• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A regional official of the Department of Interior and Local Government reported yesterday that 70 percent of national government agencies under the Negros Island Region (NIR), have already been completed.
DILG assistant regional director Teodora Sumagaysay for NIR disclosed that the majority of regional offices are now operational, with designated heads, in an acting capacity, with budgets coming from from Regions 6 and 7.
The NIR is expected to have its budget included in the 2026 General Appropriations Act, according to Sumagaysay.
After the publication of RA 12000, or the NIR Act, the new Visayas region is now functional, after it was signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in June last year.
On the part of the DILG, Sumagaysay said they are now 80 percent operational in the provinces of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, and highly urbanized Bacolod City.
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson earlier disclosed that NIR is expected to be fully functional next year, with its own budget.
Some of the national government agencies that have already established offices in the NIR include the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Agrarian Reform, Commission on Elections, Office of Civil Defense, and the Philippine Statistics Authority.*
