BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez, the mayor of highly urbanized Bacolod City, expressed his full support to the creation of Negros Island Region, which will also include Siquijor Island.
Benitez, in a position paper he submitted Rep. Rex Gatchalian, chair of the House committee on Local Government, said he commended the authors of House Bills No. 119, 330 and 1446, which aim to create the new region, for sustaining the dream of One Negros.
Forming a new region will ultimately benefit the people of its constituent provinces, will bring national government agencies closer to the people as regional offices will be located in a shorter distance from their place of residence, and will cut travel cost and time of constituents transacting with regional offices, the former Negros Occidental 3rd district solon turned mayor said.
The creation of a new region will increase efficiency in terms of delivering government services, and enable national government agencies (NGAs) to respond more quickly to local contingencies, Benitez further said.
Consolidating the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental into one region, he added, will promote economic integration and enhance economic planning, considering that the two provinces share vast resources and a porous border, the Bacolod City mayor stressed.
Benitez also cited the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park, a protected area rich in biodiversity with a potential for eco-tourism that covers five local government units in Negros Occidental and one LGU in Negros Oriental, where management is a shared responsibility that requires close coordination between two provinces.
A common Regional Development Council for Negros Occidental and Oriental will strengthen inter local planning areas like MKNP, he said.
On the inclusion of Siqujior in the new region, Benitez said the island province was also part of Negros Oriental. As declared by Governor General Valeriano Weyler in January 1892, Siquijor was annexed to Negros Oriental. It was in 1971, upon the enactment of RA 6389, was Siquijor separated from Negros Oriental and became an independent province.
Indeed, to honor the history, Siquijor should not be separated from Negros Oriental in the reorganization of administrative regions in Visayas, he added.
On the budgetary requirement to operationalize a new region, Benitez said, the establishment of regional offices indeed entails substantial costs, “but only if we are to create ROs in the new region from the ground up, with no existing staff complement in the area.”
This is not the case of Negros Island. In fact, national government agencies already have provincial or satellite offices located in Bacolod City or Dumaguete City, which can be converted into regional offices, he added.
Benitez said the creation of a new region will not require an entirely new set of positions per NGA, but will only entail the creation of additional positions to augment the already existing staff in frontline offices in constituent provinces.
In mathematical terms, what is being required in the case of proposed NIR, or Region 6B, is only a subset of positions necessary for a regional office to operate, Benitez further said.
The cost thereof is considerably lower than creating a full set of positions in a regional office, he added.*
