Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Maguindanao to be Split Into Two Provinces Under Proposed Law
Maguindanao province, long a hotbed of political and religious violence, will be split into two, under a bill that passed in the Senate on Monday.
The Senate Committee on Local Government approved the bill that originated from the House of Representatives. It seeks to divide the province into Northern Maguindanao and Southern Maguindanao. The head of the panel, Sen. Francis Tolentino, said a technical committee would thresh out the details.
Due to its size, Maguindanao should be split, said Sen. Bong Go, a long-time aide of President Rodrigo Duterte. It will allow authorities to focus on leadership at the municipal level, he said.
The House bill was filed by Maguindanao Rep. Esmael Mangudadatu, the widower of the Maguindanao massacre, the world's single worst political attack on journalists. Fifty-seven people were killed in the carnage on November 2009 when Mangudadatu's rivals tried to stop his wife and supporters from filing his certificate of candidacy.
At that time, Mangudadatu was challenging the Ampatuan clan, whose members were convicted of the massacre in 2019.
Mangudadatu's bill wants the Southern Maguindanao capital moved to Bulan, where he once served as vice mayor, from Shariff Aguak, citing the threat of armed groups near the area.
The incumbent governor, Mangudadatu's cousin, Bai Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu, wants the capitol to stay where it is.
In recent years, new provinces were carved out of existing ones, allowing more politicians to get elected to guberntorial or congressional posts. These include in recent years Davao Occidental, Dinagat Islands, Zamboanga Sibugay, Davao de Oro and Sarangani.
Bills that seek to divide Maguindanao backed
SENATORS on Monday voiced support to the passage of measures that seek to split Maguindanao into two provinces.
Senators Maria Josefa Imelda Marcos, Ronald dela Rosa, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Christopher Lawrence Go pushed for the approval of Senate Bill (SB) 1714 and SB 1824 authored by Senators Cynthia Villar and Francis Tolentino, respectively.
Tolentino, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government, sought to divide the province into Northern Maguindanao and Southern Maguindanao.
He said the province had vast natural resources, but was one of the poorest.
The lawmaker stressed that one way to bring down the poverty level was to divide the province into two.
“With this new set-up, government officials of each new province would be able to more properly focus their efforts in assisting lesser constituents and lesser territorial jurisdiction.
The government of each province will now be able to create projects and programs that would better address the intricacies and special needs of their respective jurisdictions,” Tolentino said.
Under the bill, the province of Northern Maguindanao shall be composed of the municipalities of Barira, Buldon, Datu Blah Sinsuat, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Kabuntalan, Matanog, Northern Kabuntalan, Parang, North Upi, Sultan Kudarat, Sultan Mastura.
The Province of Southern Maguindanao shall include the municipalities of Ampatuan, Bulua, Datu Abdulah Sangki, Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Datu Hofier Ampatuan, Datu Mon-tawal, Datu Paglas, Datu Pi-ang, Datu Sa-libo, Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Datu Unsay, Gen. Salipada K. Pendatu, Guindulungan, Mamasapano, Mangudadatu, Pagalungan, Paglat, Pandag, Rajah Buayan, Sharif Aguak, Sharif Saydona Mustafa, Sultan sa Barongis, Talayan, Talitay and South Upi.
For the purpose of this section, Cotabato City shall have its own legislative district effective upon the election and qualification of its representative to be held on the second Monday of May in the year 2022. The incumbent Representatives of the present Province of Maguindanao shall continue to represent their respective legislative districts until the expiration of their term of office.
In the proposed law it stated “Any municipality that may hereafter be created within the jurisdiction of their provinces shall automatically form part of its constituent units.”
“Clearly with the size and population of Maguindanao, it’s about time that it be split, provided that it has complied with all the requisites of the Local Government Code,” Marcos said.
Go, in explaining his support to the bills, said the division of Maguindanao would not separate the people, but rather help them flourish and rise as one.
“Maguindanao is so large that it is only fitting to divide it so all the municipalities will be given enough attention. Giving voice to the voiceless is the essence of democracy,” he added.
Villar sought the approval of her bill as requested by Maguindanao Gov. Bai Mariam Sangki-Mangudadatu and as a counterpart measure of House Bill 6413, the consolidated version of the bills authored by Representatives Datu Roonie Sinsuat Sr. and Esmael Mangudadatu.
Gatchalian moved that the measures seeking to divide Maguindanao be approved on the committee level subject to the creation of a technical working group that will determine the capital of the new provinces.
With reports from JAVIER JOE ISMAEL
Why You Should Hurt, When Your Brother Hurts
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28
A young man described by Luke, the physician, as "a man full of God's grace and power" did great wonders and miracles among the residents of Jerusalem shortly after Christ's ascension to heaven. But the religious leaders of the day didn't like it. He was taken before the Sanhedrin. When the high priest asked him if these charges were true, Stephen proceeded to preach to the crowd, but his sermon didn't sit well with them, either. "When they heard this," says Luke, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him." Eventually, they "dragged him out of the city and began to stone him."
History identifies him as the first Christian martyr. Stephen, however, was not the first to be a victim of religious persecution. From the book of Genesis to the latest edition of your news, history chronicles religious persecution. Daniel was in the lion's den and eventually exiled to Babylon. Jeremiah was harassed and eventually thrown into a slime pit where he nearly died. The book of Hebrews, chapter 11, is a gallery of the deeds of great men and women who were persecuted for what they believed and did.
Today, more Christians than at any time in history (with the possible exception of the first century) are on the receiving end of persecution. "So, what's new? Shouldn't that be expected because there are more Christians today than ever before?" It's that mentality, that kind of indifference, which contributes to the problem confronting us today.
On the day Stephen was stoned, do you suppose that some of the Christians in the crowd thought, "This isn't any of my business. Besides, I can't do anything to change this, so I think I'll just go home." Surely what happened to Stephen shook them to the core. They knew the tide had turned and many packed and left for other places, not understanding that persecution would follow as surely as do hunger and thirst.
When you read of churches being burned, how do you respond? Do you tend to say, "That's a long ways from where I am, and besides, I've got enough to worry about myself."
"Why are you helping me?" or "Why do you care about us?" is a question I am often asked overseas when I have done something for someone or some group. "We're family," I respond, adding, "You are my brother," or "You are my sister!"
How so? If you believe the Bible, you can think nothing else. It contends that God's children are brothers and sisters, adopted into the body of Christ where there is neither race, gender, rank or social status. Please make a study of Galatians chapters 3 and 4, Romans 8, Romans 12:5 and Ephesians 4. Romans 12:5 says, "In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
Do you hurt with Christians--brothers and sisters who are in pain somewhere else in the world—people you have never met nor probably ever will meet? Is it your business when a Christian dad somewhere in the world knows that practicing his faith will mean his son can never get a university education? Yes, I know you can't fight every injustice in the world, but when you realize that we are one body, that we have one Father, that we have one faith, then all who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ lose their ethnic identity, their gender, and their culture to become brothers and sisters, belonging to each other.
In His prayer in Gethsemane, shortly before the cross, Jesus prayed that His own—His children—might be one, even as He and the Father were one. Persecution helps forge that bond, a painful yet persuasive way of helping us to understand that what binds us together is more powerful than what separates us.
Resource reading: Acts 6:8 – 7:60
https://www.guidelines.org/devotional/why-you-should-hurt-when-your-brother-hurts/