Mayor Felipe Remollo on Thursday, May 9, said Dumaguete City is ready for the Negros Island Region and hopes President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will sign the bill creating it into law before May 20.
The President is scheduled to visit Dumaguete City on May 20 for the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Awards to agrarian reform beneficiaries, Remollo said.
He is 90 percent sure the president will sign the law creating the NIR, which will be composed of Negros Oriental, Siquijor and Negros Occidental, Remollo said.
Remollo said Dumaguete City is prepared to allocate land for free for the NIR regional offices.
Contrary to the claim of the Diocese of Dumaguete consultations were conducted on the creation of the NIR for a long time, the mayor said.
In fact during the brief implementation of the NIR it was doing well, he said.
The NIR created by virtue of an executive order issued by then President Benigno Aquino III existed from May 29, 2015 to August 9, 2017, when the EO was repealed by then President Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte repealed the NIR without consultation, Remollo said.
“It is the clamor of the people here to push for the development of Negros Oriental” with the NIR, Remollo said, pointing out that half of its regional offices would be located in Dumaguete and the other half in Bacolod.
Remollo also said cultural differences cited by the NIR opponents has no basis.
“What cultural differences? We are all Filipinos…I think we should bridge the gap…we’re the same, it’s just the language,” the mayor said.
The NIR will mean the building of roads that will shorten the travel time between Dumaguete and Bacolod that will spur economic development and tourism, he said.
It will also solve the insurgency problem, Remollo said.*