A bill proposing the creation of a new Caloocan City sparked a heated debate between two lawmakers, prompting the House leadership to temporarily stop plenary consideration measure.
Rep. Edgar Erice of Caloocan City’s second district, aired his strong objection to the passage of House Bill 7700 authored by First District Rep. Dale “Along” Malapitan, son of incumbent Mayor Oscar Malapitan.
Erice and the young Malapitan are expected to square off for the mayoralty post when the incumbent mayor ends his third and final term as local chief executive in 2022.
Tarlac Rep. Noel Villanueva, chairman of the House Committee on Local Government, fiercely defended HB 7700 against Erice’s criticism that the bill sought to create a “super district” and is "without logic”.
Erice also said he also doubted the bill had the support of Caloocan City residents.
In response, Villanueva stressed that Erice’s claim is baseless since the bill seeks to divide the second district, and not to add to its already huge jurisdiction and population.
The committee chairman explained that Malapitan made the move to divide his district in order to help guarantee development in far-flung barangays and extend government assistance to its residents.
“He possesses more knowledge than anybody else on the needs of his district,” Villanueva stated to the dismay of Erice.
Under the bill, the first district will be composed of the bigger portion of the original territory. Population in this area is estimated at less than 800,000.
The third district will retain barangay numbers 178 to 188 with a population of just a little over 300,000.
Villanueva said the bill has the support of the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Caloocan and is backed by the Constitution and pertinent local government laws.
The bill’s author said that based on the latest census on population released by the Philippine Statistics Office, Caloocan City had 1,583,978 people in 2015, which is a “marked increase” from the 645,000 census result in 1986.
At least 75.34 percent or around 1,193,419 currently reside in the First District while some 390,500 live in the Second District where Erice is congressman.
“Hence this proposed bill which seeks to reapportion the 1st Legislative District of Caloocan City is designed to address this patent inequity of representation,” said Rep. Malapitan.