BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson expects no problem in pushing for the creation of expanded Negros Island Region, regardless of whoever sits as governor of Negros Oriental.
The Special Board of Canvassers has proclaimed Roel Ragay Degamo as elected governor of Negros and annulled the earlier proclamation of Henry Pryde Teves, following a ruling of the Commission on Elections en banc.
As a member of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, Lacson said “we are ready to work, whoever the governor of Negros Oriental is.”
If the Comelec says that Degamo is the winner, so be it, Lacson, who attended the LPP meeting presided over by Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. in South Cotabato on September 30, said.
During the LPP general assembly, also attended by Teves and Degamo, both also expressed their support to the NIR.
The House of Representatives has enjoined the governors of Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and Siquijor to submit their positions on the proposed expanded NIR.
Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez, who authored House Bill 1446 that seeks to create Region VI-B, disclosed earlier said that there is no “real expectation of resistance” from other provincial heads in Iloilo and Cebu, as far as the establishment of the new region is concerned.
Benitez, however, said that the only place that there could be any kind of resistance is from the RDCs (Regional Development Councils).
He admitted that the biggest obstacle and hurdle for the NIR is the budget constraints.*
