Senate panel OKS splitting Maguindanao into 2

THE Senate is on track to tackle for plenary deliberations a counterpart bill splitting Maguindanao into two provinces following initial approval of the enabling legislation by the Committee on Local Government.

The committee, chaired by Sen. Francis Tolentino, endorsed the division of Maguindanao, which has a total population of 1,173,933 as of 2015.

Justifying the split, Tolentino noted that Maguindanao “remains to be one of the poorest provinces in the country despite being blessed with rich and abundant natural resources.”

He stressed that “reforms must be done in order to remedy this predicament and one way to ensure this is by splitting the province into two.”

Enabling legislations are embodied in House counterpart bill No. 6413 authored by Rep. Esmael Mangudadatu; and Senate Bills No. 1824 and 1714 separately authored by Tolentino and Sen. Cynthia Villar, respectively, all seeking to partition Manguindanao into two separate provinces under the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

As proposed, 12 towns will comprise Northern Maguindanao, with the capital based in Sultan Kudarat; while Southern Maguindanao will be composed of 24 municipalities, with Buluan as its administrative capital.

Proponents of the enabling law noted that the Department of Finance’s (DOF) Bureau of Local Government Finance greenlighted the proposed measures to divide Maguindanao into two separate provinces, noting the partition is financially compliant under Republic Act No. 7160 or the Local Government Code of 1991.

Tolentino reported that Director Ma. Pamela Quizon of the Bureau of Local Government Finance affirmed that the two new provinces to be carved out of Maguindanao have met the income requirements under the Local Government Code if the proposed partition will proceed.

The senator asserted that “unlocking Maguindanao’s potential is not just vital to help the people living in the said province but to bring down poverty in the entire country.”