MANILA, Philippines — Voting 14-1, the Senate approved on third and final reading yesterday a bill dividing Palawan into three new provinces.
House Bill 8055 sponsored by Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, divides Palawan into Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental and Palawan del Sur.
The municipalities of Coron, Culion, Busuanga, Linacapan, Taytay and El Nido will comprise Palawan del Norte while Roxas, Araceli, Dumaran, Cuyo, Agutaya, Magsaysay, Cayancillo and San Vicente will compose Palawan Oriental.
The towns of Aborlan, Narra, Quezon, Rizal, Espanola, Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, Balacbac and Kalayaan will comprise Palawan del Sur, which will be considered the mother province.
The three provinces will be created once ratified in a plebiscite to be held in 2020.
Angara said the division of the province, the country’s largest and composed of 1,800 islands and a population of at least 1.1 million, would comply with the requirements under the Local Government Code.