Extend, Extend

The barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections slated on October 2010 should be postponed and Sections 1 and 2 of RA No. 9340 otherwise known as “An Act Amending Republic Act No. 9164, Resetting the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, and for other purposes” should be so amended.

As scheduled, the next barangay and sangguniang kabataan elections shall be held five months after the 2010 national and local elections. This is a disaster waiting to happen. It cannot be denied that national and local elections foster animosity, enmity and endless bickering between the candidates and their followers. Often, elections in many towns and provinces become violent, bloody and chaotic. The nation cannot afford that it will again descend into turmoil and heated political contest barely five months after it is so submerged to one. Indubitably, the nation needs more than five months to lick its wounds.

Five months after the 2010 elections, the newly convened Congress will still be defining its legislative agenda while the executive will still be filling in the seats of governance. Another election a few months after will again distract the government from its development undertakings and poverty alleviation efforts. This is utterly counter-productive as it will hurl the nation back to mudslinging, political bickering and violent confrontations at a time when it is in the process already of regrouping and mending the damage wrought upon by a divisive political exercise.

Just as significant, the barangay election will entail a sizable amount of expenditure on the part of the government and will likely hog a large chunk of the new government’s budget for development and poverty alleviation.

While we concede that politicians, like diapers, have to be changed frequently; we do so for the very same reason.Changing them much later will not spell a difference, right, Noynoy Abunda?

3rd District, Surigao del Norte

Surigao del Norte is composed of two Congressional Districts. The 1st District is the cluster of islands comprising Siargao and Bucas Grande islands in the Philippine Sea. The 2nd District is the verdant area nestling at the northernmost tip of Mindanao comprising the City of Surigao and its mosaic of islands, and the mainland stretching to the boundaries it shares with Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Sur.

The First Congressional District is composed of the Municipalities of Burgos, Dapa, Del Carmen, General Luna, Pilar, San Benito, San Isidro, Santa Monica and Socorro.

The Second Congressional District apart from Surigao City is composed of the Municipalities of Alegria, Bacuag, Claver, Gigaquit, Mainit, Malimono, San Francisco, Placer, Sison, Tagana-an and Tubod.


Based on the 2007 population census of the National Statistics Office (NSO), the total population of the Province of Surigao del Norte is distributed in the two Congressional Districts, as follows:

First District Pop. Second District Pop.


TOTAL 100,588 TOTAL 308,880


The entire Second Congressional District covers an aggregate area of 144,853 hectares or roughly 70% of the total land area of Surigao del Norte of 207,430 hectares. The 2nd district’s total population of 308,880 accounts for 75% of the total population of the province. The provincial capital Surigao City, a bustling 2nd class city, has a total population of 132,151, or a third of the 2nd district’s population and even more than the total population of the 1st District. Surigao City has a total land area of 24,534 hectares or almost a tenth of the total land area of the whole province of Surigao del Norte.

Considering that Surigao City—the political capital and the locus of socio-economic activities in the province—is in the northernmost tip of the mainland, the delivery of basic social services to the other municipalities is hampered by how far these are from the provincial capital. The municipalities near the Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Sur boundaries, have also to contend in vain with Surigao City and its neighboring municipalities for vital government resources which almost always end up with the more populated and more economically robust city.

As have been observed, this iniquitous situation resulted in the under-representation in the legislature of at least a majority of the municipalities in the Second District of Surigao del Norte. This is not sanctioned in our system of representative democracy and must be rectified. The right of the people to be heard and to participate in government affairs must be zealously protected. The representatives of a province to the Halls of Congress can only be more effective if the number of legislative districts in a province is proportional to its population.

The 1987 Constitution mandates the same and must be effected, thus:

Article VI, Section 5.
(1) The House of Representatives shall be composed of not more than two hundred and fifty members, unless otherwise fixed by law, who shall be elected from legislative districts apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area in accordance with the number of their respective inhabitants, and on the basis of a uniform and progressive ratio, and those who, as provided by law, shall be elected through a party-list system of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties or organizations.
X X X
(3) Each legislative district shall comprise, as far as practicable, contiguous, compact, and adjacent territory. Each city with a population of at least two hundred fifty thousand, or each province, shall have at least one representative.
(4) Within three years following the return of every census, the Congress shall make a reapportionment of legislative districts based on the standards provided in this section.

This bill seeks to create a new district, called the Third Congressional District of the Province of Surigao del Norte, out of what forms the Second Congressional District today. The First Congressional District of Surigao del Norte will not be affected.

The proposed congressional district will be composed of Surigao City and the Municipalities of Malimono and San Francisco. Meanwhile, the Municipalities of Sison, Tagana-an, Placer, Tubod, Bacuag, Gigaquit, Claver, Mainit and Alegria will remain with the Second Congressional District. As proposed the municipalities and the population of the province will be so distributed as follows:


1ST District Pop. 2nd District Pop. 3rd District Pop.

TOTAL 100,588 TOTAL 147,397 TOTAL 161,483


Reapportioning the Province of Surigao del Norte from its present two Congressional Districts into three districts will rectify an iniquitous distribution of opportunities and will greatly benefit the Surigaonons whose needs are ever-increasing in these challenging times.