{"id":110731,"date":"2017-08-09T00:27:18","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T04:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=110731"},"modified":"2017-08-09T00:27:18","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T04:27:18","slug":"duterte-abolishes-negros-island-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/09\/duterte-abolishes-negros-island-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte abolishes Negros Island Region"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_110732\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-110732\" style=\"width: 1209px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/President_Dutertes_Official_Portrait.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-110732\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/President_Dutertes_Official_Portrait.jpg\" alt=\"President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo by: Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Japan - http:\/\/tokyo.philembassy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/PRRD-PORTRAIT.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0)\" width=\"1209\" height=\"1667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/President_Dutertes_Official_Portrait.jpg 1209w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/President_Dutertes_Official_Portrait-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/President_Dutertes_Official_Portrait-768x1059.jpg 768w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/President_Dutertes_Official_Portrait-743x1024.jpg 743w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1209px) 100vw, 1209px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-110732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Rodrigo Duterte (P<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=61272634\" target=\"_blank\">hoto by: Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines in Japan &#8211; http:\/\/tokyo.philembassy.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/PRRD-PORTRAIT.jpg, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">MANILA, Aug. 9 <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 10.5pt;font-family: 'Open Sans','serif';color: #333333;background: white\">\u2014<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\"> President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order (EO) abolishing the Negros Island Region (NIR) that was created during the term of his predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino III.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">EO No. 38, which was signed by the President on August 7, repealed Aquino\u2019s EO No. 183 which the latter signed in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">In abolishing the NIR, Duterte stressed that there is a need to ensure that priority government programs and projects are sufficiently funded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">\u201cThe establishment of regional offices of departments and agencies in the NIR requires substantial appropriation to be fully operational, thus competing with government priority programs and projects funding,\u201d Duterte said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">As provided by EO 38, which takes effect upon publication in a newspaper of general publication, the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental shall revert to Region VI and Region VII respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">All regional offices and regional councils established under EO 183 are likewise abolished.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">All affected personnel are ordered to return to their previous units of deployment or reassigned to other offices within their respective departments or agencies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">Furthermore, the winding up of operations of the NIR regional offices, including the final disposition of their functions, positions, personnel, assets and liabilities, shall be done immediately and completed not later than 60 days from the effectivity of the EO.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">All orders, proclamations, rules, regulations and issuances, or parts thereof, inconsistent with the provision of EO 38 are likewise repealed, amended or modified accordingly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">On May 29, 2015, Aquino signed EO 183 that separated Negros Occidental from Region 6 (Western Visayas) and Negros Oriental from Region 7 (Central Visayas).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">The creation of one region for Negros was supported by then Interior Secretary Manuel \u201cMar\u201d Roxas II.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">Roxas said the creation of the NIR would hasten the development of the two Negros provinces.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">But last December, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the appropriation for the NIR has not been included in the 2016 and proposed 2017 national budgets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">The 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA) was the last national budget signed by Aquino.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">In an ambush interview in Malaca\u00f1ang, Diokno told reporters that the NIR would cost the government at least PHP19 billion, and called it an \u201cexpensive exercise\u201d for two provinces.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">However, he also said then that the abolition of the NIR would not affect basic services in the two Negros provinces.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white;margin: 15.0pt 0in 15.0pt 0in\"><span style=\"font-size: 11.0pt;font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';color: black\">\u201cThe services will be provided by existing regions before the creation of NIR. We go back to the status quo,\u201d Diokno said. (PNA) <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA, Aug. 9 \u2014 President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order (EO) abolishing the Negros Island Region (NIR) that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":110732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[6054,20797],"class_list":["post-110731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-duterte","tag-negros-island-region","mauthors-jose-cielito-reganit","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}