by CARLA GOMEZ on Fri, 10/14/2016

Repeal will save money: Andanar

Congressmen of the Negros Island Region have joined the appeal for President Rodrigo Duterte to retain the NIR pending a shift towards a federal form of government.

Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Neg. Occ.,3 rd District) yesterday said he is almost sure the 10 Negros congressmen and some partylist representatives will also push for the retention of NIR as a federal state when the time comes, which will be advantageous to Negros from an economic perspective, and makes sense from the social and cultural aspect.

Rep. Greg Gasataya (Bacolod) said nine of 10 NIR congressmen signed the letter they sent to the president for the retention of the NIR.

“We are already on the right track towards achieving our two decades old dream of unified Negros provinces to fast track development through an integrated ecosystems-based planning and program implementation. We are just beginning to chart our destiny,” the letter to the president said.

But as the lobby for the retention of the NIR picked up, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar at a press conference in Malacañang yesterday, when asked why it was important for the administration to abolish the NIR said: “Because we're going to save more money.”

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno Wednesday told Negros businessmen calling for the retention of the NIR at the Philippine Business Conference in Manila that “the abolition of the NIR is a done deal.”

Benitez said what the NIR Regional Development Council submitted to the Department of Budget Management was a proposed P42 billion budget for the NIR in 2017, but he pointed out that about P30 billion of that amount was for foreign assisted programs that are actually already in place with or without the NIR.

We are looking at a capital outlay of P12 to 17 billion that will cover Maintenance and Other Operational Expenses, among other needs, of national government agencies in the NIR, he added.

But if the NIR needs additional personnel for regional offices in the new region they can be taken from the existing plantilla of the national government, Benitez also said.

“If we want to be more efficient there is no need to fatten the bureaucracy, “ he said.

Under the current status of NIR, only the Department of Public Works and Highways has its own account, all the other national government agencies still get their budget from their mother regions, he said.

The mother regions are Western Visayas where Negros Occidental used to belong and Central Visayas where Negros Oriental came from.

POLITICAL VENDETTA?

Benitez dismissed speculation that the abolition of the NIR was being pushed by the Duterte administration because it was created by virtue of an executive order issued by former President Benigno Aquino III, on recommendation of then Local Government Secretary Mar Roxs.

In the race of the presidency Duterte lost to Roxas in Negros during the May polls.

For now, it is just talk that the NIR will be dissolved but it has not happened, Benitez said.

Benitez said from his discussions with some administration people they still value Negros, they know it is a vote rich area being the province with the fourth largest voting population in the country.

“It would make sense if they are after a political objective…to get us on their side,” he added.

There has also been speculation that the bulk of the Negros' officials joined Duterte's PDP Laban recently in an effort to save the NIR.

“Being part of PDP Laban will have some weight,” Benitez said, but added that he is not sure if that weight is enough to convince the president to retain the NIR.

NIR STATE

Meanwhile, Benitez said he does not know if a push for the passage of a bill creating the NIR will progress at this time.

The focus of Congress now is on Charter change which is expected to be carried out through a Constituent Assembly that is the preferred mode, Benitez said.

He said the holding out of the administration on going full swing with the NIR makes sense because of the impending shift toward federalism that will entail new political divisions.

Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said “What is important to me is that Negros Oriental and Occidental remain together as one region or one federal state.”

Lacson said he did not want to put malice into moves to abolish NIR, when asked if he thought it was politically motivated.

Benitez and Gasataya said they would work on the creation of a NIR federal state when the time comes.

The congressmen in their letter to Duterte, which is similar to the one they sent Diokno, said that since the creation of the NIR last year over 35 national government agencies and attached bureaus have already set up interim regional offices in Bacolod and Dumaguete cities and are just waiting for their Maintenance and Other Operational Expenses allocations to be released.

Despite the difficulty in accessing the budget, the regional line agencies have substantial accomplishments under the NIR set up that has a working Regional Development Council, Regional Peace and Order Council, Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, and the Regional Statistical Council, they pointed out.

In fact the Philippine Statistical Authority has started generation of separate statistical data for NIR based on the 2015 Census of Population to help facilitate the formulation of plans, programs and projects in the newly created region, they added.

Among those who signed the letter aside from Gasataya and Benitez are Melecio Yap (Neg. Occ., 1 st Dirct), Leo Rafael Cueva (Neg. Occ., 2 nd District), Juliet Marie Ferrer (Neg. Occ., 4 th District), Alejandro Mirasol (Neg. Occ., 5 th District), Jocelyn Limkaichong (Neg. Or., 1 st District), Manuel Sagarbarria (Neg. Or., 3nd District) and Rep. Arnolfo Teves ( Neg. Or., 3 rd District).

Newly-wed Rep. Mercedes Alvarez (Neg. Occ., 6 th District) was on her honeymoon and has yet to sign the letter.

POSITION PAPER

Meanwhile, a position paper calling for the retention of the NIR issued by the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kabankalan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been sent to Duterte's office in Davao, Frank Carbon, PCCI regional governor for NIR and Western Visayas, said yesterday.*CPG