MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE – 12:43 p.m.) President Rodrigo Duterte has abolished the Negros Island Region.
Executive Order No. 38, dated August 7, revoked EO No. 183, issued by former President Benigno Aquino III, and reverted the two Negros provinces to their original regions — Occidental to Region 6, or Western Visayas, and Oriental to Region 7, or Central Visayas.
With the NIR — designated Region 18 — scrapped, all regional offices created for it are also abolished and all personnel “shall return to their previous units of deployment, or reassigned to other offices within their respective departments/agencies,” EO No. 38 said.
Aquino signed EO No. 183 on May 29, 2015 with then Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II supporting the creation of the new region.
However, in December last year, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno pointed out that no funds had been allocated for the NIR in the 2016 national budget, the last under Aquino, or in the 2017 budget.
Diokno also called the new region an “expensive exercise” that would cost the government at least P19 billion and explained that abolishing the NIR would not affect basic service in the two Negros provinces.
“The services will be provided by existing regions before the creation of NIR. We go back to the status quo,” he said. (with a report from Philippine News Agency)
THE FULL TEXT OF EO NO. 38:
