'NuevaCam bill has 29 illegal provisions'

MANILA, Philippines - The bill creating the new province of Nueva Camarines (NuevaCam) out of Camarines Sur (CamSur) has 29 “illegal provisions,” a local CamSur lawmaker said yesterday.

In a statement, CamSur provincial board member Angel Naval said Bill 4820 would give to the proposed new province powers beyond those mandated by the Local Government Code.

“It would even sequester powers that the code has granted exclusively to municipal and city governments,” he said.

Citing specifics, Naval said two provisions in the bill that he considers illegal would create two permanent positions in NuevaCam’s provincial capital and increase the number of its provincial board members by four.

The board or Sanggunian Panlalawigan would initially be composed of six members, to be increased to 10 depending on the finances of the new province.

Naval said the positions in a province, including the number of provincial board members, are prescribed under the Local Government Code.

“These cannot be changed without the code being amended,” he said.

He said the 27 other illegal provisions would give to the province powers now belonging to cities and towns, including regulatory control over funeral parlors, cockpits and gamecock breeding, billiards halls, tricycle franchising, liquor stores, bars, and sauna parlors.

He added that some provisions empower the new province to impose taxes that cities and towns are authorized to collect.

This could result in double taxation, Naval said.

“The 29 illegal provisions should be enough for our senators to throw out this split-CamSur bill, lest the Senate end up with a legally imperfect measure aiming to create a super provincial government that will usurp the exclusive powers of city and municipal LGUs,” he stressed.