Bacolod City – Senator Imee Marcos described the creation of Negros Island Region as a “good idea.”
Marcos, who recently joined Vallacar Transit Inc. matriarch Olivia Villarias Yanson for lunch in Talisay City, along with Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez and Silay City Mayor Joedith Gallego, however said that she is not yet in a position to say “yes or no,” in supporting NIR, as she has yet to study it.
NIR bill (HB 7355) was unanimously approved last week, on the 3rd and final reading at the House of Representatives, with 290 solons voting for it.
In this day and age, you have really to group together, to be able to negotiate better, for goods and services from the government, Marcos said, as they experienced it, by grouping the provinces in Ilocos region under the Solid North.
Perhaps, it’s also a good opportunity, with this (NIR) bill, for Negrenses to stick together and have a louder voice in sugar, division of infra (infrastructure projects), and the efforts of government to extend safety nets to poorest and marginalized sectors, the presidential sister further said.
It’s always a good idea to be united and speak with a louder voice, she added.
The bill proposing a new Visayas region, authored by all Negros Island solons, includes the provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor.
As stipulated in HB 7355, a Negros Island Region technical working group will be constituted, to be composed of representatives from the Office of the President, Departments of Budget, Interior and Local Government, Office of the Governor of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor, and all the elected representatives of Negros Island, as well as Siquijor.
The TWG will formulate strategic plans to put in place the institutional arrangements for NIR, recommend to the Office of the President the preferred location of the regional center, arrange the requirements for the organizational development, staffing, and budgeting of regional line and regulatory agencies, as well as the imperatives for development planning and investment programming.
After it was approved by the House of Representatives, Negrenses now await the Senate version.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson earlier said he hopes that the passage of a law creating NIR by December, would be a nice Christmas gift. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)