NegOr governor wants province to stay with Region 7

Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo said he prefers his province to stay with Region 7 “due to cultural differences” with Negros Occidental.

This despite the fresh moves in Congress to revive the Negros Island Region (NIR) with the possibility of including Siquijor.

Degamo, during the 4th Regional Development Council-Central Visayas (RDC-7) Full Council Meeting held in Cebu City on Tuesday, Dec. 6, said he sees “no problem with Negros Oriental continuing to be part of Central Visayas region. There is no issue with that.”

The governor, who attended the meeting virtually, cited cultural differences between Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental.

He said Negros Oriental would rather prefer with Cebuano-speaking people of Bohol, Cebu and Siquijor provinces.

“It should not be done in a hastily manner because there are a lot of issues that we are going to take here. For example, the cultural differences between Ilonggos and Bisaya (Cebuano-speaking),” Degamo pointed out.

He said there will also be a problem on where to put the regional offices of the various government agencies should NIR be created.

“So as governor of Negros Oriental, I believe it must be done properly. There are a lot of pros and cons in the creation of NIR,” he also said.

Occidental

His counterpart, Negros Occidental Eugenio Jose Lacson today said the latest pronouncement of Degamo “is not good news.”

“We have already senators who pushed for NIR. We will continue to support that stand,” Lacson said.

Asked if the provincial government will reach out to Degamo to convince him to support NIR like what the late Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. did, Lacson said, “we can do that and find out what changed his mind.”

Rep. Mercedes Alvarez-Lansang (6th district) said the provincial government of Negros Oriental has not submitted yet its position paper requested by the House Committee on Local Government Technical Working Group.

“The Committee has sent him requests in October and November but until now he has not submitted his position paper,” she said.

Alvarez-Lansang, co-chairman of the TWG tasked to consolidate all proposed NIR bills, added that all the three congressmen in Negros Oriental are co-authors of the bills seeking the revival of NIR.

That’s basically all the congressmen in Negros island, she said

Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, Senate Committee on Local Government chairman, on Monday said that they approved five bills seeking to establish the NIR, which will include the provinces of Negros Occidental and Oriental.

Several bills filed by the representatives of Negros Island and Siquijor seeking the creation of the NIR are also pending before the House Committee on Local Government.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, author of one of the bills filed on the NIR, said they “want to bring the government closer to the people.”

In 2015, President Benigno Aquino III issued Executive Order No. 183 creating the NIR that effectively brought government services closer to the residents of Negros island.

However, in 2017 the NIR was abolished by President Rodrigo Duterte who deemed it too costly an undertaking, Zubiri said.

“I don’t think it’s going to cost us more to revive the NIR,” he said.

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said while the legislators push for the passage of a law creating the NIR, he is hoping that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the meantime issues an executive order to hasten bringing national government agencies’ services closer to the people of Negros.* (Eugene Y. Adiong)