Bontoc road closure unconstitutional, Kalinga mayor argues
The mayor of Tinglayan, Kalinga wants the Mountain Province local government to review the order of a fellow local executive banning tourists bound for Tinglayan from passing through certain road sections within its jurisdiction, including the Bontoc-Tabuk National Highway.
Tinglayan Mayor Sacramento Gumilab, in a letter to Mountain Province Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan Jr., said that Executive Order (EO) of Sadanga, Mountain Province Mayor Gabino Ganggangan should be declared null and void as it is inconsistent with the laws.
On 28 July 2020, Ganggangan issued EO 18 series of 2020 prohibiting tourists going to Barangay Buscalan in Tinglayan, Kalinga to pass through roads in its territory.
Ganggangan said the order aims to stop the transportation of marijuana, firearms and ammunitions, crimes which he said are committed mostly by persons posing as tourists.
Section 1 of the EO stated that all tourists going to the Municipality of Tinglayan, especially Buscalan, “are hereby prohibited to take the route covering the road sections within Sadanga’s area of coverage.”
In Section 3, “any tourist trying to pass through the territorial jurisdiction of Sadanga to or from Buscalan, Tinglayan, shall be denied entry and will be sent back to where he or she came from.”
Gumilab acknowledged that the order of Ganggangan is of noble cause to curb or prevent criminality. However, he thinks banning tourists from Tinglayan will not prevent the commissions of such crimes because any other person can commit them.
The Tinglayan mayor argued that Ganggangan’s EO is an impairment of the Constitutional right to travel, a right “which a citizen cannot be deprived of without the due process of law.”
Gumilab cited Section 6, Artcle III of the Constitution which states that “the Liberty of abode and of changing the same within the limits prescribed by law shall not be impaired except upon lawful order of the court. Neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety, public health, as maybe provided by the law.”
Gumilab also said the Sadanga mayor has no authority under the law to prohibit the use of national roads.
“Nothing in the Local Government Code upon which the powers of the local chief executive emanates or any law gives the latter the power to prohibit the use of national roads by certain class of people in order to prevent criminal activities, specifically violations of dangerous drug act or the illegal transportation of firearms and ammunitions on the beliefs, based on purely speculation, surmise, or conjectures, that the latter will commit the same,” stated Gumilab.
Gumilab said Ganggan’s EO “provides undue hardships and waste of time and resources to those tourists who have legitimate purposes in visiting Tinglayan.”