The Senate Committee on Local Government approval of the bills seeking to revive the Negros Island Region “gives us so much hope that NIR will happen”, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said Tuesday, December 6.
Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said while the legislators push for the passage of a law creating the NIR, he is hoping that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the meantime issues an executive order to hasten bringing national government agencies’ services closer to the people of Negros.
Benitez said he spoke to Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. and they agreed to submit different options to the president for his approval.
The president could issue an executive order either creating an NIR or sub regions, Benitez said.
“We will see what the president’s decision on this will be,” Benitez said.
Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, Senate Committee on Local Government chairman, on Monday said that they approved five bills seeking to establish the NIR, which will include the provinces of Negros Occidental and Oriental.
Several bills filed by the representatives of Negros Island and Siquijor seeking the creation of the NIR are also pending before the House Committee on Local Government.
“We want to bring government closer to the people,” said Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, author of one of the bills filed on the NIR.
In 2015, President Benigno Aquino III issued Executive Order No. 183 creating the NIR that effectively brought government services closer to the residents of Negros island. However, in 2017 the NIR was abolished by President Rodrigo Duterte who deemed it too costly an undertaking, Zubiri said.
But Zubiri said “I don’t think it’s going to cost us more to revive the NIR.”*