By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — The summit on the proposed creation of the one-island Negros region will push through today even with the possible absence of Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo.
About 200 officials from the two Negros provinces will converge at the Zaycoland Resort in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.
Degamo had said he was not totally convinced that creating a one-island Negros region is necessary but is open to suggestions.
Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said he hopes Degamo’s apprehension is not based on politics. The plan, he said, “is for the progress and the future of the island.”
Occidental Provincial Planning and Development Officer Ma. Lina Sanogal said Degamo expressed support for the initiative during a meeting in Dumaguete City last week. “We are hoping that he will attend so he can also air his side,” she said.
Negros Oriental chapters of the Philippine Councilors League (PCL), Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) support the plan, she said.
The province’s Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved a resolution of support in a special session in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, in April.
Officials from both provinces will sign a manifesto of support after pronouncing their stand.
Expected to speak are vice governors Eugenio Jose Lacson of Occidental and Edward Mark Macias of Oriental; mayors Monico Puentevella of Bacolod and Manuel Sagarbarria of Dumaguete and their respective vice mayors, Greg Gasataya and Woodrow Maquiling;
Mayors David Lacson (LMP, Occidental) and Bentham dela Cruz (LMP, Oriental); vice mayors Mark Golez (Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines, Occidental) and Reynaldo Tuanda (VMLP, Oriental); Board members Raul Rivera (PCL, Occidental) and Chester Lim (PCL, Oriental); Board members Mark Cui (ABC, Occidental) and Arnulfo Teves Jr. (ABC, Oriental);
Representatives Evelio Leonardia, Julio Ledesma IV, Leo Rafael Cueva, Alfredo Abelardo Benitez, Jeffrey Ferrer, Alejandro Mirasol and Mercedes Alvarez from Negros Occidental, and Emmanuel Iway, George Arnaiz and Pryde Henry Teves from Negros Oriental.
“We will interpret their presence as support for the (initiative),” Sanogal said. “I believe there is an overwhelming support for the initiative from both sides of the island.”
Sanogal believes that “the change of stand by Degamo is political in nature, as his vice governor and majority of the Board members and mayors in Negros Oriental are from the Nationalist People’s Coalition, while he is from the United Nationalist Alliance.”
Degamo has also not taken action on the Occidental SP’s resolution of support, she said.
Among the concerns of those opposed to the plan, Sanogal said, were the distance of the Kabankalan City–Mabinay border from their areas and the difference in language.
“Pulupandan, Ilog and Candoni towns have passed resolutions of support from the municipal down to the barangay levels,” Sanogal said./PN
