If we were to name one very bad reason for the dissolution of the Negros Island Region, Tropical Storm Vinta couldn’t have stressed the point any better.
Scores of government employees who had to attend year-end meetings in their regional offices in Cebu City were stranded in several ports in Cebu after weathermen raised Storm Signal Number 1.
For many who were almost out of money, being stranded in a place far from home meant you had no place to rest or you had to skip some meals to wait out the storm.
Had the regional offices been located in just one island, as it had been during the short-lived Negros Island Region or Region 18, people need not travel across the sea just to attend required meetings.
We had it so good – Negros Oriental was getting its fair share in the Regional Development Council – and administrative problems were easily addressed.
Was the dissolution of the NIR, which came right after this administration came to power, the promised change?
Change for the better, not. A change for the worse, perhaps.
But going back to Vinta, we commend the people who were again mobilized to prepare resources and warn people about the storm. Special mention goes to the Municipality of Sibulan, which prepared a soup kitchen for stranded passengers.
That is going above and beyond their call of duty as public servants.