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They want Negros to stagnate – guv
BY TIFFANY ANNE TAN
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BACOLOD City – Negros Occidental governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. urged Negrenses to storm the heavens with prayers to prevent Negros Island Region’s (NIR) dissolution.
Was President Rodrigo Duterte given the wrong information about NIR?
“Pray so that our beloved President will be guided, gaan sya sang clear view sina,” said Marañon.
“Almost 99 percent” of Negrenses want the NIR, the governor claimed.
He believed there were quarters working out for NIR’s abolition. But why?
“Ara na ‘ya sa nature sang Pilipino, the talangka mentality. Damo di’ may crab mentality nga butungon ka nila ‘ya,” said Marañon. He, however, did not name any persons or groups.
An Executive Order abolishing the NIR has already been prepared and is just waiting for the President’s signature, according to Budget secretary Benjamin Diokno.
“Join me in prayer. Let us pray that this won’t push through,” said Marañon.
NIR, or Region 18, was created through Executive Order No. 183 that then President Benigno Aquino III signed on May 29, 2015. It merged into one region Negros Occidental (from Western Visayas) and Negros Oriental (from Central Visayas).
“Kinahanglanon ta na ‘ya mo,” said Marañon.
But there are quarters, he said, that “do not want this country or the province or Bacolod to progress. Damo na sa mga kauturan ta di’ na labugay. Indi lang na labugay, gina gamo nila.”
Former governor Rafael Coscolluela, on the other hand, said efforts to establish the NIR should not be put to waste.
“I’m hoping nga indi mauyang ang atun nga gin buhat,” Coscolluela said.
Officials of both Negros Occidental and Oriental who fought for the two province’s merger saw better economic opportunities under NIR such as more infrastructure projects that will result to the faster movement of labor, goods and services.
Last week, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino disclosed the NIR may be dissolved due to “budget constraints.”
Aside from having no budget in the 2017 General Appropriations Act, “it looks like NIR will be superseded by federalism,” Dino added.
NIR’s P42.2-billion proposed budget for 2017 was excluded from the proposed national budget.
“That’s not affordable. We have other priorities,” said Budget secretary Diokno.
He also said that with the federalism proposal, the NIR is “parang useless.”/PN
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