The creation of one regional center for the Negros Island Region is not being planned, but satellite offices in NIR’s three provinces are in the pipeline, Rep. Emilio Yulo III (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said on Monday, August 12.
Yulo said the NIR law specifically assigns the regional offices to Negros Occidental and Oriental, it does not call for a single regional center.
The creation of a single regional center at the border of Kabankalan and Mabinay as suggested by some would require an amendment to the law, he said.
The NIR is composed of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
What has been recommended and included in the NIR implementing rules and regulations is that satellite offices can be established in the provinces where regional offices are not located, Yulo said.
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said at a meeting of the Committee on Visayas Development at the House of Representatives, the Siquijor representative asked why no regional office was assigned to his province.
Benitez said he asked that a provision in the IRR be provided that all provinces where regional offices are not located must have satellite offices.
That way residents will not have to go to where the regional offices are but can do business at the satellite offices in their provinces, he said.
That is the fair arrangement, he said.
Benitez also said the Department of Budget and Management will create guidelines on how to carve out resources from regions 6 and 7 for the NIR operations.
The IRR for the new region is set to be signed in Siquijor this month.
Copies of the IRR final draft will be furnished to NIR officials and line agencies for final comment before the signing, Yulo said.*