Zubiri files bill to revive Negros Island Region

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri filed Senate Bill No. 2453, or the Negros Island Region Act, Wednesday.

In a press release, Zubiri said the bill seeks to bring together Negros Occidental Negros Oriental, and Bacolod City and establish a single administrative region called the Negros Island Administrative Region.

“The establishment of the Negros Island Region in 2015 was a long-awaited victory for Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental. Negrenses have been lobbying for the NIR as far back as the eighties, so its abolishment in 2017 was a blow. Sana nabigyan ng chance ang NIR,” he added.

Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental currently belong to two different administrative regions – Region VI and VII, respectively.

The provinces’ considerable distance from their regional centers (Iloilo, for Occidental; 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 Negros Island Region, in aim of “[accelerating] social and economic development and [improving] the delivery of public services in the aforementioned provinces.”

In October 2016, however, the executive remarked that the NIR was too costly and was not a priority for the government.

Following this, Zubiri filed Senate Resolution No. 203, in support of the continued recognition of the NIR.

By 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte would go on to sign Executive Order 38, formally abolishing the 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. 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.”