Biggest Cebu City barangay split into 3

CEBU CITY – Guadalupe, the city’s biggest barangay, will finally be divided, giving fruition to an almost 10-year-old "separation movement."

Mayor Tomas Osmeña officially gave the green light to the split in a meeting last Tuesday with the so-called Banawa-Englis Separation Movement, headed by Antonio Dangkalan and Guadalupe officials, at his residence in Guadalupe.

Osmeña approved the three-way split of Guadalupe into Guadalupe Proper, Guadalupe-Englis and Guadalupe-Banawa in a move to evenly distribute services and amenities to the big community.

To prepare for the smooth transition of the split, Osmeña told barangay councilmen to get ready with religious, garbage, education and political maps.

These maps will delineate boundaries and will also serve as basis for the distribution of services and amenities.

While the distribution of services and amenities seem to be the very reason why residents of Sitios Banawa and Englis initiated the separation movement, political observers believe the split may have been done because of "political accommodation."

Eugenio Faelnar, chairman of Barangay Guadalupe and president of the Association of Barangay Councils, said that while he welcomes the three-way split, he would not comment if it was politically motivated.

In December 1996, the city council adopted Ordinance No. 1661 dividing Guadalupe into barangays Banawa-Englis and Guadalupe. That ordinance was to pave the way for the holding of a plebiscite on dividing Guadalupe.

Initially, the plebiscite was set on March 3, 1997. But it did not push through because the Commission on Elections en banc subsequently approved the city council’s resolution to have Guadalupe divided.

Guadalupe has a population of close to 50,000 and has 12 sitios and 68 puroks.– Freeman News Service