Stakeholders of the Negros Island Region (NIR) are stepping up the transition efforts as the newly-formed administrative region is expected to fully operate on February 19, or 15 days following the publication of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) yesterday.
Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, the outgoing chairman of the Regional Development Council-Western Visayas (RDC-6), said a meeting is being scheduled for all regional directors and officials of national government agencies to discuss the assignment of personnel and the setting up of facilities.
“Tentative, it’s February 17, but we might want to bring it a bit earlier so that after February 18, we can hit the ground running, and we will know what to do,” Benitez said in a press briefing yesterday.
He said that in the timeline suggested by the NIR technical working group (TWG), the composition of the RDC-NIR would be convened by the end of the year, but Negros Oriental 1st District Representative Jocelyn Limkaichong has requested that it should be done earlier.
“Probably, a week or a few weeks after February 18,” Benitez said.
In June last year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed into law Republic Act 12000 or the NIR Act, creating a new administrative region comprising the provinces of Negros Occidental, including the highly-urbanized Bacolod City, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
The NIR Act separates Negros Occidental and Bacolod City from Western Visayas (Region 6), and Negros Oriental and Siquijor from Central Visayas (Region 7).
With the signing of the law’s IRR, Benitez reiterated his stand that all national government agencies should have a presence in all the provinces of the region.
“Whether it’s satellite, virtual or any method that will allow transactions to take place in all the provinces within the NIR,” he said.
Some of the national government agencies that have already established offices in the NIR include the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Agrarian Reform, Commission on Elections, Office of Civil Defense, and the Philippine Statistics Authority.
In a separate statement, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said the establishment of the NIR — with its own Regional Development Council, Regional Technical Working Team, and population of about 4.3 million — is expected to improve the delivery of basic services, accelerate economic growth and drive social development. (PNA)