SC junks Noynoy petition vs new CamSur district

BAGUIO CITY – The Supreme Court on Tuesday junked the petition filed by presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III (Liberal Party) seeking to declare as invalid the recent law creating another congressional district in Camarines Sur province. The Court en banc ruled that laws such as Republic Act 9716 enjoys the “presumption of constitutionality, unless there is a clear showing that it violated the Constitution." RA 9716, approved October 12 last year, reapportions the province’s first and second legislative districts to create another district. Aquino, chairman of the Senate committee on local government, said the law was passed to accommodate presidential son Diosdado “Dato" Arroyo, who is eyeing a congressional seat in the reconfigured first district of the province in the May 10 elections. No constitutional provision Voting 9-5 with one justice on leave, the high court said there is no specific constitutional provision that states that a legislative district must have a 250,000 minimum population. “The Constitution requires 250,000 only for a city to be entitled to a representative, but not for a province," said SC spokesman Midas Marquez, citing Section 5(3), Article 6 of the Constitution, in explaining the decision. The decision was penned by Associate Justice Jose Perez and was concurred in by Associate Justices Renato Corona, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Antonio Eduardo Nachura, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano Del Castillo and Jose Catral-Mendoza, Dissenting were Chief Justice Reynato Puno, Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Arturo Brion, and Martin Villarama. Associate Justice Roberto Abad was on leave. Carpio said a population of 250,000 serves as default minimum population, following the rule on uniformity in the apportionment of legislative districts. Unconstitutional In seeking the issuance of a temporary restraining order, Aquino sought to enjoin the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing RA 9716 for being unconstitutional. Aquino said the law was passed to avoid a contest between Arroyo and Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, who is eyeing to regain his congressional seat in the province’s first district, a position Arroyo now holds. “There are political considerations. The potential fight between two of their [administration party] stalwarts is avoided because the district that they will both contest has suddenly been split into two," Aquino said. Andaya was previously the congressman in the first district before he was tapped by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to join the Cabinet allegedly so that her son could take over. - KBK, GMANews.TV