Congress is taking too much risk in the problematic bill to create a congressional district out of the historic city of Malolos in Bulacan. The bill, already in an advanced stage in the legislative mill, is facing strong resistance from oppositors for purported constitutional infirmities and self-serving motives of its proponents. Now, it has erupted into a full-blown controversy that has put the credibility of Congress at stake.

The bill, principally authored by Marivic Sy-Alvarado (First district of Bulacan), was approved on third and final reading by the House of Representatives on May 6, 2008.

With Senators Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas as sponsors, the Senate approved its version of the measure on second reading on Feb.10 this year.  It is scheduled to pass the proposal on third and final reading today.

The proposal was passed by the Upper Chamber despite the warning of Senator Joker Arroyo that it was severely flawed.  The biggest defect of the bill, according to Arroyo, is that Malolos is short of the minimum population of 250,000, as required by the Constitution. As certified by the National Statistics, the present population of the city is 223,069. And at the rate its population is growing at 3.5 percent annually,   it will have a total of 247,324 residents by next year. Curiously, there are no available records in either the Senate or House to refute the argument that Malolos lacks the mandatory size of population.

Malolos is presently part of the first congressional district of the province. But with the move to make the city a separate district, the first district will cease to be compact and contiguous. Consequently, the municipality of Bulacan will be isolated from the other towns in the first district, namely Paombong, Hagonoy, Calumpit and Pulilan.

Joker Arroyo forcefully argued that the creation of new congressional districts without a law increasing the number of House membership could erode the number of seats reserved by the Constitution for party-list representatives?which is pegged at 20 percent of 250 seats. This is tantamount to violation of the limits set by the Constitution for the maximum number of House seats.  At present, the House has 200 members elected by districts and 19 party-list representatives.

A deeper scrutiny of the questionable bill would reveal that if Malolos City will be removed from the first district, the municipalities of Hagonoy and Calumpit, the hometowns of Vice Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado and Rep. Marivic Sy-Alvarado, will have the biggest number of total votes among the remaining municipalities in the first district.

Any freshman political science student will readily see that this is a blatant case of gerrymandering that is expressly prohibited by the fundamental law and anathema in a democratic system.  Gerrymandering is the reprehensible practice of politicians partitioning a territory to advance selfish interests and keep themselves entrenched in power.

As lawyer and UP law professor Harry Roque, who hails from Malolos City, observes, the bill was conceived to suit the convenience of certain politicians, instead of serving the needs of the community. He says this is intended to enable certain politicians to run for another high position when their maximum term of office expires next year.

If and when the bill is enacted into law, Congress runs the risk of being repudiated anew by the Supreme Court in the face of the threat of oppositors to bring the issue before the high tribunal.  Recall that on Nov. 18, 2008, the Supreme Court voided the laws conferring cityhood status to 16 municipalities on the ground that they failed to comply with the minimum criteria set by the Local Government Code, specially the requirement of an annual income of not less than P100 million.

This precedent-setting decision should have forewarned our lawmakers against going ahead with the proposed conversion of Malolos City into a lone congressional district.  The threat of being rebuffed by the highest court is greater in this particular bill because of the imputation of a breach of two constitutional provisions?the minimum population requirement for the creation of a district and the effect of exceeding the maximum allowable number of House seats.

  A group of oppositors from Bulacan, led by lawyers Victorino Aldaba and Carlo Jolette Fajardo, has lodged a resolution with the Senate to reject the bill or to remand it to the committee for further verification on the issue of population requirement.  Will Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and his colleagues give due course to the petition?  Or will they turn a deaf ear to the move and expose themselves to the risk public censure over a legislation that is believed to be farcical and unconstitutional?

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The Manila Prosecutor?s Office last month recommended the filing of estafa against the culprit behind the loss of funds intended for the operation of a Binondo-based school for Chinese students from poor families.

  After about two years of preliminary investigation, Asst. City Prosecutor Teresa Escobar-Pilares issued a resolution finding sufficient evidence to charge

Jaime Dychauco for estafa or qualified theft for failing to account for funds amounting to P3,845,360 belonging to the Philippine Jin Nan Institute.  The school is being subsidized by the Philippine Grand Mason Fraternity, a charitable and civic organization where the respondent was a member.

  Sometime in January 2007, Chua Beng Theng, president and board chairman of the civic group, was informed that the school had run out of funds to pay teachers? salaries and other operating expenses.  When he checked with China Bank, in Sto. Cristo, Binondo, he found out that Dychauco, the designated treasurer of the school, withdrew the aforecited amount on Aug. 23, 2005 and Oct. 25, 2005. The complainant said his signatures for the withdrawal were forged by the respondent.

  When fraternity officials confronted Dychauco about the missing funds, he admitted having withdrawn the money but promised to return the same.  But he imposed a strange condition: he should be named chairman and president of the association.  Not long after, the respondent presented to fraternity secretary general Jaime Ching a manager?s check amounting to P8 million and he promised to return the missing funds if his condition was met.

  It turned out that the respondent?s offer was not only a blackmail but also a bluff. He never made good on his pledge to return the money.  But while Dychauco is now facing prosecution, he was able to evade jail by posting bail.

f_maragay@yahoo.com