Executive Order 183 created the Negros Island Region (NIR) by carving Negros Occidental from Region VI and Negros Oriental from Region VII. A technical working group was formed to determine the regional center and handle the transition. The new region aims to accelerate social and economic development and improve public service delivery in the two provinces. It has a population of over 4 million people and includes 13 cities and 38 municipalities across Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.
1. Executive Order 183
On May 29, 2015, President Benigno Aquino III signed
Executive Order 183 creating the Negros Island Region (NIR).
Negros Occidental was carved from Region VI (Western
Visayas), and Negros Oriental from Region VII (Central Visayas)
to form the new region. Its regional center will be determined
by a technical working group.
An idea 20 years in the making, the Negros Island Region
was created "to further accelerate the social and economic
development of the cities and municipalities comprising the
provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental and
improve the delivery of public services in the aforementioned
provinces."
2. What is a region?
Regions are administrative divisions that serve primarily to
organize the provinces (lalawigan) of the country for administrative
convenience. Currently, the archipelagic republic of the Philippines
is divided into 18 regions. Most government offices are established
by region instead of individual provincial offices, usually (but not
always) in the city designated as the regional center.
The regions themselves do not possess a separate local
government, with the exception of the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao, which has an elected regional assembly and
governor. The Cordillera Administrative Region was originally
intended to be autonomous (Cordillera Autonomous Region), but
the failure of two plebiscites for its establishment reduced it to a
regular administrative region.
3. A province is a political unit created by law under
R.A. 7160. It is a PUBLIC CORPORATION, vested
with the power to administer and govern its political
unit subject to limitations imposed by the
constitution and existing laws.
What is a province?
4. Q: What is a public corporation?
A: It is one created by the State either by
general or special act for purposes of
administration of local government or
rendering service in the public interest.
(Rodriguez, p. 2, LGC 5th Edition)
5. Q: Distinguish public corporation from private corporation.
A:
PUBLIC CORPORATION PRIVATE CORPORATION
Purpose
Administration of local government Private purpose
Who creates
By the state either by general or By incorporators
special act
How created
Bylegislation By agreement of members
6. Q: What is the criterion to determine whether a corporation
is a public corporation?
By the relationship of the corporation to the state; if created
by the State as its own agency to help it in carrying out its
governmental functions, it is public, otherwise, it is private.
7. Q: What are the dual characteristics of a public
corporation?
A:
1. Public or governmental – acts as an agent of the State for
the government of the territory and its inhabitants.
2. Private or proprietary – acts as an agent of the
community in the administration of local affairs. As such, it
acts as separate entity for its own purposes, and not a
subdivision of the State. (Bara Lidasan vs. COMELEC G.R.
No. L‐28089, October 25, 1967 citing McQuillin, Municipal
Corporations, 3d ed., pp. 456‐464)
8. Q:What are the classes of corporations?
A:
1.Quasi Public corporations. public corporations created as
agencies of the State for narrow and limited purposes without
the powers and liabilities of self]governing corporations.
2.Municipal Corporations. body politic and corporate
constituted by the incorporation of inhabitants for purposes of
local government. It is established by law partly as an agency of
the State to assist in the civil government of the country, but
chiefly to regulate and administer the local or internal affairs of
the city, town or district which is incorporated. (Dillon,
Municipal Corporations, Vol.2, pp. 58]59.)
9. Q: What are the essential elements of a municipal
corporation?
A:
1.Legal creation
2.Corporate name
3.Inhabitants constituting the population who are vested
with political and corporate powers
4. Territory (Rodriguez, p.4, LGC 5th Edition)
Note: The Sangguniang Panlalawigan may, in
consultation with the Philippine Historical Commission
change the name of component citiesand municipalities,
upon the recommendation of the sangguniang concerned
provided that the same shall be effective only upon
ratification in a plebiscite conducted for the purpose in
the political unit directly affected. (R.A. 7160, Sec. 13)
10. Q: What is the rule relative to the merger and division of local
government units?
A:
1.Such division or merger shall not reduce the income,
population or land area of the LGC concerned to less than the
minimum requirement
2. That the income classification of the original LGU/s shall
not fall below its current income classification prior to the
division
3. A plebiscite must be held in LGUs affected
4. Assets and liabilities of creation shall be equitably
distributed between the LGUs affected and new LGU
11. Q:
What are the requisites or limitations imposed on the
creation or conversion of municipal corporations?
A:
1. Plebiscite requirement – must be approved by majority
of the votes cast in a plebiscite called for such purpose in
the political unit or units directly affected.
Note: The plebiscite must be participated in by the
residents of the mother province in order to conform to
the constitutional requirement.
12. 2. Income requirement – must be sufficient on
acceptable standards to provide for all essential
government facilities and services and special
functions commensurate with the size of its
population as expected of the local government
unit concerned. Average annual income for the last
consecutive year should be at least:
a.Province – P 20M
b.Highly Urbanized City – P 50M
c.City – P 20M (100M RA. 9009 amending Sec 450
of LGC)
d.Municipality – P 2.5M
13. 3.Population requirement – to be determined as
the total number of inhabitants within the
territorial jurisdiction of the local government unit
concerned. The required minimum population
shall be:
a.
Barangay – 2K
But 5K in:
i.Metro Manila
ii. Highly urbanized cities
b. Municipality – 25K
c. City – 150K
d. Province – 250K
14. 4. Land requirement – must be contiguous,
unless it comprises two or more islands or is
separated by a local government unit; properly
identified by metes and bounds; and sufficient to
provide for such basic services and facilities.
Area requirements are:
a. Municipality – 50 sq. km (Sec.442 R.A. 7160)
b.City – 100 sq. km (Sec.450 R.A. 7160)
c.Province – 2,000 sq.km (Sec.461 R.A. 7160)
16. Population
The region has a population of 4,194,525, as of 2010.
Negros Occidental, including its capital Bacolod City, has a
population of 2,907,859 living in 13 cities and 19
municipalities, with a combined 662 barangays. Bacolod City,
with a population of 511,820, is independent from the
province due to its status as a highly-urbanized city.
Negros Oriental has a population of 1,286,666. It has a total
of 557 barangays in 6 cities and 19 towns. Dumaguete City is
the provincial capital.
18. Economic, Poverty Data
Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental are both 1st class
provinces. Their respective capitals, however, have
different income classifications: Bacolod is a 1st class city,
while Dumaguete is a 3rd class city.
Negros Occidental is set to receive a total of P11.07 billion
in internal revenue allotment (IRA) funds in 2015, while
Negros Oriental would get a total of P5.86 billion,
according to data from the Department of Budget and
Management.
19. The Commission on Audit (COA) reported that
Negros Occidental generated an income of P2.2
billion in 2013 – making it among the richest
provinces in the country – while Negros Oriental
earned P1.4 billion.
In terms of poverty, Negros Occidental has an
estimated incidence rate of 32.3% of its population
(and 24.9% among families), according to the 2012
full-year poverty statistics of the PSA.
Meanwhile, Negros Oriental recorded a higher
poverty incidence rate, at 50.1% of its population
(and 43.9% among families). The province ranks
among the poorest ones in the country.
20. Politics
The governor of Negros Occidental is Alfredo Marañon Jr, who is
now on his second term.
Affiliated with the local United Negros Alliance (Unega) party in
the 2013 gubernatorial race, Marañon defeated then-Vice
Governor Genaro Alvarez Jr of the Nationalist People's Coalition
(NPC), the party of political kingmaker Eduardo "Danding"
Cojuangco Jr
Meawhile, the governor of Negros Oriental is Roel Degamo. In
2013, he ran under the PDP-Laban banner and won a second
term, beating then-Representative Jocelyn Limkaichong of the
Liberal Party (LP), former Finance Secretary Margarito Teves of
NPC, and independent candidate Samuel Torres
21. Elected the top provincial board member in the 2010 polls,
Degamo became governor in January 2011 after the death of
then-Governor Agustin Perdices, who himself succeeded
governor-elect Emilio Macias II who passed away weeks before
he took office in June 2010.
The provinces' respective vice governors belong to opposing
parties: Negros Occidental Vice Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson
belongs to NPC, while Negros Oriental Vice Governor Mark
Macias is from LP.
Negros Occidental has 6 legislative districts, plus a separate
district for Bacolod City, while Negros Oriental has 3 districts
22. Negros Occidental
Julio Ledesma IV (1st district;NPC and is now on his 3rdterm)
Leo Rafael Cueva (2nd district; National Unity Party or NUP, 1st
term)
Alfredo Benitez (3rd district; LP, 2nd term)
Jeffrey Ferrer (4th district; Unega, 3rd term)
Alejandro Mirasol (5th district; LP, 2nd term)
Mercedes Alvarez (6th district; NPC, 2nd term)
Evelio Leonardia (Bacolod City, lone district; NPC, 1st term)
Negros Oriental
Manuel Iway (1st district; LP, 1st term)
George Arnaiz (2nd district; NPC, 3rd term)
Pryde Henry Teves (3rd district; NPC, 3rd
term)
23. Transition work
A technical working group (TWG) was constituted via EO 183
to handle the transition process. It is composed of the Office
of the President, the Department of Budget and
Management, the National Economic Development
Authority (NEDA), the Department of the Interior and Local
Government (DILG), and representatives from the two
Negros provinces.
The TWG will draw up a roadmap for "institutional
arrangements" for the new region, and will recommend the
preferred regional center. It will also arrange for
organizational development, staffing, and budgeting of
regional line agencies and regulatory agencies.
24. The following regional councils were also created for the NIR, with the
following agencies as interim secretariats:
Negros Island Development Council - with NEDA as Secretariat
Negros Island Peace and Order Council - with the DILG as Secretariat
Negros Island Disaster Risk Response Management Council - with the
Office of Civil Defense as Secretariat