The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is aiming to form a synergy between Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor as it transitions to establishing an office for the Negros Island Region (NIR).
“Our challenge is to create a synergy between Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor,” NEDA-NIR concurrent officer-in-charge Regional Director Arecio Casing, Jr. said during the opening of the agency’s temporary office at the Carlos Hilado Memorial State University (CHMSU) Alijis Campus in Bacolod City on Thursday, February 6.
Casing, who is also the regional director of NEDA-Western Visayas (Region 6), said the NIR transition team faces the challenge of regaining the economic development that was reduced to half after Negros Occidental left Region 6 to become part of the new administrative region.
In an interview yesterday, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, the outgoing chairman of the Regional Development Council-6, said the planning and policy-making body is scheduled to meet with the NEDA-6, together with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., on February 13.
“Since NIR is not yet official and the agencies are still led by officers-in-charge, a regional meeting is being called. After that, I said why don’t we have another meeting with the President, this time to focus on the NIR,” Benitez added.
On June 13, 2024, Marcos 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, and Negros Oriental and Siquijor from Central Visayas (Region 7).
Casing said that while Central Visayas “still stands as a robust regional economy, he hopes to draw the spillover growth of the region to NIR.”
As it is, Negros Occidental has a larger economy compared to the other provinces in the NIR.
To utilize the space at the NIR regional office in CHMSU, Casing signed a usufruct agreement with CHMSU president Norberto Mangulabnan, in the presence of NEDA Undersecretary Carlos Bernardo Abad Santos and Central Visayas Regional Director Jennifer Bretaña, and CHMSU Vice President for Administration and Finance Rosalinda Tuvilla.
“We have to help each other in one way or another, especially now that we have a new region. We welcome NEDA to our humble school. Treat this place as your new home in NIR,” Mangulabnan said.
In response, Abad Santos thanked the CHMSU officials for supporting the agency’s transition efforts.
“This generous gesture of CHMSU shows how important the partnership between government and academe in the initial stages of administering and operating the different regional offices of line agencies,” he added. (PNA)