• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The creation of the Negros Island Region (NIR), which will be composed of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor, is “very advantageous” to the fifth district of Negros Occidental, Rep. Emilio Bernardino Yulo said on Saturday .
Yulo is one of the co-authors of NIR the bill, which is due for signing into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
He said the fifth district, comprised of the municipalities of Moises Padilla, La Castellana, Isabela, Hinigaran and Binalbagan as well as Himamaylan City, have direct borders with the towns and cities of Negros Oriental.
“We have various portals to the other side of the island,” Yulo said, noting the traditional La Castellana-Canlaon City road and Isabela-Luz Sikatuna road leading to Guihulngan City and the Himamaylan City access road to Tayasan town.
In a press briefing in Hinigaran, after the distribution of AKAP financial aid to 2,150 fisherfolk, Yulo said that new roads have also been opened in Barangay Macagahay, Moises Padilla going to Barangay Trinidad in Guihulngan City and another in Sitio Amontay in Binalbagan going to La Libertad town.
“All local government units (LGUs) in the fifth district, except for Hinigaran, will have roads leading to Negros Oriental,” the lawmaker said.
Yulo recently led the “motor turismo” from Himamaylan City, passing all the LGUs in his area of jurisdictionand crossing to Guihulngan City, Vallehermoso and Canlaon City in Negros Oriental, to promote tourism in the fifth district.
He welcomed the suggestion of Dumaguete City Mayor Felipe Remollo to build a mountain highway from Bayawan City, Negros Oriental in the south to Cadiz City, Negros Occidental in the north.
“We already have concrete roads in the mountain areas of the district that will easily connect to a highway if that suggestion materializes,” Yulo said.
He pointed out that under the NIR, the development will now be centered in boundaries “that is why we are exerting extra efforts to visit mountain barangays to ensure government presence in those areas.”
“With roads there is development, with development there is progress and with progress, it will buy us peace. There is nothing more important than the politics if the stomach,” he added. | GB
