Sunday, March 14, 2021
Palaweños appear to reject law dividing province into three
Residents of Palawan seem to indicate their preference for one Palawan after unofficial tallies put the NO votes leading the YES votes as of Sunday (March 14).
Full and unofficial results show 63,955 people voted against the law splitting Palawan into three different provinces while only 39,218 voted to ratify it, for a total of 103,173 votes canvassed.
Partial unofficial results stood at 148,017 NO votes 96,012 YES votes.
According to Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, the canvassed votes accounted for almost half (49.76%) of the total 490,369 voters registered for the plebiscite.
Leading campaigners of groups in favor of splitting the province have reportedly conceded after the latest tally.
The Comelec said the plebiscite’s full result is expected to be announced on Tuesday (March 16), three days after the exercise.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11259, dividing Palawan into three separate provinces, on April 5, 2019.
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/palawenos-appear-to-reject-philippines-law-dividing-province-into-three-provinces-140317051.html
Regional Updates (03/14/21)
Quezon City reimposes liquor ban, closure of gyms, internet cafes
QUEZON City, the biggest in Metro Manila in terms of land area and population, is reimposing a liquor ban among other restrictions to curb the rising number of coronavirus cases. In a memorandum issued Sunday, Mayor Josefina G. Belmonte ordered limitations on top of the 10 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew that will be implemented in the entire capital region beginning Monday. “In light of the recent alarming increase in COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila, the City hereby issues these Supplemental Guidelines on the implementation of General Community Quarantine. These Supplemental Guidelines shall take effect on Mar. 15, 2021 and shall be effective until Mar. 31, 2021,” the memo reads. Apart from the liquor ban, the mayor directed the temporary closure of gyms, spas and internet cafes, and the adoption of alternative work schemes for offices and other establishments. Ms. Belmonte also reminded all establishments to use the city’s QR code system to ensure proper contact tracing. The city government has also been implementing localized lockdowns in areas where there are significant clusters of cases. As of Mar. 13, the Department of Health tracker shows Quezon City has the highest number of total and active coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases at 47,767 and 4,554, respectively.
Bohol asserts jumpstarting tourism, economy does not need such events as ‘foam party’
BOHOL Governor Arthur C. Yap ordered a stop to the “Foam Party Fashion Show” scheduled at a resort last Saturday, but the municipal mayor of Panglao issued a special permit allowing the event to push through and personally went to the venue to observe compliance to health protocols. “The Provincial Government of Bohol understands the need to jumpstart the tourism economy, we are your partner on this cause but only in a proper and decent manner; let alone can we tolerate violations of the law and ordinance under any circumstance,” Mr. Yap said in his order dated Mar. 12. He also cited that the venue, Amanzara Resort, does not have accreditation from the Department of Tourism (DoT). Citing a letter from the DoT regional office, he said the resort neither has a pending application for accreditation. Amanzara Resort did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The resort has previously held a foam party where health protocols were shown to have been violated through a video that went viral on social media.
RECOVERY
Panglao Mayor Leonila Paredes Montero has defended the resort saying in a statement from the town government that “she supports activities such as these to promote the recovery of the tourism economy.” She added, however, “that lewd shows and any form of indecent exposures have no place in Panglao. That is not the direction of the marketing efforts of tourism of the Local Government Unit of Panglao.” Mr. Yap, in a post late Saturday on his own Facebook page, said, “The (Panglao) Mayor is missing the point. Amanzara does not have a fire clearance, has no business permit, and has no DoT accreditation. Why is she allowing it to operate? Is it not her duty to uphold the law? Her defiance is not in defense of Panglao tourism. She is actually endangering her municipality, the whole Boholano community, and the entire Province of Bohol, by failing to enforce the minimum health standards.” A DoT-accredited resort in Panglao, Casa Teofista, said the provincial and municipal governments “must form a united front in tackling COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) as one cannot function without the other.” It added, that “an establishment must have the necessary documents and enforce COVID-19 protocols.” — MSJ
Palawan plebiscite: Initial results show more ‘no’ votes for division into 3 provinces
Palawan plebiscite canvassers to resume session on Monday
The Provincial Plebiscite Board of Canvassers for the Palawan plebiscite adjourned again on Sunday afternoon, according to a report on Dobol B TV.
The PPBOC will resume its session at 9 a.m. on Monday.
A total of 490,369 voters registered for the Palawan plebiscite. The running total of those who voted was 244,029 or 49.76% as of 3:40 p.m., Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Rowena Guanzon said
Partial unofficial results of the Palawan plebiscite stood at NO votes with 148,017 and YES votes at 96,012.
Guanzon said the canvassing was on recess due to the distance of municipalities, where the tallies are conducted, from Puerto Princesa, the seat of canvassing.
She also assured the people of Palawan that the Comelec was watching the tally and canvassing.
On Saturday, the one-day manual plebiscite was held in 2,959 clustered precincts in 487 voting centers in 23 municipalities in Palawan for the ratification of Republic Act 11259.
The said law, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2019, will divide Palawan into three provinces: Palawan del Norte, Palawan del Sur, and Palawan Oriental.
The three provinces will be created upon approval by the majority of the votes cast by the voters of the affected areas in a plebiscite to be conducted and supervised by the Comelec. — DVM, GMA News
Palawan’s tourist towns of El Nido, Coron vote ‘No’ to three-way split
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — The tourist towns of El Nido and Coron voted against the referendum to divide Palawan into three smaller provinces, according to the latest count of votes casted during the plebiscite Saturday, March 13.
El Nido election officer Shiela Fetisanan-Sison confirmed that as of Sunday morning, the final tally for the town totaled with “No” votes at 11,891 and “Yes” at 6,454.
Sison added that the voter turnout in El Nido was at 69 percent of the total 26,792.
In Coron, partial unofficial tally stood at “No” votes at 5,378 while “Yes” was at 1,161. There was a total of 34,651 registered in Coron town.
On Saturday, the Palawan plebiscite was conducted to let the locals decide whether or not to split the island province into three smaller provinces, namely Palawan Del Sur, Palawan Del Norte, and Palawan Oriental.
If the law is ratified by the public, the municipalities of El Nido and Coron would be absorbed into Palawan Del Norte.
The provincial board of canvassers are expected to convene at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 14, to validate the election result. The final result will be announced Monday, March 15.
Palawan 3-way split plebiscite: Low turnout, a ‘No’ in Kalayaan Island
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—Only 63 out of 281 registered voters in Kalayaan, the island municipality of Palawan at the West Philippine Sea, took part in Saturday’s plebiscite which will determine whether or not the province will be divided into three.
Based on partial unofficial count of Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), 41 Kalayaan residents were against the division of Palawan.
20 voted for the three-way split. Two votes were declared invalid.
On Saturday, Republic Act 11259, or the law dividing Palawan into three provinces namely Palawan Del Norte, Palawan Del Sur, and Palawan Oriental, was put under scrutiny through the plebiscite.
Should the province be divided into three, Kalayaan will be absorbed by the mother province, Palawan Del Sur.
Kalayaan has two clustered precincts in its lone village on the Pag-asa Island.
#NoTo3in1Palawan trends as plebiscite on dividing Palawan into 3 province starts
The hashtag NoTo3in1Palawan trended on Twitter Saturday night as Palawan voters took part in a plebiscite to decide whether or not the province will be divided into three or remain a single province.
The plebiscite for the ratification of Republic Act (RA) 11259 dividing Palawan into the provinces of Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental, and Palawan del Sur has started on Saturday morning.
RA No. 11259 was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte signed on April 5, 2019.
A majority of “yes” votes will divide Palawan into three provinces. Meanwhile, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan’s capital, will not take part in the plebiscite as it will have its own Congressional district representative.
In a tweet, social media activist Francis Baraan IV said the division “will result to the ecological destruction of Palawan’s natural resources and beauty.”
Nonprofit organization Oceana Philippines urged policy makers to focus on conserving the province which is “being destroyed by widespread mining and logging” instead of dividing it.
“#NoTo3in1Palawan We have a high poverty and unemployment rate despite having the most [number] of provinces in Southeast Asia,” it said in a tweet.
“Palawan should be one solid and unified province. Dividing the island into three provinces would only worsen the existing problems. Do not let corrupt and capitalist people in power thrive. One Palawan is a protection of biodiversity, economy, and community,” one netizen wrote.
The #NoTo3in1Palawan reached over 14,000 tweets overnight.
Palawan plebiscite result out Tuesday
The Commission on Elections said no major glitches have been reported during yesterday’s plebiscite that would divide Palawan into three provinces, namely Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental, and Palawan del Sur.
The result of the plebiscite will be announced on March 16 (Tuesday)
“We have to take into account the weather also and other circumstances,” Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said.
Jimenez said majority of the polling places opened on time “with the exception of Kalayaan where it was delayed because of the late arrival of election supplies and paraphernalia.”
The Comelec official said that only one “untoward incident” was reported.
“(This consists) of a report of certain barangay officials refusing to give health declaration forms to some voters. The matter was immediately responded to and voters were allowed to exercise their right to suffrage,” he said.
Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr., commissioner-in-charge of the Palawan plebiscite, earlier said they cannot release the results on the same day since they conducted a manual system of voting.
“This is not automated, wherein after the polls, precincts will immediately transmit the results to the municipal canvassing until it reached the national canvassing,” Kho said.
“So it will take time. There is travel time. We could get the final results by the 16th, although it may give or take a day or two so that we could determine if it is a ‘Yes’ or is it a ‘No,’” he added.
A total of 490,639 registered voters in Palawan were expected to cast their votes in 2,959 clustered precincts.
EDITORIAL - The biggest employer, and growing
The worst crisis faced by the country since World War II has not stopped lawmakers from creating more opportunities to widen the taxpayer-funded trough.
With the government so cash-strapped in the pandemic response the next three generations of Filipinos are now buried in debt to multilateral agencies and foreign states, there is an unending effort to broaden membership in Congress – either through party-list organizations that represent no marginalized group, or through gerrymandering and the creation of more legislative seats.
The government is already the country’s biggest employer. Funds for salaries and the maintenance and operating expenses of thousands of government offices eat up a hefty chunk of the annual national budget, competing with allocations for urgent services such as public health and education. The state is so cash-strapped it cannot even afford a full rollout of the universal health care program.
Yet in the continuing pandemic, the Senate has just given its final nod to create new legislative districts in Caloocan City and the provinces of Bulacan and Maguindanao. The House of Representatives, for its part, passed a measure dividing Maguindanao into north and south, with each new province having its own congressional representation and bureaucracy, from the governor down to new barangay units and councils. Meanwhile, in Palawan, a plebiscite was held yesterday, asking residents for their opinion on whether the province should be broken up into three.
Whenever the country faces an intractable problem, the answer of the national leadership is to create a new executive department, with thousands of additions to an already bloated bureaucracy.
It wouldn’t be so bad if public service improves with the expansion of employment opportunities in government. Instead the new positions simply create opportunities for the relatives and allies of incumbent officials to be on taxpayers’ payroll, with all the perks and entitlements that go with public office in this country. Government positions are also used for political patronage, dispensed by those in power at the expense of taxpayers.
Once they are in government, it can be tough to weed out the lazy, incompetent, corrupt and undeserving of public trust. You’d think the worst public health crisis faced by the country in a century would at least suspend this job creation at the expense of Juan and Juana de la Cruz. This, unfortunately for the nation, is too much to ask of our officials.
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2021/03/14/2084168/editorial-biggest-employer-and-growing
Palawan plebiscite generally peaceful – PNP, Comelec
Despite some delays, yesterday’s plebiscite to ratify the law dividing Palawan into three provinces was generally peaceful.
Maj. Gen. Alfred Corpus, Philippine National Police Directorate for Operations chief, said they did not monitor any major untoward incident.
Corpus said 1,450 police officers aside from 350 soldiers were deployed for the political exercise.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez, said voting went ”smoothly” and was “unabated” as of 1 p.m. yesterday despite persistent rain.
Jimenez said polling precincts opened on time, except in Kalayaan Island, due to the late arrival of election supplies and paraphernalia.
He said they received “only one verified instance of an untoward incident” when certain officials in Barangay Tata in Coron refused to give health declaration forms to some voters.
At least 490,639 voters have registered for the plebiscite.
https://www.philstar.com/nation/2021/03/14/2084115/palawan-plebiscite-generally-peaceful-pnp-comelec