Do we have a need for new provinces and cities?

First of all, allow me to greet a hearty Happy Birthday to our beloved Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop of Cebu who will turn 76 years old tomorrow. It has also been a year since he tendered his mandatory resignation to the Holy Father Pope Benedictus XVI, but somehow the Vatican has not acted on this, which means that the Cebu Archdiocese will still have him around for a longer time because the Vatican still believes that he can still shepherd his flock. Many happy returns of the day, your eminence.

* * *

A couple of years ago, Cebu members of the House of Representatives filed separate bills in Congress to break up Cebu into four provinces — the present Cebu province, Cebu del Norte, Cebu del Sur and Cebu Occidental — and this idea incensed many Cebuanos because one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to find out the real reason behind this "Sugbu-ak" plan to break up Cebu, the nation’s top province in terms of zero debt, total assets and total income. Yes, these last termers want to run as governors in their respective provinces since they do not want to run in the entire province of Cebu because they can’t win! Thankfully, this has not yet materialized (it is still being devilishly cooked within the halls of Congress) because of Congress’ own bureaucracy and also because the League of Provinces was also against this move as it would dilute the Internal Revenue Allotments (IRAs) of the present 79 provinces if they would add more provinces into the picture. Hence the question ought to be asked… do we need more provinces? Doing so means adding more politicians into a province already full of politicians.

Enter the latest news in Cebu that soon, the northernmost town of Bogo will become a city and the southern town of Carcar (40 kilometers from Cebu City) where my grandparents originally came from will also become a city… and I gather that the Senate has already approved a total of 12 more cities. Apparently, the League of Cities of the Philippines is also opposing this move for the very same reason that adding more cities would dilute the IRAs of the present ones.

This question once again brings to mind our need to change our present Constitution. If you ask me, there should be a new criterion in place before we create new cities or provinces and the first one to my mind is how much should a municipality contribute to the national coffers before it can become a city. But then Imperial Manila gets to rake in all their revenues and return a miniscule amount to the local government units (LGU).

If you ask me, this problem should be solved at the federal level, that’s why even now, I’m still batting for a federal form of government because under such a system, each LGU will be tasked to produce its own revenues and keep most of them for its own use. This is unlike what is practiced today where the LGUs contribute a lot to Imperial Manila and they have to beg Imperial Manila that they get a return on their contributions.

Again, we must look elsewhere in the world to find out what better systems are out there. China, for instance, has only around 30 provinces in a country of 1.3 billion people. What about us? Do we need more provinces or cities? My only objection aside from the financial issue is, adding more cities and provinces means adding more political dynasties that would control these newly created cities and provinces.

* * *

From the way we’re getting those news reports about the string of military successes in Mindanao, from the killing of Abu Sayyaf’s Khadaffy Janjalani (who made a name internationally with the kidnapping of Martin and Gracia Burnham in a Palawan resort in 2000) to the wounding of Bali bomber Jainal Antel Sali Jr., a.k.a. Abu Solaiman (there was also the killing last week of Jamal Khalifa, brother-in-law of that infamous international terrorist and world’s most wanted man Osama bin Laden), it seems that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) is getting more successes in our fight against world terrorism than US President George W. Bush!

We know the state of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), especially with regards to their serious lack of equipment. Yet despite this very serious deficiency in military equipment, our soldiers have scored a lot of successes in the fight against terrorism. I guess this is because unlike in our fight against the wily Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and their allies, those so-called legal front organizations, they are not bothered by calls against human rights abuses and the like. Indeed, terrorists go into suicide missions and the best way to defend against such attacks is to kill the suicide bombers before they can wreak havoc on anyone.

My friends recently e-mailed me a speech by former US House Speaker Rep. Newt Gingrich who talked about the world’s problems with global terrorism and I fully agree with his speech… that the fight against terrorism must be fought in a different manner. He suggests, for instance, the convening of another Geneva type of convention governing the conduct of wars, which is obsolete in today’s world. Gingrich says that global terrorism is a different type of war that the world has never seen.

Indeed, wars in the past were about those who wanted to rule other lands. If the one with a superior force wins the war, they reap the spoils. The tragedy of Helen of Troy is another case in point. Hers was the face that launched a thousand ships. Call it even a romantic war, but just the same it was a reason to fight a 10-year war. Hitler’s war was started because this megalomaniac wanted to rule the world. Again, there was a reason for it.

Today’s terrorists don’t want to build a big army that could invade or occupy a foreign territory with landing ships and subjugate the lands of other people or nations. These terrorists are using religion to forward their cause… but in truth, they are doing the devil’s work. They just want to kill people! This is why Newt Gingrich wants to have a new Geneva convention on how to fight terrorists and we should fully support this move.

Right now, Americans and the Israelis are deeply concerned about Iran’s nuclear potential… and not far from the Philippines we too have to be concerned about North Korea’s despot Kim Jong Il. So we ask, should we wait for either country to drop a nuke somewhere before the world comes out with a plan to neutralize them? Or should we do our homework now and stop them from ever dropping a nuclear bomb into a city of innocent people?

* * *

For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.