Senate Majority Floor Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri filed Wednesday, Nov. 17, Senate Bill No. 2453, or the Negros Island Region Act, that seeks to bring together Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Bacolod City into a single administrative region called the Negros Island Administrative Region.
Zubiri said that the establishment of the Negros Island Region in 2015 was a long-awaited victory for Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, whose residents have been lobbying for the NIR since the 80s.
“So its abolishment in 2017 was a blow. Sana nabigyan ng chance ang NIR,” the senator, who traces his roots to Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental, added.
Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental currently belong to two different regions – Region VI and VII, respectively. The provinces’ considerable distance from their regional centers – Iloilo, for Occidental, and Cebu, for Oriental – has long made government services largely inaccessible to many Negrenses.
In May 2015, former President Benigno Aquino III signed Executive Order 183, allowing for the creation of the NIR to accelerate social and economic development and improve the delivery of public services in the two provinces, Zubiri said.
In October 2016, however, the executive branch of government noted that the NIR was too costly and was not a priority for the government.
Following this, Zubiri filed Senate Resolution No. 203 to support the continued recognition of the NIR. But by 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte would go on to sign EO 38, formally abolishing the new region.
“I was visiting Negros recently—it’s where my dad was born, actually—and the number one concern there is the reestablishment of the NIR,” Zubiri said. “Everyone was really looking forward to the development of the region, and to have the earlier EO revoked that quickly was demoralizing, to say the least. We need to make this a law so that whatever administration we are under, the NIR will stay,” Zubiri said.
“Yes, the NIR will entail additional cost on the part of the national government but it’s worth the investment. In the long term, it would be more economical and efficient having the two provinces under one administrative region. Our people in Negros deserve accessible government services,” he added. –GB
