Kapihan de Zamboanga
By Hader Glang

On the creation of third district

For the past several weeks, this corner has been dormant. Sorry for the absence, but I've been exhausted for quite sometime now, and I needed a break. Having recovered from this exhaustion, I am now back at the keyboard.

Anyway, let's tackle this issue on the creation of an additional district in Zamboanga City, which is being pushed by some power-hungry politicians here, invoking the Constitution and the increase of the city's population as basis.

While I respect the opinion of those people who move heaven and earth to create the third district, personally I am skeptical of this proposal. Sorry to say this, but I haven't seen a good reason why we need to create a new district.

We just divided more than a year ago our city in two districts and so far nothing really new as far as development is concerned. Progress is not really felt by the people despite the two congressional districts.

If you look at what's happening in our city, I'll just mention some of them – most barangay and farm to market roads are not improved, no standard terminal for bus, lack of schools in every barangay, short of medicines and health centers.

There are also no investments that will allow graduates to work their field of expertise, and power and water services remain very poor, many people are jobless, and the price of basic commodities is very high. Name it, we have it all here.

So what can we expect from the proposed third district? I don't think so that if nothing will be done now (creation of third district), history will judge the present leaders whether or not they have done something for the benefit of the next generations.

The real rhetoric here is whether or not our present leaders, who have full of promises, have focused on programs and projects that will address the real state of the city and spur economic progress in the two districts.

Our congressmen – Hon. Maria Isabelle Climaco and Hon. Erbie Fabian – are more than enough to represent the people of Zamboanga in Congress, particularly for the inhabitants of their districts and greater economic advancement of the city.

It's not really a matter of quantity of representatives, it's a matter of quality of representatives who can take our city to greater heights and produce something big in Congress that will benefit their constituents.

Look at all the major cities in Mindanao who have many congressional districts, the quality of life is very poor. This only means that if our city creates an additional district, life-quality including income per person goes lower and the city's income divides too etc…

We really have to ask ourselves. Is creating a third district will do good for the city or is it only for those power-hungry politicians, who are just after the pork barrel and concerned about their personal interest than the people's interest?

Have we already felt the progress in the two districts, where there are many socio-economic development programs and other indicators that improve the quality of life of the people? If not then, this is the issue that we have to raise to our present leaders.

Finally, we should be particularly concerned about the fact that power-hungry politicians who want to establish dynasty in the city might be the only beneficiaries of a new district. I hope this factor would be taken into account when consulted on the matter.