TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte – Leyte Fifth District Representative Carmen Cari believes she gets the majority of support from local chief executives in her bill pending before the Lower House that seeks to create the Western Leyte province.
She said she is strongly positive the mayors comprising the eight towns and one city, that is wholly Leyte’s fifth district, would support her call for a separate province in order to spur progress.
Congresswoman Cari is taking into example the separation of Biliran from Leyte province in 1992 and has come a long way since then when it comes to development.
She said her intentions in filing for the bill is only for the best of the Leyteños in the western side of the island and maintaining that as large as the Leyte province is now, there are still a number of barangays, especially those far flung that would be hard for the provincial government to reach.
Although, she said, her nephew Gov. Carlos Jericho “Icot” Petilla is doing well in delivering the services directly to the people in the barangay, the province still large enough.
Cong. Cari said she has every intention of filing again the same house bill during the present Congress and hopes it would be enacted and prevailed upon by the people before her term ends.
House Bill 03784 pushes for the creation of Western Leyte, with Baybay, a newly declared city, as its capital town together with the towns of Abuyog, Hilongos, Hindang, Matalom, Inopacan, Javier, Mahaplag and Bato, all of the fifth district.
Early on, a number of mayors coming from the fifth district expressed opposition to the proposed bill while Gov. Petilla himself, earlier declared, Leyte province remains “just the right size to handle” for the provincial government.
On her part, Vice-Governor Mimiette Bagulaya, who is presently acting as officer-in-charge of the province, said she is in favor of the bill to lessen the number of towns, saying the 41 towns comprising the province is “quite big.”
