Best Posts in Thread: 1-Negros Region

PatO · Oct 30, 2014

Negros Oriental appears to have a tight knit Silliman alumni in key political and consulting roles. Not saying it is good or bad, but imagine the fallout if Gov. Delgamo was to lose to an Occidental politician, if the merger were to take place. It is maybe hard to imagine Oriental winning out over Occidental. I do not want to have to travel to Bacolad to get certain things done (not that you can get a lot done here - see BI). How about leaving things status quo. Just my personal opinion.

Rye83 · Aug 18, 2015

Jack Peterson said: ↑

It is getting as bad as a Soap Opera But then, I have always looked on it as just that ( Politics in general) One Upmanship

JP
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It's always been like that has it not?

Survivor Adik · Oct 31, 2014

I think there's a bit of a misconception.

Oriental Negros and Negros Occidental will remain as two distinct provinces. They will not be merged into one province. One happens is that, instead of Oriental Negros belonging to Region 7 (Regional Capital: Cebu) and Negros Occidental belonging to Region 6 (Regional Capital Iloilo), both provinces will form a Negros Island Region with sub-regional offices in both Bacolod and Dumaguete.

How these will benefit you is that, in principle, the BI office in Dumaguete will now be a sub-regional office, and should be able to process transactions that were originally only done in the regional office in Cebu.

Anyways, I posted this on another site on my thoughts on the advantages of the the Negros Island Region.

I've always wondered why Negros Island and the only one among islands with multiple provinces (i.e. Mindoro, Samar, Leyte) to divided between two provinces.

I actually see more pros with the two provinces under a single region:

1. First, planning can be integrated. Development plans that originally has to be be approved by multiple provinces in the RDC can now be discussed between only two provinces, making available more projects per province (ideally). And any development in one side of the island, has indirect or direct effect on the other side.

2. Infrastructure projects can also be more properly planned. Island-wide infra projects can, I believe more effectively planned especially improving inter province linkages. With only two offices (Neg. Occ - Or. Neg.) of the respective government agencies discussing and planning, I believe will hasten project implementation as well. I believe there will be less bureaucracy as it will not be dependent on a regional office somewhere else. Coordination though must be improved.

3. Tourism. Joint tourism campaigns can be undertaken, with both sides of the islands leveraging on each of its strengths. Promoting not just Negros Occidental or Negros Oriental as a Negros Island, thereby giving your potential customers more choices and more value for money (i.e. sulit ang gastos since tourists are able to take advantage of various product offerings from both sides).

4. Poverty alleviation. I think that both Negros provinces has more things in common that we actually really think. Both provinces have agriculture (specifically sugar) as its main industry, and unfortunately, most of the poor in both provinces also come from this sector. These two provinces can share best practices and jointly create solutions to address the common problem of poverty alleviation especially in the agriculture industry.

5. Government Transactions. With both provinces, as per NOCCI having regional sub-offices, I forsee government transactions to be faster as there is no reliance on regional offices. As per NOCCI, there will be sub-regional offices in both capitals making transactions faster as now we would not have to go to Iloilo or Cebu in our case. The only expense I see here is the putting up of offices of frontline government offices that currently does not have presence in Dumaguete (i.e. PRC?).

A lot of the resistance I am reading and seeing here in the Oriental side is more on having the wrong information or fears. Wrong information in the sense that a lot of people thinks that Negros Oriental and Occidental will be merged into a single province, or that a single governor or representatives will be elected, which is not the case.

Then there is the fear of the disadvantages to Negros Occidental, and that Negros Oriental is perceived to be weaker. But are we actually weaker? In what sense? Don't we in the Oriental side see ourselves as equals with those in Negros Occidental and equally capable as they are? To quote a response from the FB post of journalist Alex Pal, "Let us stop looking at ourselves as second class. You know what, WE ARE SECOND TO none. We should consider the provinces as EQUALS."

There have already been joint projects in the border towns, and these I believe have been successful. So why not replicate it in a bigger setting?

As to being linguistically different, it shouldn't even be an issue. The towns in northern Negros Occidental from San Carlos up until Sagay and maybe even Cadiz (I may be wrong with Cadiz) are predominantly Cebuano speaking. And in the southern portion of NegOr there are also areas that are able to speak Hiligaynon. If not, we can also speak english if we like to.

And lets face it, no matter how Gov. Degamo contests its, the fact still remains that NegOr has consistently been one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines, as painful as it is to admit it. So a change in administrative direction may work for the better for us. Really, there is nothing for us to loose if we try this set-up.

As proposed, maybe we can have a trial/transition period of 5-years to see how this will work out.
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Rye83 · Oct 30, 2014

http://www.visayandailystar.com/2014/October/29/alexpal.htm

Almost all the speakers in the forum endorsed the creation of a one-island region. It was only Gov. Roel Degamo who went against the grain and said that we should all wait for the NEDA to complete its feasibility study before any decision will be made. The study, the governor said, should say that it would be more beneficial for the two Negros provinces to form an island-region instead of continuing to belong to their present regions. Only then will he agree to the 1-island region concept.
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I'm not sure the point of Negros becoming its own region, though I'm guessing money and power is the driving force since every politician on the island (except one) is all for it.

From the quote above it seems that only one person out of the group has a bit of common sense (and some political foresight). First look at the study and see if it would actually be beneficial to the island. Nobody else even cares if it will help the people on the island? Oh yeah.....these are politicians, of course they don't. I am guessing there is a position up for grabs if this goes through....and another layer of corruption everyone will have to deal with.

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Best Posts in Thread: 1-Negros Region

PatO DI Forum Luminary Highly Rated Poster Showcase Reviewer Veteran Marines

Rye83 with pastrami Admin Secured Account Highly Rated Poster SC Connoisseur Veteran Army

Survivor Adik DI Member

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