2021 Palawan division plebiscite

A House of Representatives bill dividing the province was passed after third reading five months after it was introduced. The Senate then approved the bill three months later. Republic Act No. 11259, dividing the Philippine province of Palawan into three separate provinces, was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on April 5, 2019. The act will only take effect if voters in the province vote in favor of the law in a plebiscite scheduled within 2020.[2]

Republic Act No. 11259 proposes the division of Palawan into three provinces. The following are the proposed component municipalities of the three provinces:[2]

• Palawan del Norte – Busuanga, Coron, Culion, El Nido, and Linapacan, with Taytay as its capital
• Palawan Oriental – Agutaya, Araceli, Cagayancillo, Cuyo, Dumaran, Magsaysay, and San Vicente, with Roxas as its capital
• Palawan del Sur – Aborlan, Balabac, Bataraza, Sofronio Española, Kalayaan, Narra, Quezon, and Rizal, with Brooke's Point as its capital

Upon approval of voters, Palawan del Norte and Palawan Oriental would be created from the northern portion of Palawan. Palawan del Sur, designated as the "mother province", would be the legal successor of the would-be-dissolved Palawan province.[2]

The highly urbanized city of Puerto Princesa, which is not currently under the jurisdiction of the Palawan provincial government and is only statistically and geographically considered part of the province, will continue to be independent of any province. As such, its residents will not participate in the plebiscite; if the division is approved, it would be grouped with the southern province thereafter.[2] However, a petition was filed in Supreme Court, which sought the inclusion of Puerto Princesa residents in the plebiscite.[3] The court unanimously dismissed the petition, ruling that the since Puerto Princesa is a highly urbanized city and is no longer under the jurisdiction of the province, it cannot be one of the "political units directly affected" by the plebiscite.[4]

As per law, the plebiscite for the division of Palawan was originally scheduled on "the second Monday of May 2020" (May 11). However, the plebiscite was suspended on late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5] If a "majority of the votes cast by the voters of the affected areas" voted in favor of the law, the Palawan will be split into three provinces: Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental and Palawan del Sur. It is unclear what the fate of the proposed partition will be if a majority in one of the proposed three provinces rejected the motion in the plebiscite.[2]

There are 490,639 registered voters eligible to participate in the plebiscite.[3]

By mid-May Palawan governor Jose Alvarez said that he expects the plebiscite to be done by July, adding that once the general community quarantine is lifted in Palawan, the Commission on Elections will reschedule it.[6] Commissioner Rowena Guanzon hinted that the plebiscite would not take place until the province is no longer locked down.[7]

On May 15, Mimaropa, including Palawan and Puerto Princesa, was placed in modified general community quarantine, the lowest form of quarantine available.[8] By July 3, the local COMELEC office is awaiting on a memorandum from the main COMELEC office in Manila on when the plebiscite will take place. The provincial information office earlier said that it expects the plebiscite to be done by August, or at least this year.[9]

By July, the commission deferred to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on scheduling when the plebiscite can be held. The IATF recommended the commission to conduct it with minimum exposure of the voters to the coronavirus, provide additional health safety measures, including the addition of new polling precincts to reduce congestion. The groups campaigning against the division pointed out that activities related to the plebiscite involves mass gatherings, and would be against the guidelines imposed by the government.[10]

In October, the task force approved preparations to hold the plebiscite in the first quarter of 2021.[1] The COMELEC in December 2020, approved the conduct of the plebiscite on March 13, 2021. For the purpose of the rescheduled plebiscite, ballots already printed bearing the original plebiscite date will still be valid.[11]

The ballot question is as follows:[11]

In Filipino:

"Pumapayag ka ba na hatiin ang probinsya ng Palawan sa tatlong probinsya na papangalanang: Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental at Palawan del Sur alinsunod sa Batas Republika Bilang 11259?

English translation:

Do you consent to the division of the province of Palawan into three provinces to be named: Palawan del Norte, Palawan Oriental, and Palawan del Sur pursuant to Republic Act No. 11259?

Voters can opt to right "yes" or "oo" if they agree, or "no" or "hindi" if they oppose the measure.[11]