By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo proposed the creation of a new province as a “counter-proposal” before agreeing to support the reestablishment of the Negros Island Region (NIR).
Degamo met with Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson in Dumaguete City on Wednesday morning, February 1, with the latter hoping to convince Degamo to support the NIR revival.
Under his proposal, Degamo wants Negros Oriental’s Vallehermoso town, and Negros Occidental’s cities of San Carlos, Escalante, and Sagay, and the towns of Calatrava and Toboso to form a new province.
The said local government units are all located at the extreme northern portion of the island.
The proposal is meant to address what he calls unequal voting within Regional Development Council (RDC) meetings if the NIR is established.
Another reason behind the proposal is the “cultural barrier,” wherein most of the people in Negros Occidental speak Hiligaynon, while residents of the Oriental side use the Cebuano or Bisaya language.
Meanwhile, in an interview yesterday, Lacson said he specifically went to visit Degamo to hear why he is currently opposing the NIR.
Lacson said the language and cultural barriers between the two provinces are small matters and can be addressed easily.
“Ang iya gid ya punto that he has brought up is equal footing, because the Negros Occidental is the dominant province, and since we are the bigger province, they [Negros Oriental] will always get out voted,” Lacson said.
Degamo did not really outright reject re-establishing the NIR, Lacson added.
However, the Negros Occidental governor said he wants to address the issue of equal footing as he doesn’t want Negros Oriental and even Siquijor to be overpowered due to his province’s dominance.
“We are here to assure that we will help all provinces under the new region, so ang equal footing na lang ang i-address ta,” Lacson said.
Lacson further stated that even the issue involving the RDC chairmanships could also be addressed easily, with Negros Oriental getting the chairmanship term first, followed by Siquijor and Negros Occidental.
“How do we assure him? Again, we just have to continue talking to him [Degamo],” Lacson said.
He added he will hold talks with Degamo again in the next couple of weeks to further discuss the NIR issue.
The substitute bill seeking the NIR reestablishment would include Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
Its counterpart, Senate Bill 1236 already hurdled the Committee on Local Government in December of last year.
NIR was established through an executive order issued by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2015.
However, it was dissolved by his successor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, in 2017 due to the high cost of maintaining the region./DGB, WDJ