The Negros Island Region is only starting to crawl after its birth in 2015 but it may be abolished too early due to budget constraints.
The Negros Island Region – a newly-created political territory binding Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental into one region for the first time – may be abolished too early because of budget constraints.
The NIR was created by virtue of Executive Order (EO) No. 183 issued by Former President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III on May 29, 2015 and it is only starting to be fully set up.
Formerly, the two provinces in the Negros Island belonged to separate regions – the Occidental with the Western Visayas or Region 6, and the Oriental with Central Visayas or the Region 7.
Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Diño said that while the decision of abolishing or scrapping the Negros Island Region is being discussed at the level of the national government, the likelihood of the infant region being abolished remains.
He confirmed that the creation and operation of the NIR was not included in the budget for fiscal year 2016. There is also no allocation for the 18th region in the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2017.
Diño said that the creation and operation of NIR costs about P20 billion.
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