• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Diocese of Dumaguete, which issued an appeal to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to veto Senate Bill 2507 that seeks to create the Negros Island Region (NIR), has claimed that such legislation violates the 1987 Constitution.
The President announced during his visit to Bacolod City last month that he will sign the NIR bill into law.
In a letter dated March 25 signed by the Dumaguete Bishop Julito Cortes and other Catholic church officials, the Diocese of Dumaguete appealed to the President to veto the bill for the NIR creation, citing the lack of information dissemination and the absence of public consultation with diverse sectors and stakeholders.
In his second letter addressed to Marcos dated April 29, Cortes said that the issues implicated by the creation of the NIR have two layers, which involve constitutional issues as well as economic and other non-constitutional issues.
“The constitutional issues are threshold issues, which must be overcome before even considering the second-layer issues,” he added.
Cortes said that the creation of the NIR violates Section 10, Article X of the 1987 Constitution.
It states that “No province, city, municipality or barangay maybe created, divided, merged, abolished, or its boundary substantially altered, except in accordance with the criteria established in the Local Government Code, and subject to approval by majority of the votes cast in a plebiscite in the political units directly affected.”
The proposed NIR is composed of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and island-province of Siquijor.
“Assuming for the sake of argument that the NIR is constitutional, the NIR idea should be rejected for being ill-conceived, due to lack of feasibility study, for being unnecessary,” Cortes said.
He said that there was no notice of invitation to participate in the congressional or Senate hearing regarding the NIR creation, which also violates the elements of due process.
“Due to formidable constitutional and non-constitutional concerns, and the lack of feasibility studies on the necessity and viability of removing Negros Oriental and Siquijor as well as Negros Occidental from their respective regions, and putting them in one region of different languages, cultural, traditions and histories, we recommend to Your Excellency to veto the NIR, and return it to Congress for further study, consistent with the requirements of the Constitution,” Cortes said. | GB
