MANILA – The only son of the late global democracy icon president Corazon “Tita” Cory” Aquino asked the Supreme Court (SC) to declare as illegal a redistricting law which critics said tends to favor the lawmaker son of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
In the petition, Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd pointed out the law, which created a new legislative district in Camarines Sur province in the Bicol Region, violated the 1987 Constitution’s population requirement.
The law was signed recently by President Arroyo after it was rammed through the House of Representatives and the Senate allegedly to accommodate her son Congressman Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo of the first district of Camarines Sur.
Noynoy is running for president in the May 2010 polls as the standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP), one of the country’s oldest, along with the Nacionalista (Nationalist) Party.
Joining Noynoy in his petition was Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City, also in Camarines Sur, and an awardee for public service by the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, described as Asia’s version of the Nobel Awards.
The two told the High Court the law violates the principle of proportional representation under the Constitution, which provides that in creating a new legislative district, it should have a total population of at least 250,000.
“It is not a question of whether or not the congressman would agree to the creation of a new legislative district,” the petition said. “It is a question of whether or not it would translate to better representation for the people living in the locality, given that the population of a particular locality has grown so much as to entitle it for a new legislative district.”
The petition likewise emphasized that congressional reapportionment is an issue of the people represented, not the representative.
The law divides the first congressional district, now represented by Dato Arroyo in the House after winning in the May 2007 elections. But Noynoy noted that one of the new districts only has a total population of 170,000, or 80,000 short of the 250,000 required by the Constitution.
With Dato’s election, there are now four Arroyos in the House – his elder brother Congressman Mikey Arroyo of Pampanga province in Central Luzon; their uncle Congressman Ignacio Arroyo of Negros Occidental province in the Visayas; and their aunt Congresswoman Maria Lourdes Arroyo of a party-list group that represents the interests of vendor and small business entrepreneurs.
Noynoy believes the law favors Dato and Secretary Rolando Andaya of the Department of Budget and Management because they no longer have to run again each other in the May 2010 elections.
Although the Arroyos are not considered as natives of Bicol, his political opponents assailed Dato as an “opportunist” and “interloper” who won as congressman of the first district because his predecessor Andaya had given way to his political ambitions.
But with President Arroyo stepping down from Malacañang in June 2010, reports are that Andaya now wants to return to Congress by running in next year’s elections, with the possibility of fighting Dato for the post if the law was not passed.
Malacañang, through Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, immediately reacted and said that Noynoy should respect the decision of the House and the Senate to pass the law.
Remonde noted that Noynoy had the opportunity to question the law but failed to do so when the Senate Committee on Local Governments, which he chairs, tackled the proposal after its passage in the House.
However, Noynoy countered he decided to question its legality before the High Court because he was outnumbered by administration lawmakers in his committee who approved the bill, despite his strong objections, and sent it to the Senate floor for ratification.
Noynoy disclosed that as the committee chairman, he was supposed to have sponsored the bill on the Senate floor. But he said, he could not in conscience do it and instead allowed Senator Joker Arroyo (no relation to the President) to act as the principal sponsor.
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