PRESIDENTIAL Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino said that Negros Island Region (NIR) may be dissolved considering that the present administration is pushing for a shift towards a federal form of government.
Dino, in a press statement released Sunday, said that “the fate of the Negros Island Region is still being discussed at the national level.”
“It looks like NIR will be superseded by federalism. The likelihood of it being abolished is there,” he added.
“In my conversation with (House) Speaker (Pantaleon) Alvarez he said there is no budget for NIR in the 2017 GAA (General Appropriations Act) and even in the 2016 budget,” he said.
Dino, in an interview with Cebu reporters on Saturday, also said there is a very big chance the NIR will be abolished due to budgetary constraints.
The NIR was created through executive order signed by former president Benigno Aquino III on May 29, 2015. It separated Negros Occidental from Western Visayas, or Region 6, and Negros Oriental from Central Visayas, or Region 7.
The proposed P42-billion budget for the new region is not included in the national appropriations next year. Both Negros provinces will source their funding for 2017 from the respective budgets of their previous regions.
The creation of the NIR was endorsed by former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, whose presidential bid in the May 9 elections was supported by majority of the Negrense officials.
Earlier, Alvarez said that NIR has to adopt poorer provinces when it becomes a federal state so these poor provinces will also develop.
Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., who’s in favor of federalism, said he is okay with NIR adopting poorer provinces, like Siquijor and Guimaras, when it becomes a federal state, as long as Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental will not be separated.
Lawmakers to appeal budget
The 10 lawmakers from NIR will write Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to appeal for the inclusion of the NIR budget in the proposed 2017 national budget, said Negros Occidental Provincial Planning and Development Officer Ma. Lina Sanogal.
She said the draft of the letter was presented to her, adding that they will also question the non-inclusion of NIR budget in the national appropriation next year.
Sanogal said the letter could be timely because the Congress is now deliberating the 2017 proposed budget.
“If it could not be included in the budget at least a supplemental budget could be passed later for NIR,” Sanogal said, adding that they have submitted the budget proposal and the accomplishments of the regional offices.
There are seven lawmakers from Negros Occidental and three from Negros Oriental.
Sanogal said that Negros Oriental First District Representative Jocelyn Limkaichong pledged to bring up the matter with the Visayan bloc in Congress to urge them to support and lobby for the restoration of the NIR budget.
Moreover, lawmakers in NIR also pledged to work out a law for Negros Island.
Negative reactions
Meanwhile, the statement of Dino drew negative reactions from some Negrenses.
Manila-based Negrense Mark Will Magallanes said: “As a Negrense, I was raised to the fact that Negros Island Region is a necessary measure in order to achieve full economic development in the island. I came to appreciate its merits more when I studied and worked in Manila. I was one of the offshore Negrenses who campaigned for its creation.”
Bacolod doctor Dominic Alojado said he is not favor of NIR’s dissolution since it has many benefits.
“Since the move is into a federal form, Negros Island's existence is the ‘trial’ or the ‘experimental petri dish’ of future federal states of the Philippines as to how it would exist separate from a central administrative government,” he said.
Alvin Ballares of Bacolod City said he is disappointed should the move will push through because “hardwork and sacrifices have been made for the creation of NIR.”
“I was very happy when former president Aquino signed the executive order for NIR. Such a waste of money and effort if NIR will be dissolved,” he added.
Christopher Riego of Dumaguete City said he is “pissed” because NIR “was supposedly created to address the concerns that the Metro Cebu and Iloilo didn't allocate enough funds to progress the provincial cities (in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental).”
He added: “I cry foul here because the order was already executed, so they should have already been planning for it.”
Bacolod resident Ed Alunan said: “I am for the creation of the NIR unless there are convincing reasons to dissolve it.”