Only the Supreme Court (SC) can decide whether to allow the Negros Island Region to begin operations or not, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
Lacson was reacting to six Negros Oriental and Siquijor residents having filed a petition before the SC on Friday, August 30, to halt the implementation of Republic Act 12000 or the Negros Island Region Act, and to declare it unconstitutional.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the NIR Act, which unifies the provinces of Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor into one administrative region, on June 13.
“This is a free country anybody can file a petition before the Supreme Court. It will be up to the SC how to treat that petition,” Lacson said.
The petition to halt the NIR was filed versus the Republic of the Philippines through the Office of the Solicitor General by petitioners Fr. Hendrix C. Alar, Dr. Maria Lina R. Eparwa, Engr. Wilfredo L. Magallano and lawyers Marcelino C. Maxino, Jose Imaculado L. Palmitos, and Grace A. Sumalpong.
“Maybe they feel Oriental and Siquijor are aggrieved but many more are saying NIR is good for the three provinces,” Lacson said.
Lacson pointed out that the officials of Siquijor and Negros Oriental support the creation of the NIR.
The authors of the NIR in the Senate and House of Representatives have also maintained that its creation in constitutional.*