DBM position paper on NIR crucial

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – The position paper of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is crucial in the crafting of a law establishing the Negros Island Region (NIR).

Rep. Mercedes Alvarez- Lansang (6th District, Neg. Occ.) said the DBM has a crucial role in the creation of NIR, especially in relation to budget issues.

Alvarez, co-chair of the Technical Working Group in the deliberation of proposed NIR bills by the House committee on Local Government, yesterday said they are still waiting for the position paper of the DBM on the proposed revival of the NIR.

The NIR, which was created through an executive order issued by the late President Benigno Aquino III, was abolished in 2017 by his successor, Rodrigo Duterte, citing budget constraints.

Earlier, former Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, currently the Finance secretary, opposed NIR, stressing that the P19 billion proposed budget was too costly for the government.

“We have to wait for the position paper, especially that of DBM since nothing will happen to the separate region, or sub-region proposals if there is no budget,” Alvarez said.

Nine Negros Island representatives filed a bill seeking the creation of an expanded Negros Island Region (NIR) before the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

House Bill 1446 seeks to create Region 6-B composed of the provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor.

It can be recalled that nine Negros Island representatives filed a bill seeking the creation of an expanded Negros Island Region (NIR) before the House of Representatives last July when the 18th Congress convened.

Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri also filed a bill seeking the creation of the NIR composed of Negros Occidental and Oriental.

The expanded NIR bill in the Lower House was introduced by Rep. Francisco Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District), Joseph Stephen Paduano (Abang Lingkod), Gerardo Valmayor Jr. (Neg. Occ., 1st District), Emilio Bernardino Yulo (Neg. Occ., 5th District), Mercedes Alvarez (Neg. Occ., 6th District), Greg Gasataya (Bacolod), Jocelyn Sy-Limkaichong (Neg. Oriental., 1st District), Manuel Sagarbarria (Neg. Or., 2nd District) and Arnolfo Teves Jr. (Neg. Or., 3rd District).

“The dream of consolidating the two Negros provinces – Oriental and Occidental – in one administrative region, however, continues to live on – an aspiration that is deeply grounded in their histories,” they said.

“For 300 years under the Spanish colonial government, Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental were governed as a single province. It was only in 1890 that Negros was divided into two provinces,” the proponents said.