Negros Occidental

Negros Island Region EO could soften hearts in opposition province

Inday Espina-Varona

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Negros Island Region EO could soften hearts in opposition province

ONE CAUSE. Bacolod Mayor Albee Benitez (left) and Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose "Bong" Lacson campaigned for rival presidential candidates in the May 2022 elections but work closely on local issues.

Ronnie Baldonado

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. could win brownie points with an executive order allowing a working legal framework while Congress works on a Negros Island Region measure

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The reported offer of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to sign an executive order (EO) to jumpstart the Negros Island Region (NIR) while a proposed law winds its way through Congress could gain him political capital in Negros Occidental, a province where he has lost to former vice president Leni Robredo in two elections.

Negrenses may have spent summer locked in heated, acrimonious election debates but politicians across different national political camps are working together for an NIR law.

At least two legislators have already filed NIR bills in the House of Representatives, and a third is set to file another version this week.

Representative Thirdy Marañon of Negros Occidental’s 2nd district filed House Bill 330 on July 1.

Representative Juliet Marie Ferrer of the 4th district followed with a similar measure. Representative Kiko Benitez of the 3rd district told reporters on July 4 that he was waiting for legislators from Negros Oriental to sign as co-authors.

Marañon, former mayor of Sagay City, was among the few local executives who campaigned for Robredo. Benitez and Ferrer, the vice governor’s wife, come from clans associated with the Marcos family.

The three legislators ran under the unified slate of Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio “Bong” Lacson and Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer, reelectionists who endorsed rival presidential candidates.

Both Marcos and Robredo expressed support for the NIR but advised local politicians to get enough congressional allies to pass a law.

Ferrer told Rappler a law would be harder to undo, referring to former President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2017 move to dissolve the young NIR created via EO by the late President Benigno Aquino III in 2015.

Duterte said his government did not have the funds for a new administrative region.

Ferrer welcomed Bacolod Mayor Albee Benitez’s announcement of Marcos’ EO offer, saying it would not halt legislative work.

“Negros Occidental representatives from the first to sixth district will work on this undertaking,” the vice governor told Rappler. “On the part of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, we will try discuss this on what we can do to also express the council’s favorable sentiment on the proposed revival of the NIR.”

“If the President wants (the EO), so be it. I know he will not issue the order without thorough study,” Ferrer said.

“We have manifested before the advantages of NIR and it is still the same reason why we want it (back),” said the governor told reporters in June.

Negros Occidental is currently under Western Visayas (Region 6), together with Iloilo and the rest of Panay, including the island province of Guimaras. Negros Oriental falls under Central Visayas (Region 7), which has Cebu as its center.

Bacolod Vice Mayor El Cid Familiaran, current leader of the now-minority Grupong Progreso established by defeated mayor Bing Leonardia, said local government units can save funds under the NIR.

Travel from Bacolod to Iloilo is a one-hour ferry ride. From Dumaguete City, the capital of Negros Oriental, to Cebu takes either a plane trip or a barge crossing followed by hours of land travel.

“It’s convenient, economical for those with transactions in the regional offices,” Familiaran told Rappler on Tuesday, July 5. “Integration of economic development would benefit both provinces.”

Former governor Rafael Coscolluela, the provincial campaign head of Robredo, told Rappler that the outcome of the presidential elections did not change his support for the NIR.

“No change. This goes beyond partisan politics,” said Coscolluela, who also pushed for the NIR when he was governor from 1992 to 2001.

UNITED FOR NEGROS. Negros Occidental 1st district Represenative Gerardo Valmayo, Governor Bong Lacson, Bacolod Mayor Albee Benitez, Vice Governor Jeffrey Ferrer, 4th district Rep. Juliet Ferrer and 6th district Rep. Mercedes L. Alvarez make the sign for change. (Photo by Ronnie Baldonado)
Concerns

Some civil society supporters of the NIR, however, now worry that distancing Negros Occidental from Iloilo province and metropolitan Iloilo – the main anti-Marcos areas in the Visayas – could weaken local checks and balances under the Marcos.

“I’ve been for NIR since PNoy’s time and my impression was that the primary cause of Duterte’s dissolution of NIR was to spite Negros because we supported Roxas/Robredo,” an anti-Marcos lawyer and civic leader who works with both Lacson and the new Bacolod Mayor told Rappler in an interview.

“As far as I know, the restoration of NIR was an election issue that almost all politicians claimed to support because they saw its overwhelming popularity,” the lawyer added, requesting not to be named.

The lawyer expressed concern that, “NIR will split Western Visayas, a region that did not support Marcos, into two regions that will be economically and politically weaker because of the split. At this time, staying together as Region VI might outweigh the benefits of NIR. This issue, at least, deserves further thought.”

Benitez did not reply to Rappler’s questions on whether Marcos’ local allies would submit a draft for the EO, what major points the new Bacolod mayor wants in the NIR measure, and plans to consult non-politician stakeholders. – Rappler.com

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