Negros Occidental Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday said, before addressing the proposed Negrosanon Federated Region (NFR), President Rodrigo Duterte needs the Consultative Committee final draft.

“This is what the [Consultative Committee] told Negros officials last Friday,” he said. “They have not even finished the first draft.”

Last Friday, Arthur Aguilar, the lone Negrense Consultative Committee member, said during a closed-door meeting, the president told them to “take care of federalization, study the Constitution, and come out with the recommendations.”

Aguilar, along with five other committee members, held a consultation with officials from the two Negros provinces last Friday on the proposed shift to federalism and the NFR. He noted, “Negros is a country by our own and we are one of the few islands that could be independent.”

With regard to the president approving a Negros state, the committee member affirmed, “He will see the light.”

“When [Duterte] was at the point of [deciding to dissolve the Negros Island Region (NIR)], I think, he was given information which was not exactly accurate,” Aguilar explained. “If you [have] a public statement from anybody saying that it’s too expensive to put the two provinces together, please, challenge them.”

The proposed NFR would replace NIR, which was earlier abolished by Duterte over budget concerns./DGB, WDJ