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[av_heading heading=’Negros Island Region unconstitutional?’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Monday, March 6, 2017
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BACOLOD City – First, it was the alleged lack of funds. Now, it’s about the Negros Island Region’s (NIR) constitutionality.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has found a new reason for the abolition of the new Negros region. In a radio interview, Secretary Benjamin Diokno claimed it was established unconstitutionally.
Last year, Diokno said there was no budget for the NIR.
Negros Occidental’s Gov. Alfredo Maranon Jr. said he respected Diokno’s latest pronouncement but dismissed it.
No President will sign an executive order creating a new region without legal basis, he stressed.
NIR was established via an executive order signed by then President Benigno Aquino III in early 2016.
Marañon insisted the Palace’s research and legal staff exercised due diligence in NIR’s creation.
“In the same manner, we in Negros Island went through processes that included island-wide consultations,” the governor added.
He further said: “So that we all get a clearer perspective, maybe we must revisit how the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the Cordillera Autonomous Region were created…how the Caraga and the Mimaropa regions were established.”
NIR is an administrative region, not an autonomous region, Marañon stressed.
“We thought all along that budgetary constraints were the primary basis of (Diokno’s) opposition to the NIR. Now he is citing its (un)constitutionality,” he lamented.
The governor urged Negrenses to continue supporting the NIR.
“Prayer that our President Rodrigo Duterte and majority of his Cabinet will have a better appreciation of the NIR,” he said./PN
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