(L-R) Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon, and lawyer Arthur Aguilar of the Consultative Committee. (Photo by Juancho Gallarde)
DUMAGUETE CITY -- Negros Island Region is not at all gone, even if President Rodrigo R. Duterte had officially announced its abolition, because the governors from both Negros provinces are proposing to make the two become a state under a federal form of government.
Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon, Jr. and Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Ragay Degamo met over the weekend at the provincial capitol building to discuss the creation of a state of Negros Island in the presence of a member of the consultative committee created by Duterte.
Marañon, who was accompanied by Arthur Aguilar, member of the 20-man Consultative Committee tasked to review the 1987 Constitution, said a state is bigger than a region itself.
Aguilar, a lawyer, disclosed the committee had been meeting with the different sectors to get their pulse on amending the Charter.
He made it clear that the commission’s function is recommendatory, and is expected to submit the recommended draft to the President by the end of June this year.
Aguilar’s personal recommendation is for Negros Island to become one state, which he suggested in a conference with Degamo and Marañon on Saturday to make sure both Negros provinces stick together.
He said it makes sense for Negros to be one complete state by itself because it is one of the most economically viable islands, as the country's fourth largest and one of the richest.
He said the committee is still deliberating as to how many states are to be created under a federal form of government.
For his part, Degamo’s proposal would be to retain the governors of the two provinces and the state will be headed by either one of them.
“But I want the interest of both provinces preserved, including the sharing scheme of the internal revenue allotment that they have previously agreed with under the Negros Island Region which was dissolved,” Degamo said. (PNA)
