page_title: Negros Island Region
section_title: Dissolution and future
hierarchical_section_title: Negros Island Region / History / Dissolution and future
caption_attribution_description: English: Silliman University Amphitheater
context_page_description: The Negros Island Region, also abbreviated and officially designated as NIR, was a short-lived administrative region in the Philippines which comprised the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental, both of which are part of the island of Negros. A reincarnation of the earlier Republic of Negros, it existed from May 29, 2015 to August 9, 2017. Local officials and the Consultative Committee to Review the 1987 Constitution have proposed to reinstate Negros as a region or state of a Philippine federation.
context_section_description: On August 9, 2017, President Duterte signed Executive Order No. 38, finally revoking the Executive Order No. 183 signed by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2015. The official reason given by Secretary of Budget and Management Benjamín Diokno was the lack of funds needed to fully establish Negros as a functioning region. Earlier, Diokno had notably been dismissive of the region's continued existence, being quoted as saying, "Well, you don't want to spend ₱19 billion for such [a] two-province region. In any event, [even] with ... federalism, that region will not be created [as it would seem] useless."
  Its dissolution upset the NIR regional officials and saddened Negrenses. However, many Negrense politicians are pushing for a "Negros Federal State", and are exploring the possibility of creating a Negros Development Alliance. Due to the rise of the Philippine government's conversion into federalism under President Rodrigo Duterte, Negros Island Region may have had the capability to become a separate federal state. There have also been proposals by House of Representatives Speaker Pantaleón Álvarez to move some governmental offices to the Negros Region from Metro Manila, once the nation transitions into the federal government, due to the island's strategic location between Luzon and Mindanao, as well as its vast areas which could accommodate the government offices to be built in there. However, Álvarez' proposal has not yet been approved by the majority of PDP-Laban members and its chairman, Koko Pimentel. Technicalities prevent Pimentel from approving the proposal as the region had already been abolished by Duterte in 2017.
  To address the quantitative concerns of those who frown upon the existence of a two-province region, the reintegration of Siquijor, currently part of Central Visayas, into historical Negros had been floated as an idea by then-Interior Secretary Mar Roxas on his visits to both Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental. On average, it takes five hours to reach the regional offices located in Cebú, while only an hour to get to Dumaguete in Negros Oriental. Siquijor used to be a part and later on a sub-province of Negros Oriental, finally splitting off from it on 17 September 1971.
  To date, there also exists an informal proposal for a Cebuano Visayan State ruled under a common federal government. The ethnic and territorial claims of the proposed region, however, overlap with those of Negros, whether as a former sovereign republic or a Philippine subdivision, and Bohol, whose Cebuan-speaking natives nonetheless identify as a distinct people.
caption: Silliman University in Dumaguete
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