SECOND District Rep. Victor Agbayani said selfish political motives torpedoed and blocked the approval of House Bill 4267, containing a proposed redistricting of the province which he authored.

“This would have been the proper time to do it,” Agbayani told Pangasinan newsmen after the Senate committee chaired by Senator Benigno Aquino II failed to act on the bill.

He pointed out that there are also other provinces that are seeking redistricting and are still awaiting approval.

Agbayani explained that before the Supreme Court decided that there should be additional party lists in the House of Representatives, there was a constitutional limit of 250 members of Congress.

He said this led many congressmen to file redistricting bills in an attempt to beat others in filling up the remaining 12 seats of the 250 congressmen limit.

This was the primary reason, he said, that he too initiated the filing of a redistricting bill.

He said if the province cannot have 10 legislative districts, the province would still have benefited with the addition of even just one.

He appealed to fellow officials of Pangasinan to forget politics first and just look at the simple mathematics that if there were more congressmen, there would be more development funds coming.

“Redistricting should be given a try as it can help our respective districts,” Agbayani said.

Agbayani said he agrees with Gov. Amado Espino Jr. that Pangasinan, which now has a population of 2.67 million, should have at least 10 legislative districts as Article 5 of the Constitution says a congressional district shall be comprised of 250,000 inhabitants.

“We are entitled to 10 but were only asking for seven,” said Agbayani who was a three-term governor of Pangasinan, and felt justified filing the bill.

Nonetheless, Agbayani agreed to develop more consensus with the other leaders of Pangasinan about the proposal.—LM

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