1965 Samar division plebiscite

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1965 Samar division plebiscite
OutcomeProposal accepted
Results
Choice
Votes %
Check-71-128-204-brightblue.svgYes135,25989.42%
Light brown x.svgNo16,00210.58%
Total votes151,261100.00%

The 1965 Samar division plebiscite was a plebiscite held in the province of Samar on November 9, 1965. As required by Republic Act No. 4221 approved on June 19, 1965, the plebiscite was conducted to consent the voters of Samar on the proposal to divide the province into three separate provinces: Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Western Samar. [1] The plebiscite was held concurrently with the 1965 Philippine general election and the results were announced on February 15, 1966. The law was ratified to formalize the division. [2]

Contents

Background

Samar was established as a distinct province in 1768 after it was separated from Leyte. A previous division between Samar and Leyte occurred in 1747 but was reversed in 1762 due to Jesuit complaints, with final approval coming from the King of Spain. In 1777, Samar and Leyte were split for the last time when it was approved in Madrid in 1786 and became effective in 1799; Queen Isabella II of Spain later officially declared Samar as a province in 1841. Samar remained officially undivided since then.

A law was authored in the Congress of the Philippines to split the province into three: Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Western Samar. Republic Act No. 4221 was passed on June 19, 1965, for such purpose, during the term of President Diosdado Macapagal. The following are the then-proposed divisions of the three provinces: [1]

Section 9 of the law states that, upon the establishment of the new provinces, the obligations, funds, assets, and other properties of the old province of Samar shall be distributed equally among the three new provinces, to be carried out by the President of the Philippines based on the recommendation of the Auditor General.

Results

From a total of 151,261 votes that were cast in the plebiscite, 135,259 votes or 89.42 percent of the total votes cast were for the division of the province of Samar into the provinces of Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, and Western Samar. [2]

ChoiceVotes%
For135,25989.42
Against16,00210.58
Total151,261100.00
Source: Government Printing Office [2]

Aftermath

The provisions of Republic Act No. 4221 went into effect following the election of the first local officials of the new provinces on November 14, 1967. [2] However, the last governor of undivided Samar, Esteban Piczon, had continued as the first governor of Western Samar from 1965 to 1967, while incumbent Samar representatives—Eladio Balite (1st district), Fernando Veloso (2nd district) and Felipe Abrigo (3rd district)—had already been re-elected for the newly created lone districts of Northern, Western, and Eastern Samar, respectively, concurrently with the 1965 plebiscite ahead of the 6th Congress. [3] Calbayog, having been part of Samar's 1st district along with the present-day towns of Northern Samar, became part of Western Samar's lone district. [1]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eastern Samar's at-large congressional district</span> Legislative district of the Philippines

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Northern Samar's at-large congressional district was a short-lived congressional district that encompassed the entire province of Northern Samar in the Philippines. It was represented in the House of Representatives from 1965 to 1972 and in the Batasang Pambansa from 1984 to 1986. The province of Northern Samar was created as a result of the partition of Samar in 1965 and elected its first representative provincewide at-large during that year's House elections. Before 1965, the territory of Northern Samar comprised most of Samar's 1st congressional district whose representative during the partition, Eladio T. Balite, also served as the new province's first representative. A special election was held two years later in 1967 concurrent with that year's Senate election following Balite's death, with the province electing Eusebio Moore to serve his remaining term in the 6th Congress.

Samar's at-large congressional district was the provincewide electoral district for Philippine national legislatures in both the undivided province of Samar before its 1965 partition and the western third that adopted its name which was created as a result of that division from 1965 to 1986.

Five special elections to the House of Representatives of the Philippines, the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines, were held on November 14, 1967, along with the 1967 Philippine Senate election and the 1967 Philippine constitutional plebiscite. These were for vacancies in the 6th Congress of the Philippines; the winners were to serve the rest of the term, which had ended on December 30, 1969. Political parties were allowed to field multiple candidates per district; the Nacionalista Party won in all districts.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Republic Act No. 4221 (June 19, 1965), "An Act Creating the Provinces of Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Western Samar", Chan Robles Virtual Law Library
  2. 1 2 3 4 Report of the Commission on Elections to the President of the Philippines and the Congress on the Manner the Elections Were Held on November 9, 1965. Manila, Philippines: Bureau of Printing. 1967.
  3. "Roster of Philippine Legislators (from 1907 to 2019)" . Retrieved October 19, 2024.