BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Senators are expected to resume the hearing on the proposed Negros Island Region (NIR) bill after the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on July 24.
Negros Occidental 3rd District’s Cong. Jose Francisco Benitez, one of the authors of the House bill, revealed that Sen. JV Ejercito’s committee on local government already held two hearings.
Benitez said Ejercito confirmed to him that the NIR bill is already on the agenda.
“They probably want to finish it. The filing in the Senate is simpler than the filing in the Lower House. They will decide which version and how to push it forward,” he pointed out.
In March, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 7355, or An Act Establishing the NIR.
The bill was then forwarded to the Senate, although it slowed down as Negros Oriental has yet to give its official paper regarding the proposal.
Prior to his assassination, then Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo opposed the reestablishment of the region citing Negros Occidental’s “political dominance”, “unequal voting” within the Regional Development Council (RDC) meetings if the NIR will be established, and the “cultural divide” wherein people on the Occidental side of the island speak Hiligaynon while those on the Oriental side use Cebuano or Bisaya.
Although opposed, Degamo did not fully object to reestablishing the region by making a counter-proposal to create another province, that raised the eyebrows of politicians from both Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.
Negros Occidental’s Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson was supposed to talk to Degamo’s successor, governor Carlo Jorge Joan Reyes, but he, too, passed away on June 4, 2023 due to an illness.
It is currently unclear as to when will Lacson hold a meeting with Reyes’ successor, Gov. Manuel Sagarbarria, to discuss the NIR’s reestablishment./PN
