It's final: Dinagat Islands now a provinceBy Jerome D. Ladan
The Philippines has officially welcomed its 80th province, the Dinagat Islands, amid moves from politicians to stop the official declaration of the province. The Supreme Court on September 11, 2012 has affirmed the legality of Republic Act No. 9355 which declared the separation of Dinagat Islands from Surigao del Norte. In an en banc resolution, the SC junked the motion for reconsideration filed by petitioners’ former Surigao del Norte political leaders Rodolfo Navarro, Victor Vernal and Rene Medina to RA 9355, also known as the “Charter of the Province of Dinagat Island,” “as no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned (April 12, 2011) resolution.” The latest ruling upheld the court’s 2011 resolution on the controversy which had also declared valid the provision in Article 9 of the Rules and Regulations Implementing (IRR) the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991, which provides, “[T]he land area requirement shall not apply where the proposed province is composed of one (1) or more islands.” Petitioners argued that Dinagat islands failed to comply with section 19, Article X of the constitution, stating that the creation of provinces should be in accordance with the criteria established in the LGC. Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio opposed the SC ruling and declared in his ‘dissenting opinion’ petition promulgated last September 11, 2012 that Dinagat Islands failed to meet the minimum population and minimum land area requirement. He stated that even the LGC expressly requires compliance with two of the three minimum requirements and Dinagat Islands only meets the income requirement set by the LGC. He also added in his petition that the reason for the minimum requirement of land area of provinces is almost 20 times larger than the next lower unit, the city, is because with the continuous growth in income and population, provinces will inevitably host new cities, municipalities, and even another province, which all have minimum land are requirements. Carpio further explained that “RA 9355 applies only to Dinagat Islands, not to all local government units aspiring to be a province, and therefore could not have amended the requirements for the creation of provinces under the Local Government Code.” |