By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
Another Negros Occidental lawmaker said the reestablishment of the Negros Island Region (NIR) would come first before any talks could be made about the proposed third province in Negros, as opposed to Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo’s counter-proposal.
According to 5th district congressman Emilio Yulo III, who had just returned from an official trip to Brazil for the 1st Brazil-Philippines Technical Cooperation on Sugarcane Supply Chain Initiative, said the most important matter at the moment is to make things easy, pointing out the creation of a new province is a highly complicated process.
“Pwede man na sya sa ulihi ma-harmonize, but let us first [concentrate] on the creation of the NIR,” Yulo said.
When asked if Degamo’s counter-proposal was acceptable, Yulo said the creation of a new province must undergo a legislative process under the local government code, as well as comply with the mandatory requirements for land, income and population.
Earlier, Negros Occidental 4th district congresswoman Juliet Marie Ferrer bucked Degamo’s counter-proposal, pointing out the creation of another province in Negros would require a long legislative process and eventually a plebiscite, which is costly.
Ferrer’s statement is also in tandem with a comment by Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Benitez, who pointed out last week, that he would prefer to listen to Degamo’s fair representation rather than agreeing to his counter-proposal.
“It is not necessary and, in fact, divisive. The people of Negros Occidental have been living harmoniously despite the different dialects, so there is no reason to make a division based on their dialects now,” she said.
She said the creation of laws, including NIR, is constitutionally vested in Congress, which has the legislative power.
In a meeting last week in Dumaguete City, Degamo made a counter-proposal to Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson to create a third province in Negros, stretching from Negros Oriental’s Vallehermoso town to Negros Occidental’s cities of San Carlos and Sagay.
Degamo’s proposal is meant to address what he calls “unequal voting” within Regional Development Council meetings if the NIR is established.
Degamo also reasoned that there is a “cultural barrier.”
Lacson said, following their last week’s meeting, Degamo’s point was to address “equal footing,” wherein Negros Occidental is the dominant province, and he was concerned that they would always get outvoted.
The Negros Island Region Act of 2022, or Senate Bill 1236, already hurdled the committee on local government in December of last year.
The NIR was first established through an executive order issued by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2015.
However, it was dissolved two years later by his successor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, due to the high cost of maintaining the region./DGB, WDJ