In this Question & Answer are Negros Oriental’s candidates for Governor: Vice Gov. Mark Edward Macias and Bayawan City Mayor Pryde Henry Teves.
What is your vision for Negros Oriental?
PRYDE HENRY TEVES: My vision: The next generation of Oriental Negrenses must be better than us now on all aspects, hence all our Policies and Actions must be anchored on this goal. And we must ensure that during their time, Mother Earth could still sustain Life by avidly protecting the environment.
DR. MARK EDWARD MACIAS: My vision for Negros Oriental is a genuinely-peaceful Province, with a self-sufficient population. I want the status of Negros Oriental to be elevated from a mere 3rd class Province, and from being ranked poorly at #70 among all 80 provinces in the country – in terms of economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency.
For a highly-educated and very intelligent population of Oriental Negrenses, we are ranked last in Central Visayas, even behind the province of Siquijor. As a Province rich in agricultural resources like sugar and various agri-business opportunities, that could mean we would have to make food security a priority. We should work to minimize our imports of rice, dairy, coffee, meat, chicken, onions and garlic. In 2019, the Department of Agriculture and the National Economic Development Authority had encouraged stakeholders in Region 7 to turn to Negros Oriental (and Bohol) for its food supply. We have yet to develop that potential.
What are the Top 3 pressing problems in the Province that you want to address?
Briefly, what is your major solution to each of those three problems?
Solution for Poverty, the most vulnerable sector of which is the farming and fisherfolk sector: Direct intervention in making support services and subsidies is of utmost importance, especially that the tune of the times greatly mounts pressure on nations to be self sufficient in food.
On Health care, virtually all our government hospitals are in a very poor state. There is a serious lack of medicines and healthcare professionals. The Philhealth system is virtually not working to our advantage due to the downgrade of our hospital status levels, and the very poor availability of medicines onsite, which makes Philhealth refund collections at a minimal level. The brunt of the impact is on the poor patients who would have to scrounge for money just to purchase medicines themselves. Proper human resource, inventory, and financial management are key aspects to this problem.
For Job opportunities, we must bring industries and investments in [to the Province]. Industries to support local raw materials, value-add our products, and create ancillary jobs in the process. While the Bacong airport is on the pipeline, we must also strive for our own international port. These two developments will be such a game-changer in our aim for agro-industrialization. Even our very own local business group has the capacity to invest in such ventures if we provide them with the means to move their products directly in and out of the country.
MARK MACIAS: Negros Oriental has always been grappling with the interrelated problems of poverty, crime, and pollution.
For poverty, the drive for self-sufficiency in food will also lead to the creation of jobs.
While the Philippine National Police says that crime has gone down during these COVID times, the bigger problem is the culture of impunity that seems to prevail in our Province. This is partly caused by the lack of witnesses who are bold enough to come forward. We can look into a system that could guarantee the safety of witnesses, particularly for heinous crimes.
Pollution is a problem that is increasingly being felt in the towns and cities in the Province. Problems of solid and septage waste management are common. We have to nip that problem in the bud by taking the fight against pollution to our own homes. We must all cut down at being waste-producers.
People have been talking about the various unsolved killings in the Province that may have been politically-motivated. What have you done to make the Province a safe place for everyone?
HENRY TEVES: For now I can only speak for Bayawan City. I have continuously supported all the law enforcement agencies in Bayawan. Administrative, Financial, Modern Technology, and Logistics are available to all law enforcement agencies to ensure they have all the tools to do their jobs.
I have always been a unifying leader. Politically, I was able to unite all the big families in Bayawan to move as one and strive for a common goal. The Big 4 families — Martinez, Saraña, Tijing, and Gaudiel — are now united for the first time in our City’s politically history.
MARK MACIAS: As presiding officer of the Provincial Board, we have always been supportive of budgetary requests from the Provincial government in the peace and order campaign. But expanding the discussion to include the overall peace and order condition, we have to live by example, and not be part of the problem. We should stop the fighting. We cannot move forward if we keep on fighting. We will work towards an inclusive government, to include all political aggrupations so that they can be heard.
How will you generate jobs in Negros Oriental?
We should take advantage of our assets such as Power, Agri and Aqua raw materials, and an educated populace. Big ticket items which I consider game-changers to accelerate this is direct link to the outside world, through the new Bacong airport, and an international seaport.
MARK MACIAS: The path to food sufficiency will result in the creation of jobs, particularly in the agriculture sector. We should also train our people on technical-vocational jobs that are in high demand, not just in our Province (where can you find an unemployed carpenter?), but also abroad.
What is your vision for the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital? What will you do as governor to revert to its status as tertiary hospital?
HENRY TEVES: The best solution would be to convert it to a regional hospital under the Department of Health, just like Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center [in Cebu City]. This will enable us to save about P650 million a year from our coffers. That amount should be invested in our various District and Community Hospitals around the Province to make them operable, effective, and efficient.
MARK MACIAS: The NOPH used to be a tertiary teaching hospital. Sadly, it has been downgraded by two notches into a first-level hospital. We can no longer produce medical specialists whom we so badly need. We need to bring it back to what it once was 10 years ago, and continue to build from there.
Fortunately, I am a physician with some experience in health care delivery. I will be on top of things. But the NOPH is only a portion of the entire health care system that we want to overhaul. Negrenses should not have to go to Cebu or Manila just to get the treatment they need. We should be able to do it right here in the Province.
What two major things have you done as a government official to protect the environment?
HENRY TEVES: As Mayor of Bayawan, the two most effective interventions I have done are the:
1) Bayawan Eco Park, a joint venture between Talarak Foundation and our City. We are creating a safe haven for Negros Island’s most vulnerable creatures, ensuring that the next generation can still see them in the wild, and not just in pictures.
2) On Education. In our City, wildlife thrives as our people take care of them and love them — wild ducks, warty pigs, spotted deer, horned bills, parrots, owls, etc. This can only be made possible through Education. Big thanks to the Deparment of Education and the Bayawan Faith Community for tirelessly pushing this advocacy day in and day out.
MARK MACIAS: As presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, we have passed the Renewable Energy Law that supports RE sources such as geothermal, solar, and wind power. We are the first Province in the country to have done that.
We have also suspended the export of sand and gravel to other provinces, until such time that we have a better framework to regulate the operation of quarries in our Province.
On a personal note, near where I live in Valencia, the sound of chainsaws could be heard for miles, indicating that some illegal logging activity is going on. I have personally apprehended some of these loggers. I was told that some of them were my voters in previous elections, but when necessary, my personal commitment to the environment could cost me some votes.
With natural disasters expected to happen anytime, what is your overarching but concrete plan to protect the environment while pursuing sustainable development?
MARK MACIAS: We have to put more effort in re-greening Negros Oriental, not just through forests but mangroves, and by planting bamboo patches along the riverbanks.
We should also ensure that the budget for Disaster Risk-Reduction and -Management Fund — which is 5 percent of the Provincial Budget every year — should be put to proper use. Typhoon Odette in December 2021 was an example of a disaster that no one expected. Weather patterns have changed. We have to put together a genuine and no-nonsense disaster risk-reduction plan. We have to identify those at risk from natural calamities, and relocate them (for example, from the river banks) even before the storms come.
What is your stand on the various quarrying activities going on around the Province?
HENRY TEVES: It must be strictly regulated, and the law should be religiously enforced. While we need quarry materials for construction and development, it cannot be done at the expense of our communities, irrigation systems, and our food and water sources. Most importantly, it cannot be done at the expense of the next generation.
While the volume of quarries increased to record levels, the government’s collection decreased to such low volumes, most probably due to corrupt practices. At present, a year’s collection of about P4 million cannot even repair a single irrigation system damaged due to unregulated and illegal quarry operations.
When I served as Governor for a few weeks in 2016, I found that everyone under-declared the volume of the natural resources that were being exported to other provinces. We then instituted a system to more correctly measure the volume of natural resources by looking at the capacity of the cargo vessels, not merely counting the number of trucks that deliver the goods.
We also have to put more qualified people in the Environment & Natural Resources Management Division to monitor all these quarrying activities.
What can you say about the temporarily-shelved reclamation project in the provincial capital?
HENRY TEVES: I am against that reclamation project, as we still have a lot of underdeveloped lands available. Why risk destruction of precious marine life when we still have so much areas to develop? Once the Bacong airport is done, we can develop the old airport, and create much needed jobs for the youth. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Think Cebu IT Park (old Cebu airport), and new Iloilo commercial center (old Iloilo airport).
MARK MACIAS: I am not anti-development but I believe that reclamation should be only resorted to when we have lost all alternatives to expand. In Iloilo, for example, they moved the airport to a new location, and the site of the old airport is now the site of a new business center.
As presiding officer of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan, we have passed a law banning reclamation in marine-protected areas; the Province just has to enforce it in all local government units.
How will you improve the Province’s disaster response to reduce the impact of natural calamities?
HENRY TEVES: I will apply the Bayawan experience in every corner of our Province. Our Bayawan DRRM team is a Presidential Lingkod Bayan awardee, and this speaks volumes. The team will definitely assist in these endeavours. Sound Planning, Proper Implementation, Modern Technology.
MARK MACIAS: We need to use more science to determine which areas are disaster-prone, and which populations are at risk. We cannot put our own people in danger by allowing them to inhabit areas found to be disaster-prone, such as dry river beds. We also need to properly utilize funds to mitigate the impact of impending disasters.
What existing law in the Province do you believe has poor implementation? How do you intend to improve on it?
HENRY TEVES: Local laws generally have poor implementation. I honestly think the whole system of governance needs to be overhauled. Healthcare, Environment, Agri-support, Marine Protection, Administrative governance, etc. Everything needs a lot of improvement.
MARK MACIAS: We have a law on just about everything now. Scientists say if we implement even just 75 percent of the laws on the environment, we would be an environmental haven. We just need the political will to implement the laws that are already existing.
