why vote NO TO QUEZON DEL NORTE and QUEZON DEL SUR

TOGETHER WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL...

Now that Quezon Province is to be divided upon the ratification of Republic Act 9495, otherwise known as "An Act Creating the Province of Quezon Del Sur" , through a plebiscite to be held on December 13, you should be wise enough to consider that this division will do no good to the de facto Quezon del Sur as has been thought of by many and will only be another burden for the mother province which will be called Quezon Del Norte upon the law's approval.

Here are some points I have gathered in my thorough search for the benefits and disadvantages to the concerned municipalities and cities if the law is approved or nullified:

PRO's

1. People from the south could benefit by "bringing the government" closer to the people, thus, making transactions in the far-flung areas of the south faster and more convinient for the persons concerned.

2. The municipalities in the south will be given the chance to progress as funds will be allocated equally among them.

3. The south will not be burdened for paying the debts made by the province for projects which the north is enjoying. [Equitable division]

4. A corrupt government official will not be enjoying more money from the funds alloted for a BIG province. This somewhat makes corruption untraceable. But if the division would be ratified, people from each province would expect to see projects from the provincial government minimizing, if not eradicating corruption.

CONS

1. Quezon Del Sur will share a percentage of the taxes gained from the two major powerplants located in the north, when in fact, it is stated in the Local Government Code of the Philippines that the rightful beneficiaries of the real property tax are the people who live in the locality where the firm is located. Much more, the law does not make it clear how this "sharing" would happen and who would facilitate such sharing.This only means that the south will become dependent of the resources the north should have been fully enjoying if the law is ratified.

2. The percentage of share that Sur will gain is unfit for the pollution the powerplants in the north is creating. The adverse ecological effects of these powerplants in the north is being felt by the south. So, it would be unfair if the south would receive only a percentage for the volume of pollution that exploits their resources. However, as I've said in number one, if the province would be divided, this "sharing" is against the local government code of the Philippines.

3. Competition in terms of foreign investors and other developmental resources would inevitably be the outcome of this division. Investors would prefer to put their money somewhere where their growth of wealth is certain. In this case, if I am an investor, I would prefer investing my money to highly urbnized places where opportunities for more profits balloon. Majority of the highly urbanized places in the province are in the north. The south would eventually be the loser in the competition. If we go against the division of the province, the taxes and other benefits that can be gained from these foreign investments can also be shared to other places hassle-free.

4. 50% of the funds that will be allocated to the south will only go to the pockets of the government officials duly appointed or elected in their seats as their salary. Half will only go to the said development plans for the municipalities of the south. If the province would remain as it is, that 50% percent of the funds wouldn't just be wasted for officials whom we're unsure whether they really perform the duties entrusted to them.

5. Billions of pesos will have to be spent for the construction of a new Capitol Building and other provincial offices which could have been spent to projects similar to the purpose the law is suggesting.

6. Gumaca, a municipality in the south suggested to be the capital of the proposed province, is not very far from the City of Lucena, the capital of the mother province. Lucena City's location is much more ideal for the whole province as it is at the center of Quezon. The same municipality, as mentioned by Sonny Pulgar in his blog posted below, which have been governed by the same influential family, haven't even improved much in the last decade.

7. Taxes would have to be raised higher than normal in the south to support their new government. What would you expect from a poverty-stricken province? It would only make lives drastically miserable for the poor.

8. The proposed Quezon Del Sur have no medical, scientific, educational and entrepreneural establishments which could support the development they aim. All of which are in the north, which, therefore would only intensify the fact of the proposed province's dependence in the north. It would, however count years for such to rise and what would happen is that people will only suffer until such time that these necessities are provided.

9. The law is misleading as it only states the creation of Quezon Del Sur in it's title when in fact, guidelines in the creation of laws in the Philippines state that one law should only have one intent. In the case of RA 9495, it not only would create Quezon Del Sur but it would also create Quezon Del Norte which is entirely different from the name of the mother province which is Quezon. This is the reason why a number of petitions have been forwarded to the Supreme Court pleading for the declaration of RA 9495 unconstitutional. [see http://www.scribd.com/doc/8015688/Supreme-Court-Petition-versus-RA-9495?autodown=doc]

I WONDER WHY they only sought for the division as the main solution to the poverty felt in the south.

I WONDER WHY the south is at the verge of poverty when there are duly elected officials who should have been looking after the development of their area.

I WONDER WHY they say that communication and technological facilities are very scarce in the south that's why it's difficult to transact problems that need to be brought up to the capital when the duly elected officials should have set these to their primary agenda if they see them as the main problem why it's difficult to contact the capital to stage their requests.

I WONDER WHY there had been no developments, as they claim, has happened in the south when some of the provincial government officials came from the south. Would there be any difference if we divide the province into two?

I WONDER WHY duly elected government officials in the provincial down to the lowest political unit hold caucuses and meetings to discuss about their view on the matter then afterwards ask for someone who is strong enough to oppose him to come on the stage because he would slap him on the face.

I WONDER WHY duly elected government officials in the provincial down to the lowest political unit hold caucuses and meetings to discuss about their view on the matter then afterwards give them "an early christmas aguinaldo" if they vow to vote for the same side such official is campaigning.

Well, as for me, these are my opinions taken from facts I have gathered so far from the two opposing views. A YES or a NO could make a large difference not only for the province but for your future children as well. Make sure to weigh both sides before you decide.

Below is a blogpost of Sonny Pulgar discussing why you should vote no in the plebicite. In the same way, here is a link discussing the necesity of creating Quezon del Sur: http://erintanada.wordpress.com/quezon-del-sur-ra-9495-mga-tanong-at-sagot/

IMPLICATION OF DIVISION

 

Now that the bill cutting Quezon has finally become a law (GMA failed to sign it within the reglamentary period), we are now faced with the last hurdle of its implementation: the plebiscite. Once the people blindly vote for the division, we perpetually lose the physical, cultural, and psychological connect with the rest of Quezon. We lose the crown jewels including the head that adorns them.

 

Truth to tell, the proponents of this law failed to exert the minimum effort of notifying the sizeable sectors of the province. What was heard for the most part was the upside for the division. Nothing was heard for the downside. The proponent, while the bill was being railroaded in the Committee, was busy imagining the short haul political benefit for him and his family. What was heard was the litany of motherhood exhortations that the South must stand by its own feet, rely and develop its own resources, and enjoy the magnanimity of the Central government by way of the Internal Revenue Allotment. How about the local sources of revenue?

 

What can we boast in the South as its crown jewels?

 

Gumaca, with its century old water problem, is a transient town. It is the site of commercial banks and government agencies in the area. Despite the reign of an old political family there, nothing was done in the development of Gumaca, touted to be the Capital of Quezon del Sur. Its water system is the worst in the province. There was even an ordinance that proscribes taking care of pigeons. The reason is obvious. Doves with their droppings dirty the roofs that collect rain water! While Hondagua in Lopez is host to the Puyat Philippine Flour Mills, it has for the last twenty years operating in reduced capacity. PFM pays minuscule property tax to Lopez and provides employment to about 200 natives of the town. Catanauan in the Bondoc remains sleepy thanks to its sleepy and corrupt leadership.

 

Moreover, the proponent failed to see that the half of the IRA is for salaries and wages of a new bureaucracy for the new province. Assuming that one half of the P900M IRA goes to the South, or P450M, P225M of it goes to employees’ pay. Its 20% development fund is pegged at P90M or P45M for each district. We lose our availments from the RPT from the crown jewels, estimated at P1.25B annually, not to mention priority in landing a job where employment opportunities loom in the North. Why should we rely on the palliative Countrywide Development Fund of the Congressmen when we know that 50% of it goes where it shouldn’t go? Someone is looking at the multimillion peso budget for the construction of the new South Capitol Complex housing the new center for the newly minted province.

 

Most of us found ourselves holding a fait accompli for a law.

 

The act of division shall do injustice to South Quezon. There was no clinical or scientific neither an academic study made prior to floating the proposal. South Quezon needs North Quezon for unity of purpose. The North nourishes the South.South Quezon loses its physical and psychological connection with the North. By legislating territorial division it spells the economic petrifaction of its half.[1]

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[1] katataspulong ng Quezon Province, http://www.sonnypulgar.com/no-to-quezon-division/

Happy Mothers' Day!

I have written this article (a memoir actually) in my Creative Writing class. I personally dedicate this to my mother who is working abroad to support our needs. I love you mom... Happy mothers' day...

In the Absence of Light

My life is seemingly perfect as any acquaintance would put it. I have every material thing I could ask for: shelves of my favorite books, up-to-date technological gadgets, top-of-the-line clothing, copies of my favorite movies, a room back home that I can call my own – name it, and I’ve got them all.

I am the envy of my relatives, neighbors and peers: I have achieved far greater honor than any other relatives in the family; I have gained a good reputation and a sense of respect in our neighborhood for the academic achievements I bring back home; I am the head of an academic organization, editor of our publication and consistent academic scholar. There is no doubt I live a perfect life with the smiles I unrelentingly wear every hour of the day, seven days a week.

Conversely, I must confess that the outside look can be so deceiving. Under those portraits of mirth painted on my face is an abyss of clandestine which, for so long, have held to conceal a lonely and sorrowful lad. Yes, I have these material things and a life anyone would risk theirs just to get a hold of mine but there’s one thing I would never barter with what I already have, which they say, I now enjoy. And that is, being in the caring hands and loving arms of my mother.

I remember perfectly well how and why for a decade’s time, I only felt a mother’s touch in not more than ten times, though I know that what I feel is just a speck in her wall of miseries she unbearably carried all throughout those woeful years, which, as of this time, is raging up at an unimaginable height.

Her life had been hell yet she chose to suffer than give us, her children, the unkindly burden. She had a choice but she turned her back just to give us a brighter tomorrow she once envisioned to be her own. She could have been great with the degree she had finished yet she took the “surest path” en route a thorny life in exchange of smiles in our faces every time she sends her pay. I have never seen nor heard anyone as unselfish as my mother – the only person in the world who would make my nearly perfect life complete.

September of the year 1996, as far as I can remember, was the date when it started all. A cousin of mine came all the way from Hong Kong to persuade mother about the great opportunities abroad but she denied the idea, thinking that we were still young. I was a mere eight-year-old boy who knows nothing about the world except school and home. I was there when they talked about the matter but nothing sort of triggered an alarm in my innocent brain cells.

Some time in December that same year, we experienced the most pressing ordeal (in my point of view) in terms of financial matters which paved the way to mother and father’s decision to grab the opportunity. Father lost his job and he feared he could not secure a better one for in every opening is a requirement of an educational attainment higher than an elementary graduate. Mother, at that time, can’t not bear to allow us stop school since she treasures education so much. She gathered all her strengths to find a suitable job and she ended up as a substitute teacher in a barangay elementary school. She’s a bachelor of elementary education diploma-holder.

But all these actions did no good, although we could at least eat three times a day and we have a baon at our lunchboxes in school everyday. And so they did the dreadful thing. They phoned in my cousin to tell that she’s taking the offer.

In the months that followed, mother and father quarreled over their decision. Father insisted that she needed not to go but mother grudgingly disapproves thinking about her meager salary and father’s also for he convinced one of his compadres to allow him drive the tricycle the latter owns and, of course, most of all, the expenses they had spent for mother’s papers to be processed which caused us a mountain of debts.

It was July 11, 1997 when mother and father had their first sorrowful wedding anniversary since the day after that would be their most dreaded time after all those months of decision-making, quarreling and settling everything in. I have seen in their eyes that deep inside their empty stares is a weeping heart avoiding as much as possible to blame one another. At that point, there was no turning back.

I didn’t very much care what was going on since the idea that my mom is leaving is the very least that could come into my fragile mind. But some of my relatives came rushing to our home to escort us and mother to the airport. No one ever spoke to us three about mother’s departure (as far as I can recall) yet they tried their best to show us their melancholic sympathy through telling us stories about mother when she was young and how she had managed to succeed much like what we were doing those times in school.

“Your mother was self-reliant when she was in your age. She had endured a kilometer walk everyday just to reach school” – an aunt said while lending a helping hand on mother’s packing - “no wonder why you three are as much as achievers as your mother.”

And then mother would give a cold laugh and say in her kind and soothing voice “Don’t brag about me in my children.” – and would be followed by a sound of preaching – “it’s not me whom they have to thank. It’s God who gave them their extraordinary brains.” then it would be followed by a cheerful smile at us.

You see, we were literally sticking together during that time since our house back then was incapable of accommodating such a number of people. And such conversations continued until the time we really have to leave – still having not a single hint nor care of what was about to happen.

At the stroke of midnight in July 12, we left our house and boarded the jeepney owned by one of my uncles. While we were on the ride, one of my cousins told me that we were invited by my uncle to pay a visit to the place where “airplanes fall.” My nerves jumped as I heard the news and I looked forward to see such beautiful scenery. I fell asleep every so often on that ride since it’s still evening but the continuous laughing, story-telling and honks of other vehicles deprived me from a good sleep.

Nonetheless, it could not be mistaken that there was something troubling mother. From the time we rode the jeepney, she talked very little and continued to stare at a certain point. I felt it even remorseful to see mother trying to embrace us all as one.

“Is there something wrong? Tell it to nanay and everything will be alright,” she said one moment when I was awoken by the hard laughs of my aunts.

“No, nothing po,” I would tell at a begrudged smile as the thought of the mysteriousness of mother and the untimely trip seep once again into my conscious senses.

“Son, take care of your sisters, okay? Don’t give father a headache. Obey him with respect as you are to me. Study hard because that’s the only thing that I and your father could give you. Always pray to God. He’ll give us strength..,” mother told me in one of those moments of wake but I paid a little attention. I did not develop the understanding at that time about the strangeness of her lines. I courteously answered with a nod and her smiles became even emptier.

It was already morning when I was awoken for the last time. Mother had gone to sleep and we were then passing the towering skyscrapers and flyovers, the Metro Manila slum areas and the seemingly unending traffic. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the trip by looking at and pointing and counting the towering buildings and the big city roads. The sight was exhilarating and that was my very first memory of Manila. Then, a moment later, I saw airplanes becoming bigger and bigger in sight as they “fall” from the sky. The awe-inspiring sight kept me curious about how these bird machines fly with such an enormous size, judging also by the thundering sound it produce. By that time, mother was already awake and joined my aunts and cousins in their conversations. They were laughing yet mother’s eyes don’t tell the same. Something really is troubling her, I said to myself. It’s something like that rare occasion when your hearts meet to communicate the feelings they try to conceal yet overpowering with the need for outbursts just to alleviate the weight. But mother held strong of her feelings.

We finally reached the airport. There were rows of every kind of vehicle you could imagine. Upon our arrival, we ate our breakfast. I was eventually dragged by my cousins to the other parts of the airport. I must admit, the experience was very memorable because at the sight of it, I fell under the impression that I’m in a foreign land because of the sophistication I only had the chance to see in TV and yet I was there. Different kinds of people were pouring in and out of the main door of the building with others in the background, calling out the names of those who come out with excitement painted on their faces. And then, I remembered, where is mother?

I was brought later at the departure area, although at the first mention of it, nothing in particular crossed in my mind. But by the mention of my mother’s name, I was aghast to hear them telling something I can’t quite comprehend.

“Two long years, no vacation yet with a good price every month. But I trust that she’s gonna make it though. I mean, how many have gone there that lasted only for two years? Probably the weaker ones only. With that opportunity, I wouldn’t be surprised if after two years, she’ll return again and again.”

Halfway through their conversation, some of our companions have cared to join us in the wait. It was only then that the true nature of our travel became clearer and clearer.

“Your mother, in a few minute’s time will be boarding an airplane bound to Hong Kong,” – a sympathetic aunt told me – “Do you know where that is?” she asked in a somewhat sarcastic manner, as if half-expecting that I already have answers in my mind.

I shook my head wonderingly, trying to extract anything out of my young brain about the faintest hint regarding the place in question. But the lack of knowledge made me more and more irritated. Is it that far? Could we not pay her a visit from time to time? I would like to ask them these questions yet I know they would only say things far from my expectations. I feared their answers. My aunt did not have the chance to continue what she was saying because my cousin broke out with a shout “Tiya Norma’s over there!”

I could not see anything. I struggled to go as close as I could but I was barred by rails. I asked them where she was and they pointed a place obscured by a throng of people going in the same way. “Nay!” I shouted, but no one turned her back. I shouted and shouted but my uncle lifted his hand in my shoulder only to tell that she could not hear me anymore because she’s already inside and it’s time that we go. For a moment, I scanned the inside of the building from where I was standing, trying to catch a glimpse of her, but she’s nowhere to be found.

I wanted to see her so badly that anger, mixed with an agonizing thought trickled down my spines. What a cruel thing to do! I never got the chance to give my formal farewell to her, to feel her last embrace and seek for her motherly kiss for the last time before the two-year ordeal. But none of them possibly had the slightest idea of what I felt during those times. After all, she’s not their mother who devoted her time in taking good care of me all those years. She’s not their mother who first taught me how to read and write. She’s not their mother who consoled me in my roughest time in school. And she’s not their mother who became my only source of strength to stand tall everyday while expressing her own little way of a motherly love and care that is unlike any others.

My blood surged with hatred with some of our companions for hiding from us the very fact which we solely deserved to know. They kept on blabbering and blabbering until we arrived at the parking area yet I felt like I was deaf as we approached the jeepney. They told comforting words but nothing can delude me from the emptiness I felt inside and a heavy lump in my chest. I wanted to burst out but I know better than to do so since there can be nothing I could do. By that time, mother’s plane would have taxied and was already in the air. The thought of sight-seeing and wondering at the gigantic establishments diminished as I decided to sleep my anger over.

When I woke up, we were already home but the thought of mother’s leaving pierced my heart in two. Nobody among us talked much. As I found the right place to pour out my fury, tears automatically welled off my eyes. I know they too feel the same and I know father felt the same either because I heard him whimper. Silence at home was unbearable that night. I know the next two years would be different. I know I had to make myself ready for the environment which became new at my sight. Nothing can be done but to go with the flow. That’s just what we must do.

I had no doubt about how much everything would change. In the absence of light in the family, life was difficult at first since my father know nothing about house-keeping work and he has a very very short temper. But I admire my father in his pursuit to learn nanay’s ways. In due time, he became a professional na-tay to us. At this moment, it would be fitting to tell how much I thank God for giving me parents any teenager like me would envy of.

After Nanay’s two-year contract, she was hired once again by the same employer up until now because they can’t risk letting go of someone they now consider a family. Although mother would have denied the offer, she knows better to take it to ensure that the three of us would graduate college and be the person we wanted to become no matter how hurtful it is for her not to see us grow up. I know it’s every mother’s desire to see their children whom they took care inside them for nine months and eventually gave life on earth become the best they can be through their guidance and tender love. It would be hard for them to bear that after their sufferings, they would go home with nothing but a bunch of drop-outs and delinquents, much like the story in the movie Anak (a local movie about the hardships of a mother in working abroad and coming home with her children unhappy of her presence), which every time mother would watch, she would cry a river of tears.

However, despite the geographical hindrance, she never failed to do her family task of being a mother. She’s always there in my triumphs and defeats, in my agony and bliss and in every hope turned despair. She’s as if always at my side to keep me warm over the cold and provide me support with her wide smile in my struggles. Everything that I achieved and will still achieve will be a product of the love my mother never failed to give. It’s she who deserved to have all the things I now have.

Now, at this point, I must iterate that in the absence of light, life may not be as perfect as in the case of others, but as for me and my family, I never thought that light can find its way home no matter how far and impossible it may seem.