NIR steps up transition efforts with issuance of IRR

February 3, 2025

Stakeholders of the Negros Island Region (NIR) are stepping up the transition efforts as the newly-formed administrative region is expected to fully operate on Feb. 19, or 15 days following the publication of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) on Monday.

Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, the outgoing chairman of the Regional Development Council-Western Visayas (RDC-6), said a meeting is being scheduled for all regional directors and officials of national government agencies to discuss the assignment of personnel and the setting up of facilities.

Bacolod Mayor Albee Benitez during Monday’s press conference.* **(APT/NDB photos)**

“Tentative, it’s Feb. 17 but we might want to bring it a bit earlier so that after Feb. 18, we can hit the ground running and we will know what to do,” Benitez said in a press briefing on Monday.

He said that in the timeline suggested by the NIR technical working group (TWG), the composition of the RDC-NIR would be convened by the end of the year, but Negros Oriental 1st District Rep. Jocelyn Limkaichong has requested that it should be done earlier.

“Probably, a week or a few weeks after Feb. 18,” Benitez said.

In June last year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed into law Republic Act 12000 or the NIR Act, creating a new administrative region comprising the provinces of Negros Occidental, including the highly-urbanized Bacolod City, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.

The NIR Act separates Negros Occidental and Bacolod City from Western Visayas (Region 6), and Negros Oriental and Siquijor from Central Visayas (Region 7).

With the signing of the law’s IRR, Benitez reiterated his stand that all national government agencies should have a presence in all the province of the region.

“Whether it’s satellite, virtual or any method that will allow transaction to take place in all the provinces within the NIR,” he said.

Some of the national government agencies that have already established offices in the NIR include the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Agrarian Reform, Commission on Elections, Office of Civil Defense and Philippine Statistics Authority.

In a separate statement, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the establishment of the NIR –with its own Regional Development Council, Regional Technical Working Team, and population of about 4.3 million– is expected to improve the delivery of basic services, accelerate economic growth and drive social development.* (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)