LACSON BILL SEEKS MORE REPRESENTATION FOR CAVITE

Citing the under-representation of his home province in the House of Representatives, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson filed a bill dividing Cavite province into seven legislative districts instead of the present three.

Lacson filed Senate Bill 2428, which he said is in line with Art. VI, Sec. 5 of the Constitution that each local government unit with a population of at least two hundred fifty thousand, or each province, shall have at least one representative."

"In consonance with the constitutional principle of proper democratic representation, this proposed measure seeks to reapportion the Province of Cavite from the present three legislative districts to seven legislative districts," he said.

Citing the latest Census of Population (POPCEN 2007) conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the population of the province of Cavite as of Aug. 1, 2007 is 2,856,765.

Lacson said this makes Cavite the biggest province in the Philippines in terms of population, followed by Bulacan with 2.83 million, and Pangasinan with 2.65 million.

"Compared to the province of Bulacan which is already divided into five legislative districts and the province of Pangasinan which is represented in the House of Representatives by six members of the House, the province of Cavite is clearly under-represented in Congress to the detriment of people residing therein," Lacson stressed.

Under the bill, the first legislative district will include Cavite City, Kawit, Noveleta and Rosario towns. The second legislative district will include Bacoor, while the third will include Imus. The fourth will include Dasmariñas town, while the fifth legislative district will include the towns of Carmona, General Mariano Alvarez (GMA), and Silang.

The sixth legislative district will include Trece Martires City, General Trias, Tanza and Amadeo. The seventh district will cover Tagaytay City, Alfonso, General Aguinaldo, Indang, Magallanes, Maragondon, Mendez, Naic, and Ternate.