Palawan solon seeks exclusion of Palawan from Bangsamoro Entity Palawans 2nd District Rep. Frederick F. Abueg declared that the people of Palawan vehemently oppose the inclusion of their province and the City of Puerto Princesa in the Bangsamoro entity as mentioned in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law. [Hon. Frederick F. Abueg] Abueg is author of HR 1514 entitled A Resolution directing the House Ad Hoc Committee to exclude the Province of Palawan and the City of Puerto Princesa in the proposed Bangsamoro Entity and to include the three Representatives of Palawan as regular members with voting rights in the House Ad Hoc Committee. The author also requested that a copy of HB 1514 be forwarded to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Palawan and the Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Puerto Princesa. During last weeks initial meeting of the AD Hoc Committee chaired by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, the panel adopted it internal Rules of Procedure and approved the calendar of meetings/public hearings and the resource persons and stakeholders to be invited. The Ad Hoc Committee, to which HR 1514 has been referred for proper disposition and action, is expected to start conducting its hearings proper anytime now. The Ad Hoc Committee was created under HR 1462, filed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, to review and evaluate the comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and propose a basic law for the establishment of a Bangsamoro entity within a time frame of six months. On the matter of representation in the Ad Hoc panel, Abueg said in HR 1514 that the province of Palawan being mentioned and will likely be directly affected in the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) be a sufficient justification for the three Representatives to be included as regular members with voting rights in the Ad Hoc panel. The three Representatives from Palawan are: Rep. Franz Chicoy E. Alvarez (1st District); Rep. Abueg; and Rep. Douglas S. Hagedorn (3rd District). HR 1514 states: History speaks for itself, the people of Palawan consistently resist the inclusion of the province to the ARMM in four successive plebiscites held during the time of then President Marcos, Aquino and Ramos, wherein the negative votes therefrom cast were more than eighty-five percent (85%) of the total votes. Likewise, Abueg added that the total population of Palawan including the City of Puerto Princesa as of 2010 census conducted by the National Statistics Office is 994,340 and of this figure, the Muslim population consists of only seven to eight percent (7%-8%). SOURCE: Media Relations Service, Public Relations and Information Bureau
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 02:55:00 +0000