PoliticalArena.com

MANILA, Philippines - If President Arroyo’s son Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo of Camarines Sur’s first district eventually loses his House seat, he has no one to blame but Sen. Joker Arroyo and his lawmaker-colleagues in his adopted province.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, told The STAR over the weekend that it was Senator Arroyo (not related to the Arroyos) who defended the bill splitting Mrs. Arroyo’s son’s district into two legislative constituencies.

“I suggested to him that the entire province be reconfigured and it is entitled to six districts with its population of more than 1.5 million. If that were done, each district would meet the population requirement of 250,000 per district as prescribed by the Constitution,” he said.

He said he made the suggestion during the Senate deliberations on the bill dividing Rep. Arroyo’s constituency into two districts.

He said Sen. Arroyo rejected his suggestion, “citing social, cultural and political considerations, which I find hard to understand.”

He added that he suspected that his Senate colleague was echoing the objections of Camarines Sur lawmakers and other politicians who were against reconfiguring their province into six districts.

“I recommended the constitutional way of doing it and they turned it down. I would have supported the bill had they agreed to my suggestion,” Aquino stressed.

A House source told The STAR that had Aquino’s recommendation been accepted, Naga City, together with two or three towns, would have been constituted into a solo district.

“They didn’t want Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo to become more popular. As it is, he is already reaping good governance awards and outshining the old political families in the province,” a congressman knowledgeable with Camarines Sur politics said.

Robredo belongs to Aquino’s Liberal Party. He and Aquino have asked the Supreme Court to declare the law splitting Rep. Arroyo’s district as unconstitutional for not meeting the population requirement of 250,000 per district.

As reconstituted, the first district is now composed of the towns of Del Gallego, Ragay, Lupi, Sipocot, and Cabusao.

The new legislative constituency, denominated as the second district, is made up of the first-district towns of Libmanan, Minalabac, Pamplona, Pasacao, and San Fernando, and Gainza and Milaor, which were taken from the second district.

The second district becomes the third district and is composed of the remaining towns of Pili, Ocampo, Camaligan, Canaman, Magarao, Bombon, and Calabanga, and Naga City.

The other districts have not been touched.

Based on the latest census, the remaining territory of the first district had a population of 176,383.

Libmanan is the adopted hometown of Rep. Arroyo, who is thus forced to run in the new district.

Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. is expected to run in what remains of the first district, which he represented for three terms before he joined President Arroyo’s Cabinet. His late father also represented the district for three terms.

In a recent interview, Andaya said whoever runs and wins as representatives of the two districts would be unseated if the Supreme Court strikes down the law splitting the first district as unconstitutional.

“If I and Rep. Dato Arroyo run and win, pareho kaming sibak (we will be both unseated), because it’s as if the two districts did not exist,” he said.

Asked if the winning candidate in what remains of the first district would also lose his seat, Andaya, who is a lawyer, gave an affirmative answer.

By Jess Diaz
The Philippine Star
Updated November 09, 2009 12:00 AM