Some significant political developments must be acknowledge as the country marks Independence Day.
One, which is closer to Cebu, is President Benigno Aquino III’s signing an Executive Order creating a Negros Region that consists of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental.
The significance of the President’s signing into law isn’t lost on those who see this as possibly creating a crucial voting bloc for Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas, whose family hails from the sugar-rich province of Negros Occidental.
Roxas’ family recently mobilized Negros Occidental’s top political leaders who closed ranks to pledge support for a kakabayan who seeks to occupy the Palace top post in next year’s elections.
The new Negros Region may boost Roxas’ candidacy and level the playing field for the Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer, who sees himself in a possible three-cornered fight with his bitter rival Vice President Jejomar Binay and dark horse Sen. Grace Poe, who is being groomed as a presidential/vice presidential pick by the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).
But more than politics, the creation of a Negros Region is the latest in an ever-increasing push from political leaders across the country who want to take charge of their province/city/town’s political destiny while not cutting the umbilical cord to the national government.
That is the official line of proponents and the Palace, whose main tenant wants to build alliances across the board regardless of political affiliation.
Some leaders just want to carve their own niche and ensure that their constituency gets a bigger slice of the country’s revenue pie. And who can blame them?
Roxas said both provinces are “out of sight, out of mind” as far as development is concerned. Negros Occidental is formerly part of Western Visayas whose regional offices are mostly, if not all based in Iloilo.
Negros Oriental used to be part of Central Visayas, whose regional offices are located in Cebu. By creating a Negros Region, progress will be hastened, according to President Aquino and there may be some truth to that depending of course on how the region’s leaders govern their area.
The creation of a Negros Region took a lot less effort, than say the current and oftentimes testy Congress deliberations on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which seeks to create a Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (BAR) in Mindanao.
So with the creation of the Negros Region, one has to ask: Is a separate region for Cebu possible, in order to hasten the pace of projects in the pipeline for the province?