Barely a week after he announced his opposition to the establishment of regional offices for the Negros Island Region at the border of Kabankalan City and Mabinay town, Gov. Roel Degamo now says he is in favor of it.
A report in the Bacolod-based Visayan Daily Star quoted Kabankalan Mayor Isidro Zayco as saying that Degamo changed his mind after visiting the proposed site in Kabankalan City.
Degamo was quoted as saying that the regional center should be at the CPSU property because travel time to it is two and a half hours from Bacolod City and Dumaguete City.
The property is inside the Central Philipine State University property at the border of the two provinces.
During a meeting of the Technical Working Group of the Negros Island Region in the CPSU site last week, they agreed to ask President Benigno Aquino III to issue a presidential proclamation to cull out 500 hectares from the CPSU reservation for the NIR regional center.
The Negros Island Region, or Region 18, will establish regional offices in Bacolod and Dumaguete cities during the interim five-year period until the regional center can be established at the boundary of the two provinces.
The TWG also agreed to conduct a geohazard mapping of the proposed site of the regional center. Also agreed was to schedule a technical survey of the site to ascertain the possible effect of fault lines, sinkholes and caves in the area. (SGR)
