BACOLOD City – A unified Negros Island region is included in the list of regional states that the Consultative Committee made to review the Constitution approved.
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) assistant secretary Jonathan Malaya, the Consultative Committee’s spokesman, confirmed this yesterday in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental where the federalism roadshow kicked off.
Malaya said the proposed 18 regional states will be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte.
“If he (Duterte) approves it, he will submit it to Congress,” added Malaya, answering Isabela, Negros Occidental mayor Joselito Malabor’s question.
Malaya said the “Negros Federal Region” will not require local agencies to report to the national government, like other regional states.
During the sectoral consultation, Malaya stressed that they are “bringing [the federal shift proposal] to the people in the grassroots to get their opinion.”
“Their inputs will be included in the ongoing drafting of amendments to the 1987 Constitution. The final stage is for it to be submitted to the people in a plebiscite. We need the people’s support on this,” the DILG official said./PN
