve the city’s division, as reported by Daily Guardian’s Rjay Zuriaga Castor on June 24, really believes the cold war between Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas and lone district Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda will stop if the bill becomes a law.

In the same breath, the retired Ilonggo senator had also expressed uncertainty if House Bill (HB) 6817 or an “Act Reapportioning the Lone Legislative District of the City of Iloilo” would be passed before the 2025 midterm elections.

The move to reapportion the city’s legislative district began during the terms of former congressmen Raul Gonzalez Jr. (HB 4256 in the 14th Congress) and Jerry Treñas (HB 12919 and 3474 in the 15th and 17th Congresses), according to Castor’s report.

In the 18th Congress in 2021, HB 3074, authored by incumbent Rep. Baronda, was approved by the House of Representatives but stalled at the committee level due to failing to meet the population requirement of 250,000 per district, Castor reported.

The report further said Article VI Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution requires “a city to have a minimum population of 250,000 to be entitled to a representative, it does not have to increase its population by another 250,000 to be entitled to an additional district.”

The report cited a 2022 census by the Philippine Statistics Authority that showed that Iloilo City has a total population of 457,626.

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THE reason why international flights to and from Hong Kong and Singapore and Iloilo were suspended in 2020 was because of the COVID-19.

Iloilo International Airport has since suffered from skid row in as far as direct flights from these two economic and tourism behemoths was concerned.

It’s not only because there may be few passengers traveling directly from Iloilo to Hong Kong and Singapore nowadays.

Now that the pandemic is history, the international flights should resume normally. They did resume in other cities in the country but not in Iloilo.

That’s why Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr. and Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Trenas have been head over heels in trying to convince the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) to help Iloilo woo back those international flights as they would help spruce up Iloilo and improve the local ecotourism.

At least this was the gist of Department of Tourism (DOT-6) director Crisanta Marlene Rodriguez’s message when interviewed by the press recently.

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THEY’RE ALL BEAUTIFUL. All women are beautiful, regardless of their looks. You just need to touch their soul with respect and appreciation for their inner beauty and you will be rewarded with joy. The heart is way more important than the package. Women are a  God’s greatest gift to man and we should cherish and protect them, each and every one.— Unknown

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)