• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
As the Negros Island Region bill, which has already been approved by the House of Representatives and Philippine Senate, soon finds it way to Malacañang, Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez said he is hoping that it will be signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by April this year.
Benitez, one of the Negros solons who authored the NIR bill in the House of Representatives, disclosed in a press briefing on Saturday that the senators took into account the support of the President, when they approved the bill.
“I’m assuming the President will sign. I hope he does,” he said.
According to Benitez, there are differences between the House and Senate versions of the NIR bill.
While the House version did not dictate the locations of the regional centers, and allows for the Transition Team to decide, he said the Senate version decided to contend with any potential ambiguity by putting it in the bill itself.
As Rep. Manuel Sagabarria (2nd district, Negros Oriental), chairman of the House Committee on Local Government, decided that it is easier to adopt the Senate version of the NIR bill, Benitez said it will no longer have to go through the Bicameral Committee of Congress.
It will take about a week or two before we hear a response from Malacañang, he added.
“We want to thank all the senators. Finally the legislative process is finished,” he said.
Benitez added that the division of the different national agencies between the two provinces will follow the same division as when the NIR was first implemented.
On concerns of funding for the new region, Benitez said it will be addressed in terms of the phasing of its implementation, depending on funding resources.
The proposed new Visayas region will be composed of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, and the island province of Siquijor.
Benitez said the three governors and the mayor of highly urbanized Bacolod City will come together, to create the transition process, and address the funding gaps, for the short and long term.
On his part, Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said the Bacolod City government is already prepared for a transition to the new region, even before the passage of the NIR bill.
Mayor Benitez said the city government has sent letters to all regional offices, through the Regional Development Council, to offer to put up satellite offices in Bacolod City.
“A place at our Bacolod Express Services Office (BESO) at Ayala Mall Capitol Central and at SM City Bacolod. They can cater to some regional offices. Ninety percent have expressed interest in putting up satellite offices,” he added.
These offices, according to Mayor Benitez, will be a point of contact of the public for receiving documents and applications and inquiries.
Mayor Benitez, who chairs the Regional Development Council of Western Visayas, said that the RDC 6 Visayas has been expecting it.
“Most of the regional directors have already been part of the first NIR,” he said, adding that he thinks there is no resistance from them.
“The whole wisdom of the NIR law was to make services accessible to us in Negros,” the mayor stressed.*
