TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan– This province may soon be divided into five congressional districts instead of just three districts.
This after Governor Manuel Mamba said in a press release he is eyeing for two additional districts.
Mamba posed the possibility and importance of adding two more districts here as stated in his Cagayan Development Agenda 2025 or CAGANDA 2025.
Under CAGANDA 2025, Mamba said it is stated in his Agenda No. 10 the importance of forming new districts in Cagayan to improve the flow of government service in the province.
He said Cagayan is so big that’s why it should have additional congressional districts.
Mamba also said that aside from additional representation of Cagayan in the Congress, the addition of two more districts may result to higher funds.
According to him, it is possible to form new congressional districts for a province through an Act of Congress with a requirement of not less than 120,000 voting population in each district.
He cited as example the province of Cavite and Quezon City where additional districts have been approved by the Congress.
He said that neighbor province Isabela is also pushing the same for their province to have six from four districts through the congress.
Should Cagayan be divided into five districts based on Mamba’s proposal, District 1 will include the towns of Alcala, Amulung, Baggao, Gattaran and Iguig with 130,720 total voters population.
District 2 will include Abulug, Allacapan, Ballesteros, Calayan, Claveria, Lasam, Pamplona, Sanchez Mira and Sta. Praxede, 137, 086.
District 3 will include Enrile, Peñablanca, and Tuguegarao City, 122, 034.
District 4 will be Aparri, Buguey, Camalaniugan, Gonzaga, Lal-lo, Sta. Ana and Sta. Teresita, 137, 537.
District 5 will include Piat, Rizal, Solana, Sto Niño and Tuao, 119, 060.
While district’s 5 voting population is short by almost a thousand, Mamba said he is positive that it will reach its 120K mark by the 2019 election period.
Mamba said the composition of the proposed districts is based on each town’s geographical location, indigenous and cultural situation.
He also said he is hoping that other political leaders especially the representatives from the province and the Cagayanos will support the idea. Julius Catulin/Northernforum.net
