Nine Negros solons are pushing for the restoration of the Negros Island Region, and filed yesterday House Bill No. 10534 that seeks to unify Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental into one region.
HB 10534, filed by 3rd District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez and eight other Negros lawmakers, is aimed at creating the NIR for greater economic coordination and more efficient delivery of public service to promote sustainable and inclusive economic development in Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.
Consolidating the two Negros provinces into one administrative region will ensure greater economic coordination and more efficient delivery of public service that will promote sustainable and inclusive economic development, Benitez said.
Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental currently belong to two different regions – VI and VII, respectively. The provinces’ considerable distance from their regional centers (Iloilo, for Occidental; Cebu for Oriental) has long made government service largely inaccessible to many Negrenses.
Last week, Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri filed Senate Bill No. 2453, or the NIR Act, which seeks to bring together Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Bacolod City into a single region called the Negros Island Administrative Region.
“We need to make this a law so that whatever administration we are under, the Negros Island Region will stay,” Zubiri said.
The NIR, which was created through an executive order issued in 2015 by the late president Benigno “NoyNoy” Aquino III, was abolished by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017, to the dismay of Negrenses.
Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, who are running for president in the May 2022 elections, have aired their support to the restoration of the NIR during their visits to Negros Occidental recently. – GB
