(Photo courtesy of the Biliran Provincial Government.)
On June 22-23, 1988, the Philippine Daily Inquirer published a two-part article about the quest for the provincehood of Biliran. The article was written by correspondent Danny C. Petilla, a friend of key members of the Movement for the Provincehood of Biliran who earlier creation sensation with his "Samar: An Island in Agony" series. The “Biliran series” exposed to national attention the plight of the neglected subprovince.
An island pursues dream of provincehood
By Danny C. Petilla
BILIRAN, Leyte – The people of this island are clamoring for the realization of their dream and aspiration for 29 long years – provincehood and autonomy.
These days, Biliran residents are soliciting signatures and writing letters and telegrams to President Aquino, senators, congressmen and other national government officials to manifest their long-standing desire for independence from the mother province of Leyte and exist as a regular separate province.
“It’s about time the child that is Biliran come out from the placenta and cut off the umbilical cord that attaches it to the womb of the mother province of Leyte and be given the chance to nourish itself and chart its own destiny,” says Lt. Gov. Jose C. Gonzales, who has been working overtime to bring to the attention of government his constituents’ sentiments for provincehood.
The 39-year-old Gonzales told the Inquirer some 40,000 Biliranons have joined the Movement for the Provincehood of Biliran (MPB), the lead organization lobbying for provincehood, with satellite offices in Manila and other provinces.
Rep. Alberto Veloso (Lakas, Leyte) filed at the House of Representatives bill 485, an act separating the subprovince of Biliran from the province of Leyte and converting it into a separate, independent and regular province. HB 485, now pending in Congress, was co-authored by Leyte’s four other representatives.
“Biliran has already shown its capacity to self-govern and be self-governed. Therefore, it should finally be recognized as a province,” says Rolly Borrinaga, a local chronicler working for MPB.
The island of Biliran, comprising eight municipalities with an aggregate land area of 555.42 square kilometers, became a subprovince by virtue of R.A. 2141 which was enacted by the old Congress on April 8, 1959. Several amendments later provided for the setting up of national government offices in the island, representation in the provincial board of Leyte and fiscal autonomy.
Gonzales says underdevelopment and neglect are the chief rationale for the provincehood movement. He charges that politicians from the mainland scuttles the subprovince’s programs and priorities even before it reaches the drawing table.
Biliran sends a special board member to Leyte’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan to represent its interests but most of the time he is outvoted on issues affecting Biliran. The lieutenant governor is not even a member of the provincial board.
In a manifesto, the people are clamoring for a separate provincial board that will set the policies and directions for the growth and development of the island province.
Surprisingly, Leyte acting Gov. Leopoldo Petilla and a majority of the board members are fully supportive of the provincehood program.
Last month, all provincial governors in the country, convening at the Development Academy of the Philippines in Tagaytay City, endorsed a unanimous resolution asking President Aquino and Congress for the conversion of Biliran into a regular province.
Former governor Teofilo Sabonsolin, who had ruled the island for 14 years, expressed optimism that provincehood for Biliran could be realized under the present administration. It was a virtual impossibility during the Marcos years as ex-Gov. Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez did not want a single piece of land severed from the mother province, Sabonsolin said.
Aspirations for provincehood then were stifled in favor of the Romualdezes’ family business interests. Biliran is home to the sprawling 1,500-hectare Busali Stud Farms, now under sequestration, and the cancelled agro-forestry concession totaling 14,559 hectares (or all timberlands in the subprovince) previously granted to five companies allegedly owned by the Romualdez and Floirendo families.
Tables have turned and things look brighter for Biliran provincehood. So what is keeping the people of Biliran from finally clearing the hurdle of provincehood?
The principal obstacles to Biliran provincehood remain the Local Government Code’s requirements on land area, population, and annual income to which the island is found wanting. But the conversion of Siquijor, Batanes and Camiguin into regular provinces, also found to be lacking the same requirements, reveal the inconsistency of the law, the manifesto said.
Another stumbling block is Senate Bill No. 155, known as the Local Government Code of 1988, authored by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, chairman of the committee on local government, which aims to abolish existing subprovinces like Biliran and Guimaras (in Iloilo), reverting them into their mother provinces.
But Sen. Letecia R. Shahani, member of the same committee
that drafted the bill, wired Gonzales recently that the elevation of Biliran
into a separate province has been incorporated into Pimentel’s bill. (To be continued)
Biliran Island: Can it stand alone?
By Danny C. Petilla
BILIRAN, Leyte – Is Biliran ready for provincehood? Can it stand on its own, politically and economically, if granted independence? Its leaders say it can.
“We have weathered almost 30 years of neglect and apathy from the mother province. I think our people are ready to be on their own,” Lt. Gov. Jose Gonzales said.
“Biliran is rich in geothermal and other mineral products just waiting to be tapped. We are self-sufficient in food. We even supply rice to the mainland and export them to Indonesia. The trucks come here empty, they leave full,” said Antonio Abilar, a lawyer and prominent resident of the subprovince.
Biliran as a subprovince is now 29 years old. It has been by-passed by the conversion of subprovinces into regular provinces like Batanes, Siquijor and Camiguin, despite their smaller population, territorial and income levels.
Biliran cannot qualify to become a province under the 1978 local government code (BP Blg. 337). Biliran cannot become a province if Senate Bill 155 is passed without the proper amendment. Certainly, Biliran will not become a province if HB 485 remains shelved in Congress.
As things stand, only by special legislation and an act of Congress can the people of Biliran turn their dream into reality.
Gonzales believes the people of Leyte, including those in the mainland, will overwhelmingly ratify a plebiscite in favor of Biliran provincehood.
Home