The 10 members of the House of Representatives from Negros Island have appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to save the Negros Island Region.
The congressmen wrote the President after they learned of the decision to abolish the NIR for lack of a budget.
Negros Island Region needs P19 billion, the amount of which was not included in the 2017 budget.
The letter, dated Oct. 10, 2016, was signed by Reps. Manuel Sagarbarria, Jocelyn Sy-Limkaichong, and Arnulfo Teves of Negros Oriental; and Greg Gasataya, Melecio Yap Jr., Leo Rafael Cueva, Alfredo Benitez, Juliet Marie Ferrer, Alejandro Mirasol, and Mercedes Alvarea of Negros Occidental.
The 10 Congressmen told the President that the 35 interim regional offices that have been set up since last year in Bacolod and Dumaguete cities are just waiting for the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses, and that the Department of Budget & Management is ready with their separate account codes.
The Congressmen said that despite the difficulty in accessing the budget, the regional line agencies have substantial accomplishments under the NIR set up.
They said that the NIR now has its own Regional Development Council, a Regional Peace and Order Council, a Regional Disaster Risk-Reduction & -Management Council, and the Regional Statistical Council.
In fact, the Philippine Statistical Authority has started generating separate statistical data for NIR, as it has been assigned its own code.
“We are already on the right track towards achieving our two-decades old dream of a unified Negros Province to fast track development through an integrated ecosystems-based planning and program implementation. We are just beginning to chart our own destiny,” the Congressmen said.
Congressman Sagarbarria told the MetroPost that he hopes the President would consider the sentiments of the people of both Negros provinces through their duly-elected Representatives, and to support the NIR.
The Negros Island Region was created on May 29, 2015 through Memo Circular No. 183 signed by President Benigno Aquino.
