By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga
The Senate is expected to continue hearings on the proposed bill reestablishing the Negros Island Region (NIR) when the session resumes after President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 24.
Negros Occidental 3rd district Congressman Jose Francisco Benitez, one of the authors of the house bill, revealed that Senator JV Ejercito’s committee on local government had already conducted two hearings.
Benitez said he has already talked with Ejercito, with the Senate saying it is already on their agenda.
“We are just waiting for the Senate hearing. Once the Senate opens after the SONA, it’s already in the agenda. He just did not say when,” Benitez said in an interview on Monday afternoon, July 3.
“Since they have conducted two hearings, they probably want to finish it. The filing in the Senate is simpler than filing in the lower House. They will decide which version and how to push it forward,” he added.
In March, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill 7355, or An Act Establishing the NIR.
The bill was forwarded to the Senate, but it slowed down as Negros Oriental has yet to give its official position paper on the proposal.
Prior to his assassination on March 4, Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo opposed NIR reestablishment, citing several reasons, such as Negros Occidental’s “political dominance,” “unequal voting” within the Regional Development Council meetings if the NIR was established, and the “cultural divide” wherein people on the island’s Occidental side speak Hiligaynon while the Oriental side use Cebuano or Bisaya.
However, Degamo did not fully object to reestablishing the region by making a counter-proposal to create another province, a proposal that raised the eyebrows of political leaders from the two provinces.
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson was supposed to talk to Degamo’s successor, Governor Carlo Jorge Joan Reyes, but he too passed away last June 4.
Lacson is set to hold a meeting with Reyes’ successor, Negros Oriental Governor Manuel Sagarbarria, to discuss the NIR bill./DGB, WDJ